Darienne

OK. I like that definition. I can comprehend it with having to sit in a darkened silent room. Plain simple language. Understandable example. Now, Paul, my Ice Cream mentor (along with Jon), please do the same for stabilizer and emulsifier. And I take it that one ingredient can be both stabilizer and hydrocolloid? Marshall lists under stabilizers: "cellulose gum (the primary hydrocolloid)...polysorbate 80 (the emulsifiers)". Do any familiar ingredients play that role? You know, stuff like cornstarch, cream, etc. Thanks.

That's a lot of booze...I usually use about 1 or 2 T per quart, for flavor when necessary and for texture. My ice cream or sorbet always has a pinch of salt. I'm just not as maniacal as others, seeing as I'm a home cook. Funny how no one ever seems to complain about my ice creams or sorbets - as a matter of fact, they usually ask for more . ← You are completely correct. That is a LOT of booze. Could that be part of the yummy taste? I didn't realize that it contained so much liqueur until I was actually making it. I have a difficult time sometimes getting the recipe into my head before I use it. Bad, bad habit. Each time I castigate myself and tell myself to read and digest the recipe carefully before being in the middle of it. Obviously myself does not listen well. I am not only a home cook, I am a 'late come to it in life' home cook. With no background in cooking. My Mother didn't like to cook. I came to my marriage being able to make a simple salad dressing and that was it. My DH taught me how to cook. As for folks liking what one makes...even the mistakes are devoured with gusto!

Thank you for the information. Truthfully, I have never cooked before by percentages...in fact, I spent most of my adult years cooking as little as possible. This obsession with cooking is still new to me and I have so much to learn with no background to fall back on. It will come...slowly... My best bet currently is to do just what you suggest, try it as written, and then make notes. A longtime habit. And go back and reread all the information I can find on the topic. ← To return to the Pomegranate Gelato: Did the ice cream maker thing last night and it tasted delicious. This morning, it was still soft, softer than any other made so far. And that on...well, I couldn't help myself...on 2 tablespoons of cornstarch instead of the 1 1/2 it called for or the 3 I was wanting to use. One other adjustment I made, following as always the excellent advice of Paul, was to substitute a couple of tablespoons of corn syrup in the sugar amount called for. It called for a pinch of salt. It called for liqueur. 1/3 cup in fact. Maybe that's why it is so soft. Not too soft, but any softer and it would be. Next time I work in the milk solids according to Paul's formula: 25G/QT. Who knew? It certainly is more fun than writing reports.

If you prefer the texture of philly style ice cream, and plan to eat it right away, and are happy to adjust your serving temperature to whatever suits any given ice cream recipe ... then you can get away with just milk, cream, and sugar. But if you want additional control over texture, then you're going to be adding emulsifiers and stabilizers. Period. That's what the eggs are in French style ice cream. Emulsification, stabilization, texture modification. I just don't happen to think eggs are the most elegant choice for this purpose, begause they taste like F'ing eggs! I don't want my ice cream to taste like cooked egg yolk. Egg custard does create a wonderful texture. I haven't found a perfect substitute, so I minimize the eggs rather than eliminate them. I find that I don't taste them when there's only a couple per quart. I make up the difference with minute amounts of hydrocolloids, which are able to modify texture without adding or diluting flavors. With this kind of combination, I can get the precise texture I want, without any flavor penalty. The resistance to deflation and ice crystal formation is just a fringe benefit. Some other ingredients I use pretty religiously: -nonfat dry milk. It lets you control the disolved solids, which influences the sense of body, and also the freezing point. A little bit helps keep the ice cream from being rock hard at normal serving temperature (6 to 10 degrees F). -alcohol, either as vodka or as vanilla extract (which I make with vodka). Fine tunes freezing point without affecting body. May also intensify some volatile aromas. -salt! Balances and intensifies most other flavors. I think it's criminal to leave it out of desserts. My ice creams have about 1/10 % salt by weight. Too little to notice; enough to make a difference. ← Thanks as usual, for the excellent information Paul. I googled 'hydrocolloids' to see just what they are...once again...and to get some examples of same. Found a download of many of the pages of the 6th edition of Marshall, Goff & Hartel and tried to read them...all before breakfast too. Heavy going for those of us who are becoming increasingly intellectually challenged...

