One thing that you may have found revealing from this week’s discussion of ice cream is the way in which naturally ocurring chemical compounds can sound synthetic. Talk of “emulsifiers” and “stabilizers” gives the impression of industrialized food, when in fact what these words really describe is a role. A “stabilizer” can be simple table […]
READ ONThe only down side I can see to Grandma Reese’s machine-free ice cream recipe (below) is that it’ll take quite a long time to freeze, and in that time quite a few large ice crystals will form. I can, however, think of one thing a person without an ice machine can employ to freeze a […]
READ ONClearly it takes a balance of all the ingredients I’ve talked about here to make the perfect ice cream. Too much sugar and you get a gooey cream syrup. Too much air and you get insipid fluff. Too much fat and you get a tongue-coating, greasy mess (plus you risk churning the whole mix into […]
READ ONIf you could reduce the amount of water in the ice cream mix to begin with, you’d decrease the scope of the crystallization problem. Which is where those fish proteins you’ve been hearing so much about enter the equation.
READ ONIce creams in America come in two general types, so-called “Philadelphia Style” and French. Anyone who knows French cuisine will not be surprised to learn that Philadelpia style is the simpler of the two. This week’s recipe is just such an animal, being composed of pretty much just milk, cream, sugar, and a few added […]
READ ONWell, plus sugar. And air. But to a large extent that’s pretty much true. The bulk of an ice cream matrix is ice crystals and reduced cream, with lots of little air bubbles mixed in. The amount of air depends on how much churning you do, but then I’m getting ahead of myself. The first […]
READ ONJust a few months ago the wife and I sat down and watched Nanook of the North for the first time. Not just a pop culture reference, it’s an actual movie from 1922, the first feature-length documentary ever made, and one amazing experience. Just the way the Eskimos cut and manipulate ice is a thing […]
READ ONHappily for me, ice cream is one of those food topics where I don’t have to choose between history and science, because the two go hand-in-hand. The history of ice cream is the history of refrigeration. Oh happy me. The history of refrigeration starts of course with ice, the preservative powers of which have been […]
READ ONIt’s pregnant lady week here at joepastry.com, or should I say it’s another pregnant lady week. The good news is that the face-down-on-the-couch period seems to be ending. The bad news is we’re entering the “anything goes” phase of the mama-to-be diet. This week’s requests are: Ice cream and Pretzels Who am I to refuse? […]
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