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Burnt Almond Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with burnt almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Burnt Almond Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs until light.

  2. Add sugar and hot milk, then cook in a double boiler until thickened like custard.

  3. Remove from heat and whip in the beaten egg whites.

Add the cream and flavourings

  1. Once cold, gently stir in the whipped cream.

  2. Brown the chopped almonds in caramel sugar and pound to a coarse powder.

  3. Add the almond powder, vanilla, and almond extract to the mixture.

Freeze

  1. Freeze as you would other ice 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. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

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

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

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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
Thicken the custard base and add richness as they cook gently with the milk.
Egg whites
Whipped into the custard to add air and a lighter, less dense texture.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the frozen ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the yolks thicken into a custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture by limiting ice crystal formation.
Almonds
Provide the main nutty flavour, deepened by browning in caramel sugar.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in a double boiler. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat. If the custard runs too hot, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy, so it should be cooked slowly and only until it coats a spoon.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits less well
  4. Cocoafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, 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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