Vanilla Ice Cream

Thomas Jefferson's Paris obsession: a French-style custard ice cream made with real vanilla bean, the recipe that built America's most beloved flavour

Origin: France / United States

From the journey of Vanilla.

The earliest known American vanilla ice cream recipe is in Thomas Jefferson's handwriting, copied from Paris in the 1780s during his tenure as US Minister to France: '2 bottles of good cream, 6 yolks of eggs, half a pound of sugar, a stick of Vanilla given to the cook.' Jefferson served vanilla ice cream at the White House regularly, and the recipe circulated among Virginian households. By 1847, when Joseph Burnett launched commercial vanilla extract in Boston, vanilla ice cream was already the most popular flavour in American ice cream parlours. French-style ice cream, the Philadelphia style uses no eggs, the French style uses a crème anglaise base, is richer, silkier, and produces a creamier, more complex frozen texture because the egg yolks emulsify the fat and water, preventing large ice crystals. This is the French method, the method that Jefferson copied from his Parisian hosts: a custard base, real vanilla pod, churned to a creamy intensity that no other preparation of the spice achieves. Frozen, the vanilla's volatile compounds are slowed: the flavour doesn't hit immediately but builds, arriving in the warm aftertaste as the ice cream melts on the tongue.

Ingredients

custard

  • 500 ml double cream (heavy cream)
  • 250 ml whole milk
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 150 g caster (superfine) sugar

vanilla

  • 2 vanilla pods, split and scraped

seasoning

  • 1 pinch fine sea salt

Method

  1. Combine the cream, milk, and vanilla pods and seeds in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat until steaming. Remove from heat and infuse for 20 minutes.
  2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and salt together until pale and thick.
  3. Remove the vanilla pods (rinse and reserve). Slowly pour the warm cream mixture into the yolk mixture while whisking constantly. Return to the saucepan and cook over low-medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (nappe test) and reaches 82°C (180°F).
  4. Immediately strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl set over ice. Stir until the base reaches room temperature. Press cling film directly onto the surface and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight, until completely cold (below 5°C).
  5. Churn in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions until the mixture is thick, pale, and holds soft peaks; usually 20-25 minutes.
  6. Transfer to a freezer-safe container, press cling film onto the surface, and freeze for at least 2 hours to firm up. Remove from the freezer 5 minutes before serving to allow it to soften slightly.

Notes

Without an ice cream machine: pour the cold base into a shallow freezer-safe container and freeze. After 45 minutes, scrape the frozen edges toward the centre with a fork and re-freeze. Repeat every 30-45 minutes for 3-4 hours until the ice cream is firm and creamy; the texture will be slightly icier than churned ice cream but good. For Jefferson's original version (simpler, less rich): omit 2 egg yolks and reduce the sugar to 100g.

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