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Neapolitan Ic E-cream

A custard ice cream made with milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Neapolitan Ic E-cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk, sugar, and egg yolks to make a boiled custard.

  2. Cook the custard until thickened.

  3. Strain the custard.

  4. Let the custard cool.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cool, add the cream and vanilla, and mix well.

  2. Chill the mixture in the freezer until partially frozen.

  3. Churn the mixture until smooth.

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness to the finished ice cream.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.
Cream
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture in the frozen ice cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen ice cream.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if they get too hot they curdle and turn grainy. Cook gently and stop once the custard coats a spoon. Straining afterwards catches any small cooked bits.

“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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