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Coffee Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with coffee and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Coffee 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 ↓

Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a pan, combine the milk and sugar and bring to a boil.

  2. Whisk the eggs and egg yolks until very light.

  3. Pour the boiling milk over the egg mixture and mix well.

  4. Return the mixture to the pan and stir over low heat until it thickens, but do not let it boil.

  5. Strain the mixture and allow it to cool.

Flavour and freeze

  1. Once cool, add the coffee essence and vanilla essence.

  2. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

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. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

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
Set the custard as they thicken over gentle heat, giving the ice cream body and richness.
Egg yolks
Add fat and emulsifiers that make the custard smooth and rich, and help it thicken.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the flavour and sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer and scoopable.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat without boiling. Egg proteins thicken the custard gently, but if it boils they scramble, leaving a grainy texture that straining can only partly fix.

“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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