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Vanilla Ice Cream

A custard-based vanilla ice cream made with cream, milk, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla pod.

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

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 custard

  1. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl.

  2. In a saucepan, boil the cream and milk with the vanilla pod for a few minutes.

  3. Stir the hot cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture.

  4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and stir over low heat until it thickens, but do not let it boil.

Finish and freeze

  1. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve if necessary, add a few drops of vanilla essence, and let it cool.

  2. Once cool, freeze the mixture until set, about 1 hour.

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

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + milktop 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 set on gentle heat and add richness.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture that stays soft when frozen.
Milk
Provides liquid and body while keeping the base lighter than cream alone.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream scoopable.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over low heat. If the egg yolk mixture gets too hot, the yolks scramble and turn grainy. Gentle heat and constant stirring let the custard thicken smoothly without boiling.

“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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