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Dessert

Walnut and Fig Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with walnuts and figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Walnut and Fig Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat 2½ cups of milk in a double boiler, reserving ½ cup cold milk.

  2. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of gelatin in the reserved cold milk.

  3. In the remaining cold milk, mix 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 egg, and 1 cup of sugar.

  4. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the heated milk until it thickens into a custard.

  5. Add the dissolved gelatin, 1 cup of heavy cream, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the custard.

Freeze and finish

  1. Freeze the mixture, then fold in the chopped walnuts and figs.

  2. Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze until firm.

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

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

Egg
Its proteins help thicken the custard and add richness to the base.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture and gives the frozen ice cream a firmer, smoother body.
Flour
Thickens the custard together with the egg so it holds body when heated.
Heavy cream
Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream creamy and softer on the palate.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream scoopable.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, slightly bitter flavor against the sweet base.

The step that matters

Gradually stir the flour mixture into the heated milk. Adding the flour and egg mixture too quickly into hot milk can cause lumps or scrambled egg. Adding it slowly while stirring lets the starch and egg proteins thicken the custard evenly.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, gelatin, flour, egg, sugar, cream, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, gelatin, flour, egg, sugar, cream, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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