Ice-Cream

ICE-CREAM. A name applied to a great variety of frozen compounds, ranging from a cheap mixture of custard powder, water or milk, sugar, flavouring and colouring matter, to real cream compounds, souffles and parfaits, water ices and "sorbets," ice-cream blocks, etc. Ice-cream making is an important branch of the confectionery and because of its excellent food value has taken an important place in the diet of some people. The neces sary utensils for a small trade, or for household use, are pewter freezers in wooden tubs or any good ice-machine (there are many on the market), pewter spatulas, ice pick, ice caves for storing or sending out ices, and pewter moulds, which are made in many shapes and sizes, for ice puddings or for small ices to serve to one person. The common American freezers are made with metal cans which revolve in a wooden tub and have a paddle which re volves inside the can.

The most usual freezing mixture employed is of coarse freezing salt and ice, about one-third of salt to two-thirds of ice; more salt may be used if a very sharp frost is needed, but too much salt melts the ice. The ice is broken with the ice pick into pieces not smaller than a large walnut. The freezing mixture is used in layers in a tub. Care must always be taken that no salt gets into the mixture. The paddle or spatula is used for mixing and to maintain a smooth creamy mixture.

Varieties of Ice-cream.-0).

Cream ices may be flavoured with vanilla, chocolate, caramel, coffee, strawberry, raspberry, orange, or in fact any fruit. They are made from cream, fruit purée or flavouring which gives the name to the ice, with sugar and colouring. Half cream and half custard may be used, or for a very economical ice, custard without cream. Standard propor tions: 2 pint fruit puree, 2 pint cream (or a pint custard and pint cream). Before serving moulded ices, the mould should be passed under cold water, so that the ice will slip out of the mould when it is unfastened.

(2) .

Mousses, Parfaits.—These are not frozen in ice machines. For souffles the mixture is put into large or small soufflé cases, for mousses into bombe moulds, and placed in an ice cave to become cold. When packed with the freezing mixture the cave should be covered with coarse house-flannel or blanket. Parfaits are flavoured with liqueurs and fruit purees.

(3). Water Ices, Sorbets.—There are many varieties, viz., lemon, orange, jam, pineapple, strawberry, or indeed any fruit, and tea. Sorbets are flavoured with liqueur and frozen rough. Standard proportions: 2 lb. loaf sugar and 1 pint of water boiled for syrup, I gill fruit juice and the white of two eggs.

Factory Ice-cream.

Both in the United States and Great Britain ice-cream is made in great volume for popular consump tion. Ice-cream, sold in large quantities, is made from a stand ard mixture of milk, cream and sugar, to which flavourings and colouring-matters are added. Eggs and custards are also used in some of the factory sorts.

The mixture is first sterilized in enormous vats. By means of large pipes this is passed through a cooling chamber into vats holding Ioo gal. each and is kept moving until cold. It then rests for 24 hours, when the creamy mass is again passed through large pipes into vessels, whence it is easily poured as needed into large cylindrical pans, which are taken on trolleys into freezing rooms. Machinery is so arranged that hands never touch the ices.

(E. G. C.) In America the mixture is first standardized in a tank and packed into pasteurizers where it is held for a period of time at about 148° in order to kill harmful bacteria. The mixture then passes through a machine known as the "homogenizer" or "viscol izer," which breaks up the globules of fat and makes for a smoother product. The mixture is still hot and must be cooled and in order to do this quickly it is dropped over the outer sur face of a series of pipes containing cold brine. These pipes are arranged one above the other so that there is a fall of about 8 ft., during which the temperature is lowered about zoo°. It next passes into tanks, holding usually about I ,000 gal. each, in which a revolving coil operates to keep the mix in motion until ready to be frozen. From these holding tanks, or "agitators," the mix passes to the room where the ice-cream freezers are placed. The sugar is placed in the mix in the standardizing room and the flavour is added to the mix at the freezer. The freezers or con tainers are placed in a hardening room, constructed of concrete and lined with cork. The temperature, controlled by a brine refrigerating system, ranges from io to 20 degrees below zero. The cans and moulds from the freezer rooms, placed in the harden ing room, are shipped directly out to the retailer. There are two generally accepted grades of ice-cream; Philadelphia, which is cream, sugar and flavour; and French, which is practically the same formula but to which has been added a heavy custard.