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Dessert

Fig Cream Ice

A chilled dessert made with figs, milk, cream, eggs, sugar, cornflour, isinglass, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 324 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Cream Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix the cornflour smoothly with a little milk.

  2. Boil the remaining milk, add the cornflour mixture, and stir until boiling.

  3. Beat the eggs and sugar together, then stir them into the milk and cornflour mixture.

  4. Add the isinglass, previously softened in a little cold water, and stir until dissolved.

Finish and freeze

  1. When cold, add the cream and a little vanilla essence.

  2. Freeze slightly, then add the figs and complete the freezing.

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. Fig + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together324 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + milktop 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. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

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

Eggs
Thicken the custard base and add richness when cooked gently with the milk.
Cornflour
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, body-rich custard.
Isinglass
Gelatine-like setting agent that gives the frozen ice cream a firmer, smoother texture.
Cream
Adds fat, which makes the ice cream softer and creamier on the palate.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the texture softer.

The step that matters

Add the isinglass to the warm custard. Isinglass must be fully softened in cold water and then dissolved into the warm base; if it is added lumpy or not stirred until dissolved, it will set unevenly and leave a rubbery texture in the frozen ice cream.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Strawberryfits about as well
  2. Figthe original
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits about as well

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