Experimental cookery

The ice and salt may be mixed together before putting in the freezer, but a better way of packing is to fill the freezer half full of ice, then add a layer of salt. The ice and salt are then added in alternate layers until the top is reached. The water from the melting ice w^ashes the salt towards the bottom of the freezer, and once it reaches the bottom it is of small use for cooling purposes. Therefore, it is preferable to pack the freezer with the salt towards the top. Mousse. For packing home-made mousse, the proportion of salt to ice must be large, 1 to 3 or even 1 to 2. Whipped cream which has air beaten into it is added to a mousse. The mousse is molded and often is not stirred while freezing, although it may be stirred very slowly. Heat or cold penetrates more slowly to the center of a mixture that is not stirred. FAT 89 In addition, the air and the high fat content of the whipped cream are poor conductors of heat and cold. Thus a mousse requires a low tempera- ture and long time to cool. The ice and salt may need to be repacked unless set where the air is cold. The Composition of Ice Cream A simple home-made ice cream may be made with cream, sugar, and flavoring. Flavoring is added to increase the palatability. The flavoring may be extracts, fruit, or nuts. Sometimes egg is added to home-made ice cream. Cream containing 17 to 20 per cent butter fat, or if not homogenized, 22 per cent fat, gives a good home-made ice cream. Washburn states that the weight of sugar added may be one-sixth of the weight of the cream. Three-fourths of a cup of sugar to a quart of cream gives about this proportion, and this produces an average sweetness. The serum solids usually average about 6 per cent in home-made ice cream. Sommer states that a good commercial ice cream is obtained with the following proportions: Fat 12.5% Serum solids 10.0 Sugar 16.0 Gelatin 0.25 to 0.50 Egg yolk solids 0.50 Total solids 39 . 25 to 39 . 50% Sommer also states that a richer ice cream has not proved generally successful because of the higher cost, but is preferred by many consumers. In the richer cream the fat is increased to 16 per cent and the serum solids reduced to 8 per cent. Although Sommer recommends the egg yolk solids, many manufacturers omit them. Gelatin, called a binder, is used to prevent coarse crystallization. Commercial ice cream must have condensed-milk or dry-milk products added to raise the serum solids to 8 or 10 per cent. The milk solids include the butter fat, the milk proteins, the milk sugar, and the ash; serum solids exclude the fat; total solids of ice cream include the milk solids and the added sugar. The total solids vary, but Sommer states they should not exceed 41 per cent. Each of the ingredients of the milk and also the added sugar has an effect on the body and the texture of the ice cream. The ingredients likewise affect the flavor. The Flavor of the Ice Cream Fat. The flavor of the ice cream is influenced by the ingredients that go into it. They should be free of foreign odors and flavors. Ambrose states that "increase in butter fat gives the richness of flavor that can be ob- tained in no other way." 90 FREEZING