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Dessert

Ice Cream Pie

A chilled pie filled with a sweet milk custard and topped with whipped cream.

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 ↓

Ice Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a double boiler, combine sugar, flour, and sweet milk. Cook until thick.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg whites and flavoring.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a baked pie crust.

  2. Just before serving, fill the pie with whipped 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. 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 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

Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps sweeten the custard-like filling.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture as it cooks, giving the filling body.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into the filling.
Egg whites
Stirred into the hot filling to add lightness and a softer texture.
Whipped cream
Adds a light, rich topping that contrasts with the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until thick. The flour must be cooked long enough to thicken the milk and lose its raw taste. Stirring over gentle heat in a double boiler prevents scorching and lumps, so the filling sets smoothly once cooled.

“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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