American Ice : The Big Chill-Off

When you get right down to it, ice cream is cream sweetened with sugar, then frozen. Anything more is elaboration. It’s the difference between Philadelphia ice cream (an innocent blend of cream, milk and sugar) and French (a decadent concoction rich with cooked eggs). This weekend, above all others, you should know which side to favor.

Of course, if your ice cream-eating experience is limited to what you’ve bought at the store or have been served at restaurants, it’s quite possible you’ve never tasted ice cream made this simply.

Most store-bought ice creams are made with a complex of artificial ingredients that are necessary to cushion the product through the frequently bumpy road from producer to consumer. Ice cream is an exceptionally fragile substance and, left alone, the constant temperature variations it encounters in a typical day in a typical freezer would shatter its delicate constitution.

With homemade ice cream, that is no problem. Homemade ice cream is always gone before it has even the slightest chance of melting.

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In restaurants, where more and more chefs are making their own ice creams, temperature fluctuation is not so much a problem. But restaurant ice creams--being made by pastry chefs--are almost always based on a custard--cooked eggs. It’s tempting to say that the complication is just the nature of pastry chefs, but there is a reason for it. Egg yolks act as a liaison, binding the fat and water in the milk into a smooth emulsion. In commercial ice creams, you’ll often find chemicals such as lecithin (egg yolks are high in it) or gelatin as a substitute.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with a custard-based ice cream. Not at all. In fact, it is nearly impossible to get an ice cream with the same luxurious texture without using it. But there are drawbacks as well, and you owe it to yourself to try the fresh, natural taste and crisp texture of real ice cream without the opulent masking a custard gives.

Of course, anything made so simply is difficult to get right. In this style of ice cream, the flavorings are subtle and every detail shines through. The mix of cream and milk has to be just right, and even a tablespoon’s difference in the amount of sugar in a quart of ice cream is detectable.

Beyond that, because of the peculiar physics of freezing, each ingredient also has an effect on the texture of the ice cream--how hard or soft, icy or creamy the finished product will be.

The fat in the cream carries flavor, and the more fat, the creamier the finished product. So you want as much fat as possible. But as you quickly realize in experimenting, it doesn’t take much fat to get that disgusting mouth-coating waxiness that can make an ice cream darned near unpleasant.

Sugar is the same way. You want enough to lift the flavor of the ice cream, but too much and all you taste is this simple searing sweetness that seems to last forever. Beyond that, sugar lowers the freezing point of the cream. So you not only have something that tastes bad, you have something that won’t freeze much beyond the chilled soup stage.

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Fortunately, there’s a way to determine exactly how much your mix contains of each. To figure fat, add the percentages of fat for each type of cream (whipping cream is 30% fat, half-and-half is 10.5% and whole milk is 3.25%) and then divide by the total volume.

For example: If you combine three cups of whipping cream (three times 30% equals 90) plus one cup of whole milk (one times 3.25%), you wind up with 93.25, which, when divided by the four cups of liquid, equals an average of 23%. Notice that these are percentages of fat, not calories from fat.

And when we froze that mixture, everyone hated it. It was soft and smooth, but did it coat your mouth! In fact, most people started rinsing their mouths out with water.

We also tried ice creams made with 20% fat (two cups whipping cream, two cups half-and-half), 15% fat (two cups whipping cream, two cups whole milk), and 10% fat (four cups half-and-half). There was no clear consensus on which was best, but most people agreed it was either 15% or 20% (though 10% did get a lot of support--primarily because it had been frozen most recently and hadn’t hardened completely, so it was softest when tasted--a good thing to remember).

So I split the difference and settled on an ice cream with 18% fat--two cups whipping cream, one cup half-and-half and one cup milk.

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To determine the ideal amount of sugar, we went through the same arduous round of testing with 8% sugar ( 1/3 cup per quart), 12% ( 1/2 cup), 16% ( 2/3 cup) and 18% ( 3/4 cup). Again, after throwing out the low and the high (the low tasted OK, the high was way, way too sweet), the 12% was just a touch low, the 16% a touch high.

So, again, I compromised. The ideal mix, it seems to me, is an ice cream base made with 18% fat and 14% sugar. That fits the general industry profile of deluxe ice cream, which, according to W. S. Arbuckle’s textbook “Ice Cream and Related Products” (AVI Publishing: 1961), should be between 16% and 20% fat and 14% to 17% sugar.

If you’re curious how that stacks up against some of your favorites, Haagen-Dazs vanilla runs 16% fat, Ben & Jerry’s vanilla 15% and Baskin-Robbins vanilla 12%. Budget ice creams can be as low as 7% to 10%.

