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Dessert

Ice Cream Without a Freezer

A custard-based ice cream made by boiling, cooling, and freezing in a salt and ice mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Without a Freezer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of 8 eggs until light.

  2. Stir in 4 cups of sugar.

  3. Gradually add 1 quart of heated milk while beating continuously.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  5. Boil the mixture in a pail set inside another with hot water for about 15 minutes, stirring steadily until thickened like custard.

  6. Pour into a bowl to cool completely.

  7. Once cool, beat in 3 pints of rich sweet cream and 5 teaspoons of vanilla or your preferred flavoring.

Freeze and finish

  1. Transfer to a pail with a close-fitting cover.

  2. Pack with ¾ ice and ¼ rock salt.

  3. Beat the custard for 5 minutes.

  4. Cover with the lid.

  5. Add more ice and salt on top.

  6. Cover with a thick mat or blanket.

  7. Let sit for 1 hour.

  8. Uncover.

  9. Scrape the frozen custard from the sides and bottom.

  10. Beat again until smooth and half-congealed.

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. 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 and add richness as they set during cooking.
Egg whites
Add airiness to the custard mixture, lightening its texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and lowers its freezing point for a softer texture.
Rich milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard cooks and thickens in.
Rich sweet cream
Adds fat that makes the frozen custard smooth and creamy.

The step that matters

Boiling the custard until thickened. Egg yolks must be heated gently while stirred, or they can scramble and curdle. Stopping when the custard coats a spoon ensures it thickens properly before freezing.

“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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