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Dessert

Vanilla Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made from milk, sugar, corn starch, salt, heavy cream, egg whites, and vanilla flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Vanilla Ice Cream

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 ↓

Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Scald the milk and sugar together in a saucepan.

  2. Dissolve the corn starch in ½ cup of warm milk.

  3. Stir the corn starch mixture into the boiling milk.

  4. Let the mixture simmer, then cool it.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cool, fold in the whipped cream and beaten egg whites.

  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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard-like mixture is built on.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point for a softer texture.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the base body.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and richness, and whipped air makes the ice cream light.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to add air and a lighter texture.

The step that matters

Stir the corn starch mixture into the boiling milk. Cornstarch must be fully dispersed in liquid before heating, or it clumps. Once it reaches a boil it thickens quickly, so the base needs steady stirring to stay smooth.

“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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