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Dessert

Ice Cream, with Little Cream

A custard-based ice cream made with milk, eggs, sugar, a small amount of cream, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Ice Cream, with Little Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Beat the eggs separately.

  3. Add the sugar to the egg yolks.

  4. Pour the hot milk over the yolks and sugar while beating hard.

  5. Quickly pour the mixture over the beaten egg whites.

  6. Return the mixture to the heat.

  7. Stir gently until the mixture thickens and is foamy at the bottom.

  8. Remove the mixture from the heat.

Cool and freeze

  1. Cool the mixture in a cold place.

  2. Add the cream and vanilla extract to the cold mixture, then stir gently.

  3. Freeze the mixture in a patent freezer.

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

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

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

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

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
Their proteins set when heated, thickening the milk into a custard base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the egg proteins thicken into a custard.
Cream
Its fat adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the frozen dessert.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and dairy.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma and flavour to the finished ice cream.

The step that matters

Stir gently until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins thicken the custard as it heats, but if it overheats or boils, they curdle and turn grainy. Stirring gently over controlled heat keeps the custard smooth.

“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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