The best ice cream I made was blueberry + coco cream + lime. Highly recommend it. Coco cream as a substitute for water in sorbet is an amazing trick.
Shared this with a friend yesterday:
1. **Creaminess (smooth, creamy texture)**
Creaminess ↑ ⇔ Cream ↑ + Eggs ↑ + Sugar ↑
Creaminess ↓ ⇔ Water ↑ + Fresh fruits (high in water) ↑
2. **Lightness (airy texture)**
Lightness ↑ ⇔ Milk ↓ + Cream ↓ + Eggs ↓ + Sugar ↓
Lightness ↑ ⇔ Air incorporation (whipping) ↑
3. **Stability (avoiding crystallization)**
Stability ↑ ⇔ Sugar ↑ + Eggs (yolks) ↑ + Alcohol ↑
Stability ↓ ⇔ Water ↑ + Uneven freezing temperature ↑
4. **Density (weight in the mouth)**
Density ↑ ⇔ Fats (cream, butter) ↑ + Eggs ↑ + Sugar ↑
Density ↓ ⇔ Incorporated air ↑ + Water ↑
5. **Melting Temperature (softer or harder out of the freezer)**
Melting Temperature ↑ (softer) ⇔ Sugar ↑ + Alcohol ↑ + Air ↑
Melting Temperature ↓ (harder) ⇔ Water ↑ + Freezing temperature ↓
6. **Sweetness (perceived sugar)**
Sweetness ↑ ⇔ Sugar ↑ + Sweet fruit puree ↑
Sweetness ↓ ⇔ Acidity (lemon, vinegar) ↑ + Acidic fruits ↑
7. **Crystallization (grainy or smooth texture)**
Crystallization ↑ ⇔ Water ↑ + Poorly mixed ingredients ↑
Crystallization ↓ ⇔ Fats ↑ + Sugar ↑ + Proper agitation ↑The ice-cream was "cheap" I think because it was made in a "failing" country that still had a relatively functioning dairy and manufacturing chain, so they were doing their best to still make icecream whilst dealing with the loss of key ingredients and dwindling margins stemming from the economic situation.
In the grocery store / mass market context, it's hard to do much better than Häagen-Dazs. Just be aware that their "pints" are now only 88% of a pint (this baffles me -- are the ingredients really a meaningful contributor to total COGS?).
https://gourmantissimes.com/creme-anglaise-sous-vide-inratab...
https://www.milord-sous-vide.com/categorie/cuisson-sous-vide...
GP could have asked how to guarantee an even sugar density when the sugar content of the fruits is unknown/subject to variation, and I would have replied: "ChatGPT recommends using a refractometer or an areometer". Pretty sure I'd have received the same reaction, even though this is the very first subject Escoffier talks about in his well-known Culinary Guide:
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65768837/f753.item
https://www.deco-relief.fr/fr/accueil/1518-refractometre-suc...
Typically though, "cooking" requires heat, and most non-custard ice creams wouldn't be cooked. Even in the same phrase when talking about cooking other things, you'd say something like "I'm cooking steak and also making ice cream."
I'm sure some regions use the word differently, and adding a bit of ambiguous context might make on-the-fence regions more likely to use "cook" for cold-prepared dishes. E.g., if you talk about cooking dinner or cooking a meal and then list the things being prepared (one of which is ice cream), the verb "cook" is, in some sense, being applied to the ice cream. That ambiguity can color the verbs you subsequently choose when referring to just the ice cream.
Yes. Many recipes require heating of the ingredients.
Here is one example picked randomly: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/ultimate-vanilla-ice-cre...
"Step 4: Return the pan to a low heat and cook, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, for 8-10 minutes, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon."
You can also make ice cream what's called "Philadelphia-Style" which doesn't have eggs and requires no cooking before churning/freezing.
But the custard method is more typical.
