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Caramel Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with caramel and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Caramel Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard by heating 2 quarts of sweet milk with 1 cup of sugar and 6 beaten eggs.

  2. Dissolve ¼ box of gelatin in 1 cup of milk and add it to the hot custard.

Make the caramel

  1. In a frying pan, melt 1 pound of sugar until it browns slightly, then add 2-3 tablespoons of water.

  2. Let the caramel cool slightly, then stir it into the custard until dissolved.

Freeze

  1. When ready to freeze, add 1 pint of cream and vanilla to taste.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness to the base.
Gelatin
Stabilizes the custard so the frozen ice cream stays smooth and holds its texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and melts into caramel for a toasted, deeper flavor.
Cream
Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream softer and creamier.

The step that matters

Melting the sugar for the caramel. Sugar can go from browned to burnt quickly. Stopping once it is only lightly browned keeps the caramel tasting toasted rather than bitter, and adding the water carefully avoids a violent splatter.

“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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