Vanilla custard ice cream

Whisk the heavy cream and whole milk together in a deep saucepan and heat over low heat two to three minutes to about 190F; anything above medium risks scorching.

Separate seven large yolks into a bowl by passing each egg between your fingers and letting the white slough off.

Whisk the sugar and a small pinch of salt into the yolks.

Temper by whisking in a big ladleful of the hot dairy at a time, about four times, until half of it is in, then pour in the rest while whisking; the mixture comes up to about 180F.

Pour the tempered base back into the saucepan over medium low heat and stir continuously with a spatula, three to four minutes, until it reaches 195F and is silky and velvety.

Alternative: set a medium bowl over about four inches of boiling water in a large pot and whisk the base to 195F, which takes 15 to 20 minutes but cannot exceed the boiling point.

Move the custard to a metal bowl as soon as it hits 195F to stop carryover cooking.

Whisk in the vanilla bean pulp; adding it now rather than infusing it avoids losing expensive vanilla to a curdled custard.

Cool uncovered in the fridge for 30 minutes, which speeds freezing and stops steam condensing in the containers.

Pour into pint containers, lid them and freeze at least 20 hours, preferably 24 to 30.

Variation without a machine: pour the custard into silicone tipped ice cube trays and freeze solid.

Variation without a machine: spin the frozen cubes in a food processor to a smooth puree, move to a pint container and freeze one more hour; slightly icier but good.

Fit the blade and safety lid and run the frozen pint on the ice cream setting; the gelato setting spins slower and incorporates less air for a denser texture.

Variation, cookies and cream: crumble four baked cookies over a spun pint and run the mix-in setting.