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
Pour the milk into a double boiler and scald it.
Thicken the milk to a cream-like consistency by adding the flour mixed with a little milk.
Add the sugar to the thickened milk and let it cool.
Finish the custard
Strain the mixture and add the cream and well-beaten eggs.
Flavor with vanilla.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 and its milk solids add body and a mild dairy flavor.
- Cream
- Supplies fat, which makes the ice cream rich, smooth and soft to scoop.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and keeps the frozen ice cream from becoming too hard.
- Eggs
- Enrich the custard and help give the finished ice cream a smooth, creamy body.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk so the base becomes cream-like before it cools.
The step that matters
Thickening the milk with flour. Flour must be mixed with a little cold milk first so its starch disperses evenly. Stirred into hot milk without this, it clumps into lumps that leave a grainy texture in the ice cream.
“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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