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Dessert

Apricot Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made with apricots, custard, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Apricot Ice Cream

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Apricot Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Whisk the egg yolks into the milk and add the cornstarch.

  2. Cook until thick like custard.

Add the fruit and cream

  1. Strain the apricots through a fine sieve.

  2. Mix the strained apricots with the custard.

  3. Sweeten to taste.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

  5. Whip the cream.

  6. Fold the whipped cream into the custard.

  7. Fold in the beaten egg whites until light and fluffy.

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.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + apricottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together826 recipes

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

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  4. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 and add richness as they set when cooked.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture so the custard becomes smooth and set.
Heavy cream
Whipped, it adds air and a rich, light body to the ice cream.
Apricots
Provide the main fruit flavor and sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook until thick like custard. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if overheated they can scramble and curdle. Cook gently and stir, stopping once the mixture coats a spoon, so the base stays smooth.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

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