Thank you for the information. Truthfully, I have never cooked before by percentages...in fact, I spent most of my adult years cooking as little as possible. This obsession with cooking is still new to me and I have so much to learn with no background to fall back on. It will come...slowly... My best bet currently is to do just what you suggest, try it as written, and then make notes. A longtime habit. And go back and reread all the information I can find on the topic.

Just made the mixture for Pomegranate Gelato. In my own inimitable way, I did not read the recipe CAREFULLY before starting...just zipped through it...and then realized that it called for only 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to 3 1/2 cups of liquid: milk, cream, pomegranate juice, lemon juice & liqueur. Gosh I thought. Surely that's not enough cornstarch. DL's Fleur de Lait calls for 3 tablespoons for 3 cups of liquid. As the mixture was cooling, I went back into my Gelato recipe folder and called up one recipe after another. So, although some of them called for 3 tablespoons of cornstarch, many called for only 2. OK. So now we see if it will work or not. My gut instinct was telling me to reheat the mixture with another tablespoon of cornstarch, but my more investigative side said: nope, give it a chance. You'll eat it even if it doesn't come together. I suppose I could also reheat and add cornstarch to it even after it's been in the ice cream maker???

Now that is brilliant!!!!

I like this trick and use it in some recipes. In a couple of cases when I've used too high a proportion of the dry milk the results tasted bitter, so I try not to go too far. Another approach is one Michael Laiskonis uses ... he reduces and browns cream instead of butter. It's a bit more effort, but the yield in milk solids vs. fat is much higher ← Thanks Paul. I read about Laiskonis reducing and browning cream in his blog. At least I can understand what it means now.

Thanks. Found it. A practical and clear application of the browned butter issue.

Well, that's a lot of useful replies. Now I have to try it. I saw it on the Bake-Off for Shortbread Cookies and thought it was about time I figured out what it was. Thanks

I looked it up on search and on google and just got more enmeshed in too many answers to figure it out. Please tell me if it has many variants, if it is one thing, how you make it, why should you make it, etc. I'm learning as fast as I can........

Interesting that Darienne mentioned sugar above, I wonder if there is a direct trade-off between salt and sugar content in these products across regions. ← I have never thought about the salt content issue, although it is obviously critical to our health, but have been following the sugar issue for some years now. A friend brought us a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream a couple of years ago, and I found it not like our Canadian version. Talked to the folks at the Ontario Liquor Board and they explained that Bailey exports their product made with a different formula to Canada and the US, the US obviously having more sugar in theirs. And so on and so on. I am horrified by the salt content problem, although like probably the majority of folks on eGullet, we eat very few packaged foods. Hmmmm...I know also that the American standards for ingredient disclosure in foods are stricter than the Canadian standards...so who knows what we are ingesting in Canada even in basic ingredients.

Well, hello Valerie, I didn't realize that this was your very first post until I read Kerry's reply. Welcome to the most amazing forum that I have ever come across!!

Thanks. That makes it clear.

which may very well be quoted from Cookwise. Alternatively, if we can agree that custard style ice-creams are referred to as French ice cream, then that leaves NY style, Philadelphia style and American style as non custard based ice creams. ← Someone will simply have to write Ms Damerow a note.

Michael Laiskonis's blog is a treasure trove. He knows more about ice cream than anyone else I've encountered. The Alinea book also has some well-studied recipes and approaches. There's a French book that's supposed to be the holy grail of high end ice cream, but its price has so far put it out of my reach. Unfortunately, most pastry chefs seem to buy pre-blended stabilizer mixes. Undoubtedly the blends include well tested mixes of gums and other colloids. But I don't like the approach. It's like buying curry powder instead of mixing your own spices. It puts you at the mercy of a company's whims (what if they change the formula?) and it cheats you out of any opportunity to learn about the individual ingredients. I've been working it out on my own ... starting with basic home recipes like David Lebovitz's, and gradually tweaking them, with knowledge picked up here and there, to improve the flavor and texture. So far I've gotten pretty comfortable manipulating cornstarch, xanthan, and gelatin. I hope to get my hands on some other potions eventually. I doubt anything out there will magically create textures that I like more than what i get now, but some may well do a better job preventing ice crystal growth, or graininess with brown butter flavors, etc. etc. ← Thanks paulraphael for all the information. I'll look up Laiskonis's blog now.

