Ice cream

Cherry ice cream

Ice cream or ice-cream (originally iced cream) is a frozen dessert made from dairy products, such as cream (or substituted ingredients), combined with flavorings and sweeteners, such as sugar.

This mixture is stirred slowly while cooling to prevent large ice crystals from forming. This results a smooth textured ice cream. Although the term "ice cream" is sometimes used to mean frozen desserts and snacks in general, it is usually reserved for frozen desserts and snacks made with a high percentage of milk fat. Frozen custard, yoghurt, sorbet and other similar products are sometimes also called ice cream. Governments often regulate the use of these terms based on quantities of ingredients. Ice cream is generally served as a chilled product. It may also be found in dishes where the coldness of the ice cream is used as a temperature contrast, for example, as a topping on warm desserts, or even in fried ice cream. Some commercial institutions such as creameries specialize in serving ice cream and related products.

Composition

File:Ice cream in icebox.jpg

Ice cream is sold in a variety of different forms.

Modern industrially produced ice cream is made from a mixture of ingredients:

• Minimum of 10% milk fat
• 9-12% milk solids: this component, also known as the serum solids, contains the proteins (caseins and whey proteins) and carbohydrates (lactose) found in milk
• 12-16% sweeteners: usually a combination of sucrose and/or glucose-based corn syrup sweeteners
• 0.2-0.5% stabilizers and emulsifiers, e.g. agar or carrageenan extracted from seaweed
• 55%-64% water which comes from milk solids or other ingredients

These ingredients, along with air incorporated during the stirring process, make up ice cream. Generally, less expensive ice creams contain lower-quality ingredients (for example, when vanilla bean is replaced with artificial vanillin), and more air is incorporated, sometimes as much as 50% of the final volume. Artisan-produced ice creams often contain very little air, although some is necessary to produce the characteristic creamy texture of the product. Generally speaking, the finest ice creams have between 3% and 15% air. Because most ice cream is sold by volume, it is economically advantageous for producers to reduce the density of the product in order to cut costs. Ice cream has also been hand-packed and sold by weight. The use of stabilizers rather than cream and the incorporation of air also decrease the fat and energy content of less expensive ice creams, making them more appealing to those on diets. Ice creams come in a wide variety of flavors, often with additives such as chocolate flakes or chips, nuts, fruit, and small candies/sweets. Some of the most popular ice cream flavors are vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and Neapolitan (a combination of the three). Many people also enjoy ice cream sundaes, which often have ice cream, hot fudge, nuts, whipped cream, cherries or a variety of other toppings. Other toppings include cookie crumbs, butterscotch, sprinkles, or banana sauce. It is, however, recommended to avoid M&Ms pieces as a topping -- they freeze and become the consistency of tiny rocks.

Production

Before the development of modern refrigeration, ice cream was a luxury item reserved for special occasions. Making ice cream was quite laborious. Ice was cut commercially from lakes and ponds during the winter and stored in large heaps in holes in the ground or in wood-frame ice houses, insulated by straw. Ice cream was made by hand in a large bowl surrounded by packed ice and salt. The temperature of the ingredients was reduced by the mixture of crushed ice and salt. The salt water was cooled by the ice, and the action of the salt on the ice causes it to (partially) melt, absorbing latent heat bringing the mixture below the freezing point of pure water. The immersed container can also make better thermal contact with the salty water and ice mixture than it could with ice alone.

The hand-cranked churn, which still used ice and salt for cooling, was invented by an American named Nancy Johnson in 1846, making production possible on site and avoiding the problem of continuous chilling between production and consumer. Ice cream became a popular item for the first time. The world's first commercial ice cream factory was opened in Baltimore, Maryland in 1851, by Jacob Fussell, a dairy farmer. An unstable demand for his milk led him to mass produce ice cream. This allowed the previously expensive concoction to be offered in the city at reduced prices. Fussell opened ice cream parlors as far west as Texas. Many were still around well into the twentieth century. Fussell later sold his business to Borden.

An electric ice cream maker

The development of industrial refrigeration by German engineer Carl von Linde during the 1870s eliminated the need to cut and store natural ice and when the continuous-process freezer was perfected in 1926, allowed commercial mass production of ice cream and the birth of the modern ice cream industry.

The most common method for producing ice cream at home is to use an ice cream maker, in modern times generally an electrical device that churns the ice cream mixture while cooled inside a household freezer, or using a solution of pre-frozen salt and water, which gradually melt while the ice cream freezes. Some more expensive models have an inbuilt freezing element. A newer method of making home-made ice cream is to add liquid nitrogen to the mixture while stirring it using a spoon or spatula. Some ice cream recipes call for making a custard, folding in whipped cream, and immediately freezing the mixture.

