What’s up with my Ice Cream?

Dairy-Queen-Blizzards

On my walk home from class this evening, I stopped by Redifer Commons for a small cup of ice cream….don’t tell anyone.  Since I knew I had to write something for this blog I began to consider the science of ice cream.

Apparently there are quite a few legends surrounding the invention of ice cream.  According to The Food Timeline food historians credit the Chinese with the discovery.  As early as 3000 BC the Chinese enjoyed ancient flavor ices.  At the time there was no refrigeration, so people had to make do and create their own cold.  The Food Timeline explains that “a natural cave or the cool environment of a well-insulated underground pit or chamber worked as natural refrigerators”.

17th century Italy is said to have invented the type of ice cream we eat today.  The Science of Ice Cream says ice cream consists of five basic components: ice crystals, fats, sweeteners, air, and other solids.

The article lists the basic steps necessary to make ice cream and list them as follows:

  1.  Prepare the ice cream base
  2. Pasteurisation
  3. Homogenization
  4. Aging/ Maturing
  5. Freezing
  6. Hardening

I wonder how many trials it took to get this right.  It’s crazy to think the Chinese were freezing ice 3000 years ago, and now we have so many options like Cold Stone and Ben and Jerry’s.  It has take quite awhile and a multitude of experiments, but it is my belief Dairy Queen is the one who got it right.

3 thoughts on “What’s up with my Ice Cream?

  1. Caitlyn Elizabeth Davis

    When I was younger my mom bought my cousins and I an ice cream machine> but there were so many steps in making such a simple, and delicious treat. The machine my mom purchased for us was also very bizarre looking round, shaped thing and we were praying that it would work. We had to add all the ingredients and then take turns turning and mixing the soon to be ice cream. The process itself is very time consuming and sure does take a lot of effort. In the end, we ended up just going to the local DQ and buying ice cream because our ice cream was not that tasty.
    But it is crazy to think that such a tasty treat must have taken many different trials until people got it to taste exactly how they wanted it to.

  2. Caitlyn Elizabeth Davis

    When I was younger my mom bought my cousins and I an ice cream machine> but there were so many steps in making such a simple, and delicious treat. The machine my mom purchased for us was also very bizarre looking round, shaped thing and we were praying that it would work. We had to add all the ingredients and then take turns turning and mixing the soon to be ice cream. The process itself is very time consuming and sure does take a lot of effort. In the end, we ended up just going to the local DQ and buying ice cream because our ice cream was not that tasty.
    But it is crazy to think that such a tasty treat must have taken many different trials until people got it to taste exactly how they wanted it to.

  3. Amber Kay Shojaie

    Now I’m craving ice cream. Thanks. But when don’t I? There is so much that goes into just a simple little treat. There is quite the process to create this delicious item that we all love so much. My question is: what possessed people to even think about the creation of ice cream in the first place. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m super thankful that someone did think of it, I just wonder what was the motivation. This is a neat timeline video on the history of ice cream. It seems as if so many different people or groups of people want to claim that they invented ice cream. All I can say is that I don’t care who made it, but I am just thankful that someone did.

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