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Dessert

Caramel Ice Cream

A custard ice cream flavored with caramel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Caramel Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix 1 cup of sugar and flour together in a bowl.

  2. Add the eggs and beat well.

  3. Pour in the scalded milk and return the mixture to the boiler.

  4. Cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

Make the caramel and finish

  1. In a saucepan, melt the remaining 1 cup of sugar, stirring continuously to avoid burning.

  2. Once melted, add the caramel to the custard while stirring.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then thin it with the cream.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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
Set and thicken the custard as they cook, giving the base body.
Flour
Thickens the custard and helps keep it smooth and stable while cooking.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and, when melted, forms the caramel flavour.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, carrying the flavour and richness.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer, smoother texture in the finished ice cream.

The step that matters

Melting the sugar for the caramel. Sugar can go from amber to burnt very quickly, giving a bitter taste. Constant stirring helps it melt evenly and colour uniformly, so the caramel flavour stays clean.

“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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