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Dessert

Vanilla Ice Cream

A custard-based vanilla ice cream made with cream, milk, sugar, egg yolks, gelatin, and vanilla flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Vanilla 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 ↓

Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Stir the well-beaten egg yolks and sugar into the hot milk.

  3. Return the mixture to the heat and stir until it thickens slightly.

  4. Soak the gelatin in a little water for 1 hour.

  5. Add the gelatin to the mixture and stir until well combined.

  6. Strain the mixture.

  7. Chill the strained mixture on ice.

Freeze and rest

  1. Pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream freezer.

  2. Add the whipped cream and vanilla flavoring to the mixture.

  3. Finish freezing.

  4. Cover the mixture.

  5. Let the mixture stand for 2 hours before serving.

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

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

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set gently with the heat.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and softer freezing.
Gelatine
Stabilises the mixture so it holds a smooth, firm body after freezing.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and water content that freezes into ice crystals.

The step that matters

Return the mixture to the heat and stir until it thickens slightly. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated, but if they get too hot they can scramble into lumps. Stir constantly and stop once the custard coats a spoon lightly.

“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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