“I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for…ICE CREAM”

The blazing heat of the summer season usually makes ice cream a go-to dessert. Or maybe you are an ice cream maverick and eat it all year long, regardless of the season. Nevertheless, it is a tasty dessert that continues to challenge our palates with creative flavors. What exactly makes a perfect ice cream, besides flavor? Some would say the texture, others would say the taste, maybe its density, or that it must have high quality ingredients. None of that matters if there isn’t a mastery of the science behind ice cream. That’s right, I said it…the SCIENCE is what makes a great ice cream great. In fact, there is a whole specialty of science dedicated to studying the physical, biological , and chemical composition of food. It’s called (drum roll please) food science! So obvious, right? Various scientific disciplines, including chemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, and engineering contribute to the world of food science.

So what has the world of food science mastered when it comes to making a great ice cream you ask? Good question, by the way. Well it turns out that each component, or characteristic, of ice cream is combined to create what is called a complex colloidal system. Essentially, it’s a mixture. Let’s briefly cover some of those components:

1. Air content/overrun – about 30% to 50% of ice cream is made of air bubbles in order for it it to have a smooth texture . Too much or too little air makes ice cream melt quickly and tasteless or too dense and hard.
2. Emulsifiers and Stabilizers – they help obtain a particular consistency for your ice cream by binding water water with solids, such as fats.
3. Fat globules – ice cream has fat droplets that have been emulsified and are important for the delivery of flavor, richness, its stability and the creamy texture.
4. Sugars – liquid sugars are important, not only because of the obvious sweetness they contribute, but they also lower water’s freezing point. This decreases the ice that could form. So in food science there is a scale to measure the sweetening contribution of sugar and a scale to measure the anti-freezing contribution of sugar

Of course you can delve in to more detail about the various scientific processes and concepts that have created this beloved dessert, which I encourage you to do. In the meantime, make sure to give credit where its due when it comes to your next scoop of that delicious complex colloidal system. That’s right, give it up for science.