Skip to main content
Dessert

Ice Cream Without a Freezer

A method for making ice cream using a block of ice and salt instead of a freezer.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Without a Freezer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Make a custard with milk, sugar, cream, and egg yolks.

  2. Add beaten egg whites and vanilla just before freezing.

  3. Chill the mixture and pour it into a pail with a tightly-fitting cover.

Pack and churn

  1. Place the pail on a flat block of ice two inches thick.

  2. Pack in pounded ice and salt in a ratio of two parts ice to one part salt.

  3. Beat the cream in the freezer for five minutes.

  4. Cover with a lid and thick cloths.

  5. Turn steadily until water rises.

  6. Uncover, scrape the cream from the bottom and sides, and beat until smooth and half-frozen.

  7. Cover, drain off brine, refill with ice and salt, and repeat the process.

  8. Continue until the cream is fully frozen, ensuring it is higher in the center than at the sides.

Harden

  1. Cover with a lid, ice, salt, and an old thick blanket, and leave for several hours, replenishing ice and salt as needed.

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
Yolks thicken the custard as they set with heat, and whites add airy lightness to the frozen cream.
Cream
Its fat gives the ice cream a rich, smooth texture that resists large ice crystals.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the cream softer and scoopable.
Milk
Forms the watery base of the custard, diluting the cream and carrying the sugar.
Coarse sea salt
Lowers the melting point of the ice, making the brine cold enough to freeze the cream.

The step that matters

Pack in pounded ice and salt in a ratio of two parts ice to one part salt.. Salt dissolves into the melting ice and lowers its temperature below freezing. With too little salt the brine stays too warm, and the cream freezes slowly or not at all.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes