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Chocolate Ice Cream

A custard-based chocolate ice cream made with milk, cream, chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk with the cinnamon stick.

  2. Beat the egg in a bowl, then add the sugar, salt, and hot milk.

  3. Cook the mixture until it thickens into a soft custard.

Finish and freeze

  1. Melt the chocolate over hot water, then slowly add the custard, straining it.

  2. Cool the mixture, then add the vanilla and cream; freeze until firm.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

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

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

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
Its proteins thicken the custard as it cooks, giving the ice cream a smooth, rich body.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer when frozen.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the flavour of the cinnamon.
Cream
Adds fat that makes the ice cream creamy and reduces iciness.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and some fat that adds richness to the frozen base.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until it thickens. Egg proteins set gently with heat, so the custard must be cooked slowly and stirred. Overheating curdles the egg and leaves a grainy texture, which is why the step is strained afterward.

“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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