Inside Ice Cream

Anyone who loves ice cream knows very well what are the ingredients required to make an ice cream. I will give a brief account of each ingredient and the role played by it and the effect it creates in the ice cream. The major ingredients in the ice cream are Milk protein, Water, Fats,Sugar and ...AIR. Minor ingredients are  Emulsifiers, Stabilizers, Colors, Flavors and Mix-Ins. It is very helpful to know about the effects and role played by each ingredient so that one can know which to add and how much to add to get a delicious and tasty ice cream.

Milk Protein used in ice cream can be obtained from Whole milk, Heavy Cream, Skimmed Milk Powder or Butter Milk. There are two important functions of milk protein in ice cream. Firstly they stabilize the water emulsion and foams formed in the ice cream during churning and secondly they contribute to a characteristic dairy flavor. If butter milk is used it impart a distinctive, fresh flavor to the ice cream.

Sugar used in ice cream can come from milk, fruit or kitchen sugar. The two main functions of sugar in the ice cream are to impart sweetness and to control the amount of ice and hence the softness of ice cream. The more the amount of ice the harder is the ice cream. Sugar lowers the freezing point of the mixture and so results in lesser ice in the ice cream making it softer and easy to scoop.

Who invented Ice Cream?

No one! The  Ice Cream, as we recognize today is a result of stage by stage development in the art of ice cream making and it was believed to be in existence for the past 350 years. Many myths were related to the origin of ice cream, the most famous one was that of Nero, the Roman emperor, who used to eat fruit chilled with snow brought down from the mountains. One more story credits the Mongolians as the inventors of ice cream. The Mongols, according to the story, used to pack the cream in animal intestines and when the horses galloped the cream would shaken vigorously and the sub zero temperature of Gobi desert will freeze the cream simultaneously. But these stories or hi-stories does not have any credible historical evidence.

The most important incident, which helped in development of ice cream making was the discovery that water gets cooled when mixed with salt. This discovery was made in India and it traveled to the west through the Arabs. In 1589 Giambattista Della Porta, a resident of Naples discovered that much greater cooling can be achieved when ice is mixed with salt. This discovery was an important milestone in the history of ice cream making. Even today most of the ice cream makers function based on this single principle.

The earliest evidence for ice cream, according to "The Science of Ice Cream"by Chris Clarke, can be found from the food list of the feast of St George in Windsor in May 1671, even though ice cream was served only at King Charles II's table. In that period ice cream was a luxury item and it was served only at the tables of higher aristocracy.

But the most important event in the development of ice cream making was the invention of Ice Cream making machine by Nancy Johnson of Philadelphia in 1840s. Her machine was a wooden cylinder with two perforated spatulas fitted to a shaft, which was rotated by a crank and the outside of cylinder was cooled by a mixture of ice and salt. This important discovery paved the way for mass production of ice cream and helped the ice cream to reach the table of common man from the high tables of aristocracy.