Ice cream
In its simplest form, ice cream (or ice-cream, icecream) is a frozen dessert made from dairy products (milk, cream or custard) combined with flavourings and sweeteners, and whipped to a light and airy consistency. Ice creams come in a wide variety of flavours, often with additives such as chocolate flakes or chips, nuts, fruit, and small candies/sweets. One of the most popular ice cream flavours in supermarkets is neapolitan.
Before the advent of modern refrigeration, ice cream was a luxury item reserved for very special occasions. Today, icecream is enjoyed around the world on a daily basis thanks to commercial mass-production and the home freezer. Ice cream is often bought in large tubs from supermarkets/grocery stores, in smaller quantities from convenience stores/milk bars, and in individual serves from small carts/vans at public events and places. There are even some ice cream manufacturers who sell ice cream products door-to-door from travelling refrigerated vans.
Modern commercial ice cream is made from a mixture of:
- 10-16% milkfat
- 9 to 12% milk solids-not-fat: this component, also known as the serum solids, contains the proteins (caseins and whey proteins) and carbohydrates (lactose) found in milk
- 12 to * 16% sweeteners: usually a combination of sucrose and/or glucose-based corn syrup sweeteners
- 0.2 to 0.5% stabilizers and emulsifiers eg. agar
- 55% to 64% water which comes from the milk or other ingredients
These ingredients make up the solid part of the ice cream, but only 50% of the final volume, the remainder being air incorporated during the whipping process.
There are several popular legends surrounding the discovery of ice cream. Marco Polo supposedly saw ice cream being made on his trip to China, bringing the recipe home to Italy with him on his return. From there, Catherine de Medici's Italian chefs are said to have carried the recipe to France when she went there in 1533 to marry the Duc d'Orleans. Charles I was supposedly so impressed by the "frozen snow" that he offered his own ice cream maker a lifetime pension in return for keeping the formula secret, so that ice cream could be a royal prerogative. There is however, no historical evidence to support this fable, which first appeared during the 19th century and was probably created by imaginative ice cream vendors. Ice cream most likely did originate in China, but it is unknown how and when the idea made its way into the Western world.
The making of ice cream was originally an extremely laborious process. It was made by hand in a large bowl surrounded by packed ice. The hand-cranked churn was invented in 1846, making production simpler, and the world's first commercial ice cream factory opened in Baltimore, Maryland in 1851. The continuous process freezer was perfected in 1926, allowing commercial mass-production of ice cream and the birth of the modern ice cream industry.
Ice cream today is a traditional dessert in Italy, where it is still mostly hand-made, even if one of the most known ice cream machine makers is the Italian Carpigiani.
One of the most familiar ice cream desserts is the ice cream sundae, which was came into being in 1881 when Ed Berners of Two Rivers, Wisconsin decided to make a special dish to sell in his store. Berners charged five cents and only served the dessert on Sundays, hence the name. Another familiar icecream treat, the ice cream cone, made its public debut at the St. Louis World's fair in 1904, after Charles E. Menches of St. Louis, Missouri had the bright idea of placing two scoops of ice cream inside a pastry cone.
Further Reading:
- The Complete Guide to Icecream, http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/icecream.html