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Dessert

Frozen Custard

A frozen dessert made from milk, egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla bean, and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Frozen Custard

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 ↓

Frozen Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a double boiler, bring the milk and vanilla bean to a boil.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks.

  3. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little of the reserved cold milk.

Make the custard

  1. Add the sugar and egg mixture to the boiling milk, stirring constantly.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  3. Before it cools completely, stir in the heavy cream.

Freeze

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

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 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 as they heat and add richness and emulsifying power.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as it heats, giving it body and a smooth texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the frozen custard softer.
Heavy cream
Adds fat that makes the frozen custard smoother and richer.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and its milk solids add body to the custard.
Vanilla bean
Contributes its characteristic vanilla aroma and flavor to the milk.

The step that matters

Add the sugar and egg mixture to the boiling milk, stirring constantly.. Egg yolks can scramble when they meet very hot liquid. Constant stirring disperses them evenly so the custard thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

“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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