Ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream (originally iced cream) is a frozen dessert made from dairy products such as cream (or substituted ingredients), combined with flavourings and sweeteners. This mixture is cooled while stirring to prevent large ice crystals from forming. 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, ice milk, sorbet and other similar products are often also called ice cream. Governments often regulate the use of these terms based on quantities of ingredients.

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

10-16% milk fat
9-12% 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
12-16% 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 make up the solid part of the ice cream, but only a portion of the final volume, the remainder being air incorporated during the whipping process. Generally, the less expensive the ice-cream, the lower the quality of the ingredients (for example, replacing vanilla bean with artificial vanillin), and the more air is incorporated, sometimes as much as 50% of the total volume. Artisan-produced ice creams, such as Berthillon's, 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 less than 30% air, but more than 15%. Since ice cream is sold by volume, it's economically advantageous for producers to reduce the density of the product in order to cut costs (One of Margaret Thatcher's first jobs was in an ice cream company laboratory, where she was finding ways of increasing the air-content of ice cream). The use of stabilizers rather than actual cream and the incorporation of air also decreases the fat and caloric content of less expensive ice creams, making them more appealing to those on diets.

Ice-creams come in a wide variety of flavours, often with additives such as chocolate flakes or chips, nuts, fruit, and small candies/sweets. Some of the most popular ice cream flavours in supermarkets are vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and Neapolitan (a combination of the three). Many people also like ice cream sundaes, which often have ice cream, hot fudge, nuts, whipped cream, cherries and other toppings of their choice.

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