- Emulsifiers such as egg yolks and di-glycerides can be added to ice cream to contribute to a creamy mouthfeel and good meltdown characteristics.
- The sugars used in ice cream are far more important than just providing flavour! Lactose (sugar in milk) lowers the freezing point making the ice cream easier to scoop, and using monosaccharides (fructose or glucose) results in softer ice cream than if disaccharides like sucrose were used.
- The size of the ice crystals matters to you! The smaller the crystals, the less detectable it is to your tongue, which means that the ice cream will feel creamier and less grainy. If you want ice cream with the smallest crystals, use liquid nitrogen!!
- Ice cream is both a foam and an emulsion! It is only partly frozen, and the majority of the space is occupied by air bubbles and ice crystals.
- Stabilizers are used to prevent the icy taste in ice cream. Some examples are stabilizers used today are locust bean gum, extracts from brown kelp, red algae or Irish Moss, and guar gum.
Written by: Emma Khazzam, 4th year Food Science Student
Source: https://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/STAO/icecream.html