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Dessert

Ices and Ice Cream

A chilled dessert made with a custard base, sherbet, and a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Strawberry and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,385 recipes. Both carry p-vinylguaiacol, which smells spicy, fruity. The science ↓

Ices and Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Beat the yolks of 15 eggs until very light and strain them.

  2. In a custard kettle, combine syrup and egg yolks, beating with an egg whisk for 10 minutes.

  3. Remove the kettle from heat and place it in a pan of cold water, continuing to beat for 15 minutes.

Pack the mold

  1. Pack a mold with ice and salt, spreading 1 quart of Strawberry or Raspberry Sherbet on the sides and bottom.

  2. Once the sherbet is hardened, pour the cooked mixture into the center without disturbing the sherbet.

  3. Cover the mold with thick white paper, place on the cover, and finish packing as directed.

Make the cream and meringue

  1. For the meringue, boil ¾ pint of milk and stir in 1 tablespoon of gelatin soaked in ½ cup of cold water, then strain into 1 quart of cream.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of vanilla and ½ pound of powdered sugar; freeze the mixture.

  3. Once frozen, remove the beater and pack the cream smoothly, ensuring the top is level.

  4. To serve, make a meringue with the whites of 6 eggs and 6 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

  5. Turn the cream out onto a fancy dish and cover it completely with the meringue.

  6. Brown the meringue with a hot salamander or shovel and serve immediately.

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. Strawberry + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,385 recipes

    Shared aroma: p-vinylguaiacol (spicy, fruity).

  2. Syrup + gelatintop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together192 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Cooked gently with syrup, they thicken the custard and give it a rich, smooth body.
Gelatin
Sets the milk and cream mixture so the frozen cream holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Provides fat that makes the frozen dessert rich and smooth in texture.
Egg whites
Whipped with powdered sugar to form the meringue topping that is browned at the end.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cream mixture and dissolves easily into it, adding sweetness.

The step that matters

Beating the custard while it cools. Continuous beating over cold water for 15 minutes keeps the egg yolk mixture smooth and airy as it cools, preventing it from setting into a grainy or dense texture.

Swap the strawberry

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

  1. Strawberrythe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits about as well

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