Commercial delivery

A bicycle-based ice cream vendor

Thanks to mass production, ice cream is widely available in most parts of the world. Ice cream can be purchased in large tubs and squrounds from supermarkets/grocery stores, in smaller quantities from ice cream shops, convenience stores, and milk bars, and in individual servings from small carts or vans at public events. Some ice cream distributors sell ice cream products door-to-door from traveling refrigerated vans or carts, often equipped with speakers playing a children's music tune. On the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, ice cream is sometimes sold to beachgoers from small powerboats equipped with chest freezers.

Precursors of ice cream

The ancients had saved ice for cold foods for thousands of years. Mesopotamia has the earliest icehouses in existence, 4,000 years old, beside the Euphrates River, where the wealthy stored items to keep them cold. The pharaohs of Egypt had ice shipped to them. In the fifth century BC, ancient Greeks sold snow cones mixed with honey and fruit in the markets of Athens. Persians, having mastered the storage of ice, ate ice cream well into summer. Roman emperor Nero (37–68) had ice brought from the mountains and combined with fruit toppings. Today's ice treats likely originated with these early ice delicacies.

Persia

Bastani, Persian rosewater ice cream, is typically served between wafers as an ice cream sandwich.

Many myths surround ice cream and its true origin. Many believe that it evolved from cooled wines and flavored Ices around, and might have come from Persia. These Iced wines were popular with Alexander the Great and later with Roman high society. In 62 BC, the Roman emperor Nero, sent slaves to the Apennine mountains to collect snow to be flavoured with honey and nuts. The Persians mastered the technique of storing ice inside giant naturally-cooled refrigerators known as yakhchals. These structures kept ice brought in from the winter, or from nearby mountains, well into the summer. They worked by using tall windcatchers that kept the sub-level storage space at frigid temperatures.

In 400 BC, Persians invented a special chilled pudding-like dish, made of rosewater and vermicelli which was served to royalty during summers. The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavors. The treat, widely made today in Iran, is called "faludeh", and is made from starch (usually wheat), spun in a sieve-like machine which produces threads or drops of the batter, which are boiled in water. The mix is then frozen, and mixed with rosewater and lemons, before serving.[1][2]

Arabia

Ice cream was the favourite dessert for the caliphs of Baghdad. They were usually made by Persians or brought by Persians to Arabia.

China

An ice cream vendor in Vienna, Austria, July 2005

The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory serves ice cream in New York City

According to Mageulonne Toussaint-Samat in her History of Food, "the Chinese may be credited with inventing a device to make sorbets and ice cream. They poured a mixture of snow and saltpetre over the exteriors of containers filled with syrup, for, in the same way as salt raises the boiling-point of water, it lowers the freezing-point to below zero." The Chinese put sugar in the ice and sold it as food during the summer. During the Song Dynasty (宋朝) people began putting fruit juice in the water used to create the ice; milk began to be used in the Yuan Dynasty (元朝), as the Mongols, who adopted a nomadic culture, introduced milk to China, where milk was not widely used in cuisine at that time; milk and dairy products in general are still rare in Chinese cuisine.

India

As early as the sixteenth century, the Mughal emperors used relays of horsemen to bring ice from the Hindu Kush to Delhi where it was used in fruit sorbets. Kulfi is a type of ice cream which is very closely related to the Persian ice cream and is still sold by road side vendors and in restaurants.

The West

Popular folklore asserts that Marco Polo saw ice cream being made on his trip to China and took the recipe home to Italy with him on his return. However, in his writings Marco Polo never claimed to have introduced ice cream to the west.

The Roman emperor Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus appreciated a sort of local ice cream during the 37-68 AD.

When Italian duchess Catherine de Medici married the duc d’Orléans in 1533, she is said to have brought with her Italian chefs who had recipes for flavored ices or sorbets and introduced them in France. One hundred years later Charles I of England 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 these legends, which first appeared during the 19th century.

Ice cream made with a milk mixture was first recorded in Europe in Italy.*History of Ice Cream

The first recipe for flavored ices in French appears in 1674, in Nicholas Lemery’s Recueil de curiositéz rares et nouvelles de plus admirables effets de la nature.

Recipes for sorbetti saw publication in the 1694 edition of Antonio Latini's Lo Scalco alla Moderna (The Modern Steward).

