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Dessert

Self-freezing Ice Cream

A custard ice cream made by freezing in a salt-ice mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Self-freezing Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk and pour it over the eggs and sugar.

  2. Cook while stirring for 15 minutes until thickened.

  3. Let it cool.

  4. Add the cream and set on ice.

  5. The next morning, beat in the cream and place in a freezer set in a pail.

Freeze

  1. Crush a block of ice and layer it with rock salt in the pail.

  2. Beat the custard for 5 minutes with a flat stick.

  3. Seal the custard tightly.

  4. Pack more pounded ice and salt around it.

  5. Cover with a folded carpet.

  6. Open the freezer.

  7. Wipe off the salt.

  8. Dislodge the frozen custard with a knife.

  9. Beat until smooth.

  10. Replace the cover.

  11. Let off the water.

  12. Pack in more ice and salt.

  13. Let it sit for 4 hours.

  14. Check every 2 hours to let off water and add more ice and salt.

Unmold and serve

  1. Remove it from the freezer.

  2. Wipe it off.

  3. Wrap a hot, damp towel around the bottom.

  4. Invert onto a flat dish.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 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. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

Eggs
Set the custard as they thicken during cooking, giving it body and structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and lowers its freezing point, keeping the ice cream soft.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds moisture.
Vanilla
Adds aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Heating the eggs gently while stirring thickens the custard without scrambling them. Under-cooked custard stays thin and will freeze unevenly, while overheated eggs curdle and turn grainy.

“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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