I don't think I am ready to play with the big kids yet. I found LBG =locust bean gum...I guess I could get that...and CMC = carboxymethycellulose...OMG I have no idea of what that is. Nor do I understand: carrageenan = kappa + iota for low fat bases, lambda for full fat bases I do have a BA in ancient Greek going back many years, but don't know what the Greek alphabet is doing in this equation. Agar, gelatin, Xanthan, guar, carrageenan...I know these...and perhaps even sodium alginate, but the others are not in my sphere of knowledge at all. Aaarrgghh But thanks for try...

Hello Weinoo, I am a Philadelphia style ice cream aficionado. My favorite vanilla ice cream recipe is that of Alton Brown, 'Serious Vanilla Ice Cream'. 2 cups half & half and one cup heavy cream. I then add whatever flavoring or inclusions to that mixture, my favorite so far being an adaptation of DL's Orange and Szechwan Pepper Ice cream. Other variations have included adding candied this or that. One small point: although I can find no reference to New York style ice cream in DL, Gail Damerow in Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop, refers to New York ice cream as being a custard ice cream with eggs. I have to admit that recently I have turned to making ice creams/ gelati with cornstarch. Lower concentration of fat. You sound as if you are really barreling along with your ice cream making.

I was in our local Dollarama today buying timers...I keep dropping them...the last one in the current ice cream makings...and saw a lady walking out with her purchases put into a wire basket. It was rather attractive, the shape of a flower pot. And they came in various colors.

Somehow this cold dessert, ice cream/gelato, has become a new obsession. I am very interested in making said with guar gum or xanthan or the like. I'll google for recipes, but would greatly appreciate any directions in finding useful recipes. (This from a woman who scarcely ever ate ice cream since teenage years when my folks had a freezer plan complete with ice cream and I thought that ice cream was strictly from hunger.) Perhaps I'll have to start another ice cream/gelato thread... Thanks.

You certainly learn something new everyday on this forum. Add yixing pot to the list. Thank you, Wikipedia. At least, that's always a good place to start. Thanks for all the posts. DH is very happy about it. We just finished lunch, with a pot of Chinese Jasmine tea. Thanks.

What about baking soda?

I am not very practiced at any of this but I have now made ice cream/gelato about five times with cornstarch, including the last one, a Fresh Cherry Gelato which I pretty much messed up and had to go back and reheat it and add more cornstarch to it, and so far (knock on wood ) all the results have had NO grittiness and have had incredible smoothness in fact. I can't really describe how I 'cook it out', just mix it first with cold milk/cream and then do the pudding mixing sort of thing. Sorry.

My abject apologies. The teapot in question is NOT fifty years old...that's my other teapot and it's probably older than 50 years if it belonged to one of our sets of parents. The teapot we are using for Chinese tea is glazed, but it is one of those familiar Chinese designs with the translucent rice pattern in it which we bought about 35 years ago when driving to Toronto and into Chinatown was still a pleasure and not something to be done with gritted teeth and only when forced. The pot has a wrapped bamboo handle and I don't think it would withstand too many dishwasher trips. Back to the drawing board?

My teapot is very humble. It's a glazed ceramic teapot that we have owned for about 50 years...can't remember which Mother gave it to me. So far no mineral deposits in the teapot, just tea stains and my DH, somewhat of a cleanliness fanatic...although why he married me I can't imagine...doesn't think that a teapot with stains in it is clean. He'd take Comet to it if I would let him. Sorry for the shock. Otherwise he is wonderful.