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Dessert

Caramel Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made from caramelized sugar, cream, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Caramel Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Boil the sugar in a saucepan until it turns into a brown caramel.

  2. Pour the caramel into a porcelain bowl and let it cool in a cool place.

  3. Once cool, pound the caramel to a powder using a mortar or rolling pin.

Make the custard base

  1. Boil the cream in a separate pot.

  2. Beat the egg yolks until light, then gradually add them to the cream.

  3. Stir in the powdered caramel, remove from heat, and let it cool.

Freeze

  1. Optionally, add vanilla or orange flavoring before freezing.

  2. Freeze the mixture until solid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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
Melts and browns into caramel, which gives the ice cream its flavor and color.
Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Emulsify and thicken the base, adding richness and a smooth, custard-like body.

The step that matters

Browning the sugar. Sugar that is taken too far past brown turns bitter and burnt, and undercooked sugar gives a weak flavor. Watch the colour closely and stop once it is a rich brown.

“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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