Dining
Email
Print
What's what
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: August 14, 2008
ICE CREAM: Ice cream is made with milk, cream, sugar, flavoring and sometimes fruit and egg yolks. "Philadelphia-style" is made with cream or milk and cream, but no eggs. "French-style" ice cream starts with a cooked custard base made with cream, milk and egg yolks.
Overrun is the percent of air that gets churned into the dessert as it's made and varies depending on the ice cream. Generally lower-quality ice cream is made with more overrun (upward of 100 percent) -- that increases the volume but decreases the density of the dessert. The denser the ice cream, the more luxurious and silky it will feel in your mouth. At Blue Ridge Ice Creams here in Winston-Salem, owner Debbie Lee thinks that her ice cream has about 50 to 54 percent overrun.
Full-fat ice cream in the United States must contain a minimum of 10 percent butterfat, but premium brands can contain as much as 16 percent or more.
Ice cream is served between 2 and 5 degrees F, according to Malcolm Stogo, an ice-cream consultant in New Jersey.
Gelato and ice-cream shops around Winston-Salem tend to make their treats with a commercial base (often containing powdered milk and stabilizers) instead of starting with a custard. Sometimes they then add milk, cream, sugar, fruit and flavorings to it.
GELATO: Italian-style ice cream is often made in a different machine than ice cream. Overrun for milk-based gelato is 35 to 40 percent, while fruit-based gelato should be 25 to 30 percent, according to Wanda Cropper, the assistant dean of baking and pastry arts at Johnson and Wales University's Charlotte campus.
Gelato is served at a higher temperature than ice cream, usually around 12 degrees, Stogo said.
Traditional flavors include gianduja (hazelnut and milk chocolate), fior di latte (sweet cream), pistachio and frutti di bosco ("fruit of the woods," or mixed berries).
Fruit-based gelato, made without dairy, is called sorbetto -- basically, sorbet.
Gelato generally has lower butterfat than ice cream, between 4 and 10 percent butterfat, Stogo said.
FROZEN CUSTARD: Also sometimes called "French-style" ice cream, frozen custard in U.S. legally has to contain 1.4 percent egg-yolk solids. Overrun in frozen custard is typically around 20 percent, making it a very dense frozen dessert compared to most commercial ice cream.
Like gelato, frozen custard is typically served at a higher temperature than ice cream and sometimes higher than gelato.
Frozen custard is especially popular in the Midwest and the Northeast.
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
N.C. Politics
Federal Politics
Advertisement
