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Dessert

Caramel Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made with caramel, eggs, milk, cream, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 caramel

  1. Melt ½ cup of sugar in an iron skillet until golden brown.

  2. Add the boiling water to the caramelized sugar.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Mix the beaten eggs with the sweet milk and remaining 1 cup of sugar.

  3. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until it thickens.

  4. Remove the mixture from heat.

  5. Combine the thickened mixture with the caramel mixture.

Finish and freeze

  1. Cool the combined mixture.

  2. Add the rich cream and vanilla to the cooled mixture.

  3. 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.

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. Sugar + creamtop 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs thicken the custard base when heated, giving the ice cream body and richness.
Sugar
Caramelized sugar adds deep, toasted flavor and sweetness to the base.
Rich cream
Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream smooth and creamy rather than icy.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding moisture and milky sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook the custard in the double boiler until it thickens. Gentle, indirect heat lets the egg proteins set slowly and thicken the custard without curdling. Overheating causes the eggs to scramble, which gives a grainy texture.

“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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