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Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

A simple ice cream made with condensed milk, corn starch, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Moisten the corn starch with a little cold milk.

  2. Put the remainder of the milk in a double boiler and heat it.

  3. When the milk is hot, add the corn starch and cook for a few minutes.

  4. Add the condensed milk and let it cool.

Freeze

  1. Stir in the vanilla and freeze the mixture.

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.

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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Condensed milk + vanillatop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Condensed milk + corntop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Condensed milk
Adds sweetness and a thick, creamy body to the base.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk when heated, giving the ice cream a smooth, firm texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and adds dairy richness.
Vanilla
Adds aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the corn starch in the hot milk. Corn starch must be heated in the milk long enough to fully swell and thicken. Stopping early leaves a raw, starchy taste and a thin texture, so the mixture should be cooked for the full few minutes.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (condensed milk, corn, milk):

  1. Coconutfits about as well
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Cherryfits less well
  4. Bananafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against condensed milk, corn, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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