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Dessert

Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream made with cream, sugar, eggs, corn starch, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Ice Cream

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine 1 quart of cream, sugar, and beaten egg yolks in a pot and mix well.

  2. Heat the mixture on the stove until it just boils.

  3. Dissolve the corn starch in cold water.

  4. Add the dissolved corn starch to the boiling mixture.

  5. Cook for a few seconds.

  6. Strain the mixture.

  7. Let it cool.

Finish and freeze

  1. Add the remaining cream and the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Freeze the mixture.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + corntop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the frozen result a smooth, creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Add emulsifying fat and body that help the custard base set smooth and rich.
Egg whites
Whipped stiff, they trap air that makes the frozen ice cream lighter.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard base when it is heated to a boil.

The step that matters

Bring the starch mixture just to a boil. Cornstarch only thickens once it reaches a boil, so the base must be brought to a boil after the starch is added. Cooking it only a few seconds keeps the custard from overheating and the egg yolks from scrambling.

“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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