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Dessert

Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream made by heating milk, adding starch, eggs, sugar, and optional cream, then freezing with ice and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Ice Cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a dish set in hot water.

  2. Stir in the corn starch mixed smooth in a little of the milk.

  3. Let it boil for 1-2 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and cool.

  5. Stir in the eggs and sugar.

  6. Add the cream for extra richness.

  7. Strain the mixture.

  8. Add flavoring once cool.

Freeze

  1. Prepare the ice cream freezer as usual.

  2. Turn the crank 100 times.

  3. Pour 1 quart of boiling water over the ice and salt.

  4. Fill up again with ice and salt.

  5. Turn the crank 50 times one way and 25 times the other to scrape the cream from the sides.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard sets in and carries the sweetness and flavour.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness to the finished cream.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture when boiled, giving the ice cream a smooth, body-rich texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
Rich cream
Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream smoother and richer.

The step that matters

Let it boil for 1-2 minutes. Corn starch only thickens fully once it boils, so the custard must reach a boil and hold briefly. Without it the base stays thin and can freeze grainy or 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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