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Caramel Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with caramel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Caramel Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Beat the eggs, 1 cup of sugar, and flour together in a bowl.

  3. Add the egg mixture to the boiling milk.

  4. Cook the mixture for 10 minutes in a double boiler.

  5. Soak the gelatin in a little water for 2 hours.

  6. Add the soaked gelatin to the hot custard.

Make the caramel

  1. Heat 1 cup of sugar in a frying pan until it melts and begins to smoke.

  2. Stir the caramel until it is smooth.

Finish and freeze

  1. Flavor the custard with caramel while it is still hot.

  2. Pour the caramel into the custard and let it cool.

  3. Fold in 1 quart of whipped cream.

  4. 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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness to the base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the frozen ice cream a smooth texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and, when heated, browns into caramel for flavor.
Flour
Helps thicken the custard so it holds body.
Gelatin
Sets the custard and helps keep the frozen texture firm and smooth.

The step that matters

Cook the caramel until smooth. Sugar heated past melting can darken quickly and turn bitter or burnt if overheated. Stirring until smooth ensures even colour and flavour before it goes into the custard.

“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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