Name: Ice Cream
Ingredients: 1 quart milk; 1 tablespoon flour; 3 cups powdered sugar; 1 tablespoon gelatine; 3 egg yolks; 1 tablespoon vanilla or lemon extract; 3 pints 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 ↓

Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

Bring the milk to a boil.
Mix the flour with a little cold milk until smooth, then add to the boiling milk.
Beat the egg yolks with 1 cup of sugar and add to the mixture.
Dissolve the gelatin in a little cold milk and add it to the mixture.
Remove from heat and strain the mixture.

Finish and freeze

The next day, add the remaining 2 cups of sugar, cream, and flavoring.
Beat all together and freeze.
You can add any kind of fruit juice after the cream is partly frozen.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,241 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 yolks: Add richness and help the base thicken and turn creamy when cooked.
Flour: Thickens the milk mixture so the base holds body and resists icy texture.
Gelatine: Stabilizes the mixture so it sets softly and resists forming large ice crystals.
Cream: Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture that softens the freezing result.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream scoopable.

“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.