Ice cream and other frozen desserts
Ice cream evolved from flavoured ices that were popular with the Roman nobility in the 4th century bce. The emperor Nero is known to have imported snow from the mountains and topped it with fruit juices and honey. In the 13th century Marco Polo was reported to have returned from China with recipes for making water and milk ices.
The discovery that salt would lower the freezing point of cracked ice led to the first practical method of making ice cream. Making ice cream in the home was greatly simplified by the invention of the wooden bucket freezer with rotary paddles. In 1851 the first wholesale ice cream was manufactured in Baltimore. With the development of mechanical refrigeration, widespread distribution of ice cream became possible. Ice cream parlours and drugstore soda counters flourished. With refrigerator-freezers now a standard domestic appliance, more than half of all frozen desserts are consumed at home.
Composition of frozen desserts
Standards for ice cream and most frozen desserts are closely regulated. In the United States, for example, ice cream must contain at least 10 percent fat and 20 percent total milk solids. In freezing, the volume may be doubled by the inclusion of air (known as overrun), but the increase in volume is limited to 100 percent by the requirement that the finished product weigh at least 4.5 pounds per gallon. Total food solids must weigh 1.6 pounds per gallon, thus limiting the water content. Regulations also require all ingredients to be listed, with some additives (such as stabilizers) limited to very small amounts.
The principal frozen desserts are ice cream, frozen custard, ice milk, frozen yogurt, sherbet, and water ices. Ice cream has the highest fat content, ranging from 10 to 20 percent. Frozen custard, or French ice cream, is basically the same formula as ice cream but contains added eggs or egg solids (usually 1.4 percent by weight). Ice milk may be more commonly called “light” or “reduced-fat” ice cream. It contains between 2 and 7 percent fat and at least 11 percent total milk solids. Frozen yogurt is a cultured frozen product containing the same ingredients as ice cream. It must contain at least 3.25 percent milk fat and 8.25 percent milk solids other than fat and must weigh at least five pounds per gallon. Low-fat frozen yogurt contains between 0.5 and 2 percent milk fat. Nonfat frozen yogurt is limited to less than 0.5 percent milk fat. Frozen yogurts should always contain live cultures of bacteria (see under Yogurt). The target overrun for ice cream, ice milk, and frozen yogurt is 65 to 100 percent. Premium ice creams may be as low as 20 percent overrun, while soft ice creams are in the 30 to 50 percent range.
Sherbets contain relatively small quantities of milk products. Most standards require between 1 and 2 percent milk fat and between 2 and 5 percent total milk solids. Sherbet contains considerably more sugar and less air than ice cream (the target overrun is 30 to 40 percent), and therefore it is heavier and often contains more calories per serving. Water ices are similar to sherbet, but they contain no milk solids and have a target overrun of 20 to 30 percent.
Imitation ice cream, known as mellorine, is made in some parts of the United States and other countries. It is made with less expensive vegetable oils instead of butterfat but utilizes dairy ingredients for the milk protein part. Mellorines are intended to compete with ice cream in places where butterfat prices are high.
Ice cream manufacture
The essential ingredients in ice cream are milk, cream, sugar, flavouring, and stabilizer. Cheaper ingredients such as dry whey, corn syrup, and artificial flavourings may be substituted to create a lower-cost product.
The first step in ice cream making is formulating a suitable mix. The mix is composed of a combination of dairy ingredients, such as fresh milk and cream, frozen cream, condensed or dried skim, buttermilk, dairy whey, or whey protein concentrate. Sugars may include sucrose, corn syrup, honey, and other syrups. Stabilizers and emulsifiers are added in small amounts to help prevent formation of ice crystals, particularly during temperature fluctuations in storage.
The ice cream mix is pasteurized at no less than 79 °C (175 °F) for 25 seconds. The heated mix is typically homogenized in order to assure a smoother body and texture. Homogenizing also prevents churning (i.e., separating out of fat granules) of the mix in the freezer and increases the viscosity. (Since smaller fat globules have more surface area, the associated milk protein can hydrate more water and produce a more viscous fluid.)
After homogenization, the hot mix is quickly cooled to 4.4 °C (40 °F). The mix must age at this temperature for at least four hours to allow the fat to solidify and fat globules to clump. This aging process results in quicker freezing and a smoother product.
The next step, freezing the mix, is accomplished by one of two methods: continuous freezing, which uses a steady flow of mix, or batch freezing, which makes a single quantity at a time. For both methods, the objective is to freeze the product partially and, at the same time, incorporate air. The freezing process is carried out in a cylindrical barrel that is cooled by a refrigerant, either ammonia or Freon (trademark). The barrel is equipped with stainless steel blades, called dasher blades, which scrape the frozen mixture from the sides of the freezing cylinder and incorporate or whip air into the product. The amount of air incorporated during freezing is controlled by a pump or the dasher speed. Depending on individual conditions, freezing can be instantaneous in the continuous freezer or require approximately 10 minutes in the batch freezer.
Semifrozen ice cream leaves the freezer at a temperature between −9 and −5 °C (16 and 23 °F). It is placed in a suitable container and conveyed to a blast freezer, where temperatures are in the range of −29 to −34 °C (−20 to −30 °F). While in this room, the ice cream continues to freeze without agitation. Rapid freezing at this stage prevents the formation of large ice crystals and favours a smooth body and texture. The length of time in the hardening room depends on the size of the package, but usually 6 to 12 hours are required to bring the internal ice cream temperature to −18 °C (0 °F) or below. In larger manufacturing plants, final freezing takes place in a hardening tunnel, where packages are automatically conveyed on a continuous belt to the final storage area.
Much of the appeal of ice cream comes from the variety of standard and holiday flavours available throughout the year. Most ice cream manufacturers make a standard mix consisting of milk, cream, sugars, and stabilizers, to which flavours may be added just prior to freezing. High-volume flavours such as vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry may be blended in their own large batch tanks. For flavours with large particles, such as fruit, nuts, cookies, or candy parts, a “feeder” on the outlet of the freezer is used to inject the material. Ingredients such as fruits and nuts are carefully selected and specially treated to avoid introducing unwanted bacteria into the already pasteurized mix.
Ice cream and other frozen desserts require no preservatives and have long shelf lives if they are kept below −23 °C (−10 °F) and are protected from temperature fluctuations. Airtight packaging materials have made it possible to consider frozen storage of six months or longer without loss of flavour or body and texture. When ice cream is finally dipped, composition and overrun will determine ideal scooping temperature. This can vary from −16 to −9 °C (3 to 15 °F), with lower temperatures resulting in less dipping loss but more effort on the part of the server.
Ice cream can also be freeze-dried by the removal of 99 percent of the water. Freeze-drying eliminates the need for refrigeration and provides a high-energy food for hikers and campers and a “filling” centre for candy and other confections.