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Dessert

Caramel Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made with caramel, cream, egg whites, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Caramel Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel cream

  1. Melt and slightly scorch the brown sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the boiling cream until well combined.

Make the meringue

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar to the egg whites, continuing to beat until smooth.

Combine and freeze

  1. Stir the egg white mixture into the caramel cream mixture.

  2. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool, then freeze until solid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Brown sugar
Melting and scorching it creates the caramel flavour and deep colour.
Boiling cream
Provides the fat and liquid base that gives the ice cream its richness and smooth body.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add airy volume and a light texture to the mixture.
Powdered sugar
Stabilises the whipped egg whites and sweetens the meringue so it stays smooth.

The step that matters

Melt and scorch the brown sugar. Sugar melted past the point of simple melting turns bitter if it burns, while under-cooked sugar gives little caramel flavour. Watching the colour closely lets you reach a rich caramel without tipping into acrid burnt notes.

“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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