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Dessert

Plain Ice Cream

A simple ice cream made with milk, cream, sugar, flour, vanilla, salt, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Plain Ice Cream

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Plain Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Put the milk in a double boiler and heat until hot.

  2. Stir in the sugar and flour until thoroughly mixed.

  3. Add the well-beaten eggs and cook until the mixture thickens to the consistency of cream.

  4. Strain the mixture through a gravy strainer.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cool, add the cream and vanilla, then freeze.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness to the base.
Flour
Helps thicken the custard and stabilises it against curdling during cooking.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point for a softer texture.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and a creamy mouthfeel.
Rich milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.

The step that matters

Cook the egg mixture until it thickens. Eggs thicken as their proteins set with heat; cooking too long or too hot can curdle the custard, while stopping too early leaves it thin and watery.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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