Recipes for flavored ices begin to appear in François Massialot's Nouvelle Instruction pour les Confitures, les Liqueurs, et les Fruits starting with the 1692 edition. Massialot's recipes result in a coarse, pebbly texture. However, Latini claims that the results of his recipes should have the fine consistence of sugar and snow.

Modern ice cream

In the 18th century cream, milk, and egg yolks began to feature in the recipes of previously dairy-free flavored ices, resulting in ice cream in the modern sense of the word. The 1751 edition of The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy by Hanna Glasse features a recipe for raspberry cream ice. 1768 saw the publication of L'Art de Bien Faire les Glaces d'Office by M. Emy, a cookbook devoted entirely to recipes for flavored ices and ice cream.

Ice cream was introduced to the United States by colonists who brought their ice cream recipes with them. Confectioners, many of whom were Europeans, sold ice cream at their shops in New York and other cities during the colonial era. Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson were known to have regularly eaten and served ice cream. Dolley Madison is also closely associated with the early history of ice cream in the United States.

After the 1830s when ice-making machines became available, ice cream gradually became more widely available. In 1843, Nancy Johnson invented the first small-scale handcranked ice cream freezer. This was followed by the invention of the ice cream soda, probably invented by Robert Green in 1874, although there is no conclusive evidence to prove his claim.

The ice cream sundae originated in the late 19th century. Several men claimed to have created the first sundae, but there is no credible evidence to back up any of their stories. Some versions say that the sundae was invented to circumvent blue laws, which forbade serving sodas on Sunday. Both the ice cream cone and banana split became popular in the first years of the 20th century. The inventor of the ice cream cone is not clearly established. Some claim it was served as a waffle-like pastry at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, MO. Others claim it was invented in New York City by Italo Marchioni of Italy, who began selling his product in 1896. History of Ice Cream [3]

20th century

The history of ice cream in the 20th century is one of great change, and increases in availability and popularity. In the United States in the early 20th century, the ice cream soda was a popular treat at the soda shop, the soda fountain, and the ice cream parlor. During the American Prohibition era the soda fountain to some extent replace the alcohol establishments - illegal at the time - including bars and saloons.

Ice cream became popular throughout the world in the second half of the 20th century after cheap refrigeration became common. There was an explosion of ice cream stores and of flavors and types. Vendors often competed on the basis of variety. Howard Johnson's restaurants advertised "a world of 28 flavors." Baskin-Robbins made its 31 flavors ("one for every day of the month") the cornerstone of its marketing strategy. The company now boasts that it has developed over 1000 varieties.

George and Davis' Ice Cream Cafe on Little Clarendon Street, Oxford

One important development in the 20th century was the introduction of soft ice cream. A chemical research team in Britain (of which a young Margaret Thatcher was a member) discovered a method of doubling the amount of air in ice cream, which allowed manufacturers to use less of the actual ingredients, thereby reducing costs. This ice cream was also very popular amongst consumers who preferred the lighter texture, and most major ice cream brands now use this manufacturing process. It also made possible the soft ice cream machine in which a cone is filled beneath a spigot on order.

The 1980s saw a return of the older, thicker, ice creams being sold as "premium" varieties. Ben and Jerry's, Beechdean, Häagen-Dazs and Hilton Head Ice Cream, Inc. fall into this category.

Other frozen desserts

Snow cones, made from balls of crushed ice topped with sweet syrup served in a paper cone, are consumed in many parts of the world. The most common places to find snow cones in the United States are at amusement parks.

A popular springtime treat in maple-growing areas is maple toffee, where boiled maple syrup is poured over fresh snow congealing in a toffee-like mass, and then eaten from a wooden stick used to pick it up from the snow.

Ice creams and sorbets are frozen while being stirred or agitated, resulting in a light texture. Ice pops are quiescently frozen — frozen at rest without stirring.

Ice cream throughout the world

Italian ice cream ("gelato").

Australia and New Zealand

An ice cream van at Batemans Bay, New South Wales, Australia

Per capita, Australians and New Zealanders are among the leading ice cream consumers in the world, eating 18 litres and 20 litres each per year respectively, behind the United States of America where people eat 23 litres each per year.

Germany

Italian ice-cream parlours (Eisdielen) have been popular in Germany since the 1920s, when many Italians immigrated and set up business. As in Italy itself, ice cream is considered a traditional dessert and the ice-cream at an Eisdiele is still mostly hand-made.

Italy

Italian ice cream in Rome

Ice cream is a traditional dessert in Italy. Much is still hand-made by individual gelateria (look for the sign 'propria produzione', meaning 'our own make' in the ice cream shops). Italian ice cream or gelato is made from whole milk, eggs, sugar, and natural flavourings. However, gelato typically contains only 7-8% fat versus ice cream's minimum of 10%.

