Air - Ice Cream Key Ingredient
Air is possibly the most important ingredient of all in ice cream.
It wasn't until I got involved in actually making ice cream that I ever thought
about this! The truth is that without air, ice cream would just be solid with
no visual appeal and no inviting texture.
The best quality ice cream has the least air in
it – around
20 percent. In fact, in most countries there is actually a legal limit as to how
much air commercial ice cream can contain. As I understand it, the limit
is generally accepted as being 50 percent.
When making your homemade ice cream, bear in mind that how much you beat
it (hand method) or how long you churn/freeze it for (electric ice cream
maker) will affect how much air goes into it. Also how much mixture you
place in your ice cream maker bucket will have a bearing – I generally
fill mine around 2/3 full (depending upon the recipe) so
that by the time it’s
batched the ice cream almost fills the bucket. This gives me no more than
about 30 percent air content.
The wonderful thing about making your own ice cream is that you can experiment
with this idea and find out for yourself just how much your ice cream's
taste and texture is affected by the air you mix into it.
Some pages with more detailed information on the intracacies of ice cream making which you might find useful:
Storing Ice Cream ~ Rippling ~ When Ice Cream Is Too Hard