The third factor that affects ice cream quality is run-over (essentially, how much air is pumped into the ice cream). This is something manufacturers talk about a lot, but it doesn’t have much effect on home ice cream makers. You’ll have to take what your ice cream machine gives you--there’s no way to manipulate it.

What was most amazing about the experiments is how good just plain old ice cream tastes. Without even a whisper of additional flavoring, the clean, fresh, almost crisp taste of milk was absolutely delicious.

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But man cannot live by milk-flavored ice cream alone. Or, at least, not for very long. The thing to remember when flavoring ice creams based on this mix is to go easy. First of all, add only flavors that you think will naturally complement the fresh milk taste. And then, apply with a restrained hand.

Save baroque blends for store-bought ice creams, where they have to cover up the stale taste, or for fancy Continental custards.

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This is the basic recipe I developed while trying to find the right proportions of sugar and fat. It was intended to be a kind of “white” background to lay other flavors over. The real surprise is how good “white” tastes.

“BEST OF MILK” ICE CREAM

1 cup milk

1 cup half and half

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

In bowl combine milk, half and half and whipping cream. Add sugar and stir to dissolve thoroughly. Freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions, then pack into glass or metal dish and harden in freezer at least 1 hour. Makes 1 quart, or 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

316 calories; 50 mg sodium; 96 mg cholesterol; 26 grams fat; 19 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; trace fiber.

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Some people just couldn’t handle the idea of lavender ice cream. You’ll know if you’re one of them. If you’re not, the slight hint of lavender flavor in this mix would be a perfect complement to fresh berries.

LAVENDER ICE CREAM

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped lavender leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried tops

1 cup half and half

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

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Scald milk over medium heat in saucepan. When milk is almost boiling, remove from heat and add lavender. Let steep until cool.

In bowl combine half and half, whipping cream and sugar and whisk to blend. Add milk, pouring through strainer to remove leaves, and stir again to make sure sugar is well absorbed.

Freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Then pack into glass or metal dish and harden in freezer at least 1 hour. Makes 1 quart, or 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

316 calories; 50 mg sodium; 96 mg cholesterol; 26 grams fat; 19 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; trace grams fiber.

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The goal here was to come up with berries and cream, without further ornamentation. What we learned in testing is that in order to draw out the most flavor, you must crush a third of the berries with sugar before adding them to the rest of the fruit.

BERRY ICE CREAM

1 1/2 cups fresh berries, whole raspberries or blackberries or quartered strawberries, or combination

Sugar

1 cup milk

1 cup half and half

2 cups whipping cream

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In bowl combine 1/2 cup berries and 2 tablespoons sugar. Mash well. Add remainder of berries and stir. Let stand while mixing ice cream.

In separate mixing bowl, combine milk, half and half, whipping cream and 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar. Stir well to dissolve sugar.

Freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. When frozen, stir berries into ice cream, then pack into glass or metal dish and harden in freezer at least 1 hour. Makes 1 quart, or 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

339 calories; 50 mg sodium; 96 mg cholesterol; 17 grams fat; 24 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 0.69 gram fiber.

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I’ve loved the taste of cinnamon since I was a little kid and my mom would put cinnamon sugar on toast. This ice cream is a long-time favorite of mine with just a warm background taste of cinnamon. This is wonderful served simply with sugar cookies, or with an apple or pear dessert.

CINNAMON ICE CREAM

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 cup half and half

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

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In bowl combine milk and cinnamon. Stir to thoroughly distribute cinnamon. Add half and half, cream and sugar. Stir well to thoroughly dissolve sugar.

Freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Then pack into glass or metal dish and freeze at least 1 hour. Makes 1 quart, or 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

316 calories; 50 mg sodium; 96 mg cholesterol; 26 grams fat; 19 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; trace fiber.

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The taste of ginger in this ice cream isn’t as assertive as it is in some you may have tasted. Here, it almost tastes like a spicy accent in the milk. Try this with poached peaches.

GINGER ICE CREAM

1 cup milk

1 (1/4-inch) chunk ginger root, grated

1 cup half and half

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

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Scald milk over medium heat in saucepan. When milk is almost boiling, remove from heat and add ginger root. Let steep until cool.

Combine half and half, whipping cream and sugar. Whisk to blend. Add milk, pouring through strainer to remove ginger root. Stir again to make sure sugar is well absorbed.

Freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Then pack into glass or metal dish and freeze at least 1 hour. Makes 1 quart, or 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

316 calories; 50 mg sodium; 96 mg cholesterol; 26 grams fat; 19 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; trace fiber.

SORBET: How to make another cool summer treat. H31