Before the cone became popular for serving ice cream, in English speaking countries, Italian street vendors would serve the ice cream in a small glass dish referred to as a "penny lick" or wrapped in waxed paper and known as a hokey-pokey (possibly a corruption of the Italian "ecco un poco" - "here is a little").

Some of the most known ice cream machine makers are Italian companies Carpigiani, Crm-Telme, Corema-Telme, Technogel, Cattabriga, Matrix, Promag.

France

In 1651 Francesco dei Coltelli opened an ice cream café in Paris and the product became so popular that during the next 50 years another 250 icecafés opened in Paris.

United Kingdom

Ice cream van in the UK

The first British recipe for ice cream was published in Mrs. Mary Eales's Receipts in 1718. The recipe did not include a process for making the ice smooth and it must have been coarse with ice crystals.

Ice cream remained an expensive and rare treat in the UK, until large quantities of ice began to be imported from Norway and the US in the mid Victorian era. A Swiss-Italian businessman, Carlo Gatti, opened the first ice cream stall outside Charing Cross station in 1851, selling scoops of ice cream in shells for one penny. [4] The penny lick soon became popular, remaining on sale until banned in 1926, by which time it had been replaced by the ice cream cone.

In the United Kingdom today, much of the lower-priced ice cream sold, including that from some ice cream vans, has little milk or milk solids content, being made with vegetable oil, usually hydrogenated palm kernel oil. Ice cream sold as dairy ice cream must contain milk fat, and many companies make sure that dairy is prominently displayed on their packaging or businesses.

The Ice Cream Alliance Ltd, a trade association for the UK ice-cream industry, says that: "It is necessary for a manufacturer to be aware of the compositional requirements of the country in which he intends to sell his ice cream. In the UK this is a minimum of 5% fat and a minimum of 2.5% milk protein. There is also an Italian ice cream dessert known as Tartufo. (Schedule 8, the Food Labelling Regulations 1996).

In the United Kingdom, per capita consumption of ice cream is only 6 litres per year.

Greece

Although ice cream in its modern form is a relatively new invention, ice treats have been enjoyed since ancient times. During the 5th century BC, ancient Greeks ate snow mixed with honey and fruit in the markets of Athens. The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, encouraged his ancient Greek patients to eat ice "as it livens the lifejuices and increases the well-being." In the 4th century BC, it was well known that a favorite treat of Alexander the Great was snow ice mixed with honey and nectar. In modern times Greek ice cream recipes have some unique flavors such as Pagoto Kaimaki, (Greek: Παγωτό Καϊμάκι), made from mastic-resin which gives it an almost chewy texture, and salepi, used as a thickening agent to increase resistance to melting; both give the ice cream a unique taste; Olive Oil Ice Cream with figs; Pagoto Kataifi Chocolate, (Greek: Παγωτό Καταΐφι-κακάο), made from the shredded filo dough pastry that resembles angel's hair pasta or vermicelli; and Mavrodaphne Ice Cream, (Greek: Μαυροδάφνη Παγωτό), made from a Greek dessert wine. Fruity Greek Sweets of the Spoon are usually served as toppings with Greek-inspired ice cream flavors.

Turkey

Since before the creation of the modern state of Turkey, the peoples of Anatolia kept some winter snow from melting by storing it in mountain crevices which they covered with twigs. In the summer, they retrieved portions from its storage place, put it in bowls used for stewed fruit and, drizzling it with molasses, ate it. Some regard this sweet, which was called ‘karsambac’, as the ancestor of today’s ice cream. With the entry of sugar into everyday life on the discovery of the New World, fruit juices and syrups were also made and stored for consumption in winter. They too were poured over ice cream and eaten. Fresh snow with molasses is still consumed in some parts of Anatolia today.

Many fruit-flavored ice creams do not contain cream or milk but are fruit sherbets. There are also ice creams made from yogurt. The variety associated most with Turkey is the beaten ice cream of Kahramanmaraş. Hard to melt and with a consistency like taffy, it is unique to Turkey. Kahramanmaraş ice cream, which is hung on a butcher’s hook and cut with a knife, is believed to have been made since the 18th century. Its most outstanding ingredient, which gives it its flavor and distinguishes it from all other ice creams, is 'salep' obtained from the knobby root of the wild orchid and ground in a mill. They are served in cups, cones, or waffle sandwiches. Traditionally, one could only find ice cream at shops that specialized in uniquely winter treats like pickles or the fermented drink 'boza', and whose trade in ice cream was therefore limited to summer. Nowadays, ice cream is consumed all year round.