One possible solution could be to candy the herbs (though it’s a lot of work) or to soften the toffee by turning it into a kind of cream, freezing it separately, and then folding it into the ice cream at the last moment. This challenge is addressed in the article,
>We need to add sugar to the fruit to make sure it is softer than the ice cream itself – you don’t want to bite into ice cream and find a hard, frozen berry.
and considering you almost never see artisanal ice creams with chunks (unlike industrial ones like Ben & Jerry’s, for example), this is where culinary engineering becomes essential I guess.
I'm also not a fan of ice cream with solid stuff. If you can't lick it pleasurably, it's not really ice cream in my book.
Similar to this: https://www.seriouseats.com/dave-arnolds-thai-basil-daiquiri...
The obvious solution to this is to make an syrup infusion and use that instead of sugar or as a topper.
I make herb and floral syrup all the time. I do 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, handful of herbs. Heat and simmer for around 10 minutes. Strain.
The "ice cream parameter space" above was generated by ChatGPT and I've been interested in building a recipe website where that kind of representation would be generated and later improved by users. I think this could prove to be quite unique.
The sweetness intensity is different across different types of sugar.
Cream + sugar + vanilla, stir until dissolved. Slowly add liquid nitrogen while stirring fervently until sufficiently frozen.
The stirring in of the liquid nitrogen not only freezes the cream, it prevents any cristallisation and fluffs up the ice cream by evaporating. Truly delicious!
‡: like this: https://noblegassolutions.com/
I've used 1l of plain cream, 100g of sugar and the marrow of 1 1/2 vanilla pods.
The recipes are important too of course. The sugars need to be a mixture of fructose and dextrose. Also used a stabilising agent. But eventually I could create really good ice cream with a minimum of equipment.
Inulin is slightly tricky to work with because it clumps up easily when it comes into contact with liquid (likely for the same reason, when baking with it I prefer ghee to butter), but it mixes into the heated custard base on the stove without too much trouble as long as you stir well while pouring it in.
Another tip that's worked well for me: instead of milk or half-and-half, I use a 50:50 ratio of heavy cream to egg white + coconut water. In other words, I use whole eggs and then add an amount of coconut water that matches the difference between volumes of heavy cream and egg white. I don't recall offhand how the math on that works out (it's somewhere in an old ChatGPT log that I've been meaning to properly document), but it's a lot easier than separating yolks and it gets a great result with less sugar than milk or half-and-half.
1: https://www.lowcarbfoods.com/low-carb-white-sugar-sweetener-...
Maybe there are other substitute sugars out there which work well at low temperatures?
I guess supermarkets get higher margins on B&J's :(
I'll probably go for something inconvenient so I need to pre-freeze the bowl and thus avoid an unhealthy constant flow of ice cream, but tech these days seems pretty good to make homemade gelato:
The myth at the time was that the fat from the bacon went next door to the ice cream factory. At the time the label just said 'animal fats' rather than 'dairy' so there was nothing to dispel the myth.
Since then the formulation has changed, now you get the usual palm oil. As far as ultra-processed foods go, is there anything worse than commercial ice cream? You have got animal fats or palm oil to block your arteries, refined sugar to spike your glucose and lots of emulsifiers and other 'e numbers' to disrupt your digestive tract?
Most ice cream is sold in tourist venues where the vendor knows he will never see the customer ever again. There is zero motivation to make it a healthy product or to use quality ingredients when you are not expecting repeat customers.
In other developments, there is a move to have more efficient freezers for ice cream in stores, which means changing the temperature so it does not need to be stored at such a low temperature. The likes of Unilever can spend a fortune on the food science to get the temperature up, to roll out new freezers.
Cheap ice cream is not ice cream. Do not eat.
Most of the UK's "ice cream" would be called Frozen Dairy Dessert in the US.
In the United States, cheap ice cream is quite literally not ice cream. It's "frozen dairy dessert".
The ice cream that Walmart sold from its own personal line was messed up. It did not melt as fast as other ice cream and was oily.
I'd rather eat no ice cream than eat that.
Heh. I mean, uh, oh no!