Japan

Ice cream is a popular dessert in Japan too, with almost two in five adults eating some at least once a week, according to a recent survey. Since 1999, the Japanese Ice Cream Association has been publishing the Ice Cream White Paper once a year, and the four most popular ice cream flavors in Japan has not changed (including their orders) since 1999 according the Paper. The top four flavors are vanilla, chocolate, matcha (powdered green tea) and strawberry. Other notable popular flavors are milk, caramel and azuki (Red Bean) also according the Paper. Azuki is particularly favored by people in their 50s and older. While matcha is a truly Japanese flavor favored by Japanese and well-known among non-Japanese outside of Japan, plum and ginger, tastes often presented as Japanese flavors outside of Japan, did not make the cut in the top 17 favorite flavor list in 2006. In Japan, a soft serve ice cream is called softcream which is also very popular.

Ice cream cone

Strawberry ice cream in a cone.

Mrs Marshall's Cookery Book, published in 1888, endorsed serving ice cream in cones, but the idea probably predated that. Agnes Marshall was a celebrated cookery writer of her day and helped to popularise ice cream. She patented and manufactured an ice cream maker and was the first person to suggest using liquefied gases to freeze ice cream after seeing a demonstration at the Royal Institution.

The popularity of ice cream cones increased greatly during the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. According to legend, at the World's Fair an ice cream seller had run out of clean dishes, so could not sell any more ice cream. Next door to the ice cream booth was the waffle booth, unsuccessful due to intense heat; the waffle maker offered to make cones by rolling up his waffles and the new product sold well, and was widely copied by other vendors.

Using liquid nitrogen

Using liquid nitrogen to freeze ice cream is an old idea that is only recently starting to see commercialization. Some commercial innovations have been documented in the National Cryogenic Society Magazine "Cold Facts" [5]. The most noted brands are Dippin' Dots [6], Blue Sky Creamery [7] and Sub Zero Cryo Creamery [8]. The preparation results in a column of white condensed water vapor cloud, reminiscent of popular depictions of witches' cauldrons. The ice cream, dangerous to eat while still "steaming," is allowed to rest until the liquid nitrogen is completely vaporized. Some ice cream is often frozen to the sides of the container, and must be allowed to thaw.

Making ice cream with liquid nitrogen has advantages over conventional freezing. Due to the rapid freezing, the crystal grains are smaller, giving the ice cream a creamier texture, and allowing one to get the same texture by using less milkfat.

Ice cream alternatives

The following is a partial list of ice-cream-like frozen desserts and snacks:

Raspberry sherbet.

• Ice milk: less than 10% milk fat and lower sweetening content, once marketed as "ice milk" but now sold as low-fat ice cream in the United States.
• Frozen custard: at least 10% milk fat and at least 1.4% egg yolk and much less air beaten into it, similar to Gelato, fairly rare.
• Frozen yogurt: a low fat or fat free alternative made with yogurt
• Mellorine: non-dairy, with vegetable fat substituted for milk fat
• Gelato: an Italian frozen dessert having a lower milk fat content than ice cream and stabilized with ingredients such as eggs.
• Sherbet: 1-2% milk fat and sweeter than ice cream.
• Sorbet: fruit puree and no milk products
• Lollipop (or popsicle or lolly): frozen fruit puree, fruit juice, or flavored sugar water on a stick or in a flexible plastic sleeve.
• Kulfi: Believed to have been introduced to South Asia by the Mughal conquest in the 16th century; its origins trace back to the cold snacks and desserts of Arab and Mediterranean cultures.
• Dondurma: Turkish ice cream, made of salep and mastic resin
• Ais kacang: a dessert in Malaysia and Singapore made from shaved ice, syrup, boiled red bean and topped with chocolate sauce and evaporated milk.

Some ice creams are made without milk; for example with soy milk or rice milk instead. A minority of non-dairy ice creams are based on nut butter. Another variation is ice cream made with coconut milk.

See also

• List of ice cream brands
• Arctic roll, Baked Alaska
• Astronaut ice cream
• Brain freeze
• Fried ice cream
• Ice cream sandwich
• Snow cream
• Softcream
• Soft serve
• Ice-structuring protein
• Ice pop
• Ice-cream cone

External links

• History of Ice Cream

• Ice Cream Reviews
• The Complete Guide To Ice Cream
• Ice cream history and "who really invented the ice cream cone?"
• Cooking with Chemistry, Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
• HowStuffWorks's How Ice-Cream Works.