The deal with soft-serve ice cream

[Fat Guy]

What's the deal with soft-serve ice cream? It seems to be looked down upon by connoisseurs, except for some who say a given place in the Midwest makes stuff worth eating. I had some Dairy Queen soft serve yesterday and thought it was pretty delicious. Where's the flaw in my taste on this issue?

[Tri2Cook]

Some people look down their nose at anything that doesn't adhere to a particular standard. Some people pretend to do that in public to keep up appearances. Some people enjoy what tastes good to them and don't really care who likes it and who doesn't. There are also those that don't like something because they just don't like it (in my opinion, that's the only legit reason to not like something). My only problem with most soft serve I've had is that some of the commercial bases have an obvious chemical taste and the majority of them seem really sweet. I haven't had DQ in a very long time, there isn't one near where I live, so I don't remember much about it.

[rotuts]

Yeh DQ can be quite good on a hot day.

but imagine Soft French Vanilla ( the good high fat stuff ) that soft!

[Holly Moore]

Soft serve can be good or not so much so. Top of the line is true frozen custard a la Shake Shack, Zwahlen's (Philly far burbs), or the relatively few other real frozen custard stands scattered around the country. Frozen custard, which requires egg content, is a richer soft serve ice cream.

Soft serve is one of those products that can be easily cheapened. Lower quality soft serve mixes, more air incorporated into the soft serve, depending on the soft serve machine and the greed of an operator.

Dairy Queen is ok, better than many. But nowhere near the character of true frozen custard.

Which brings me to a daily frustration, especially in the summer. No one in the Center City area of Philadelphia serves a true frozen custard. That, more than burgers, is the reason I am excited about Shake Shack's rumored opening a few block from my house in the second half of 2012.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I've never had an issue with soft serve, and certainly down here it's made with abundant cream, not too much sugar, and no chemicals, which is even better. Nobody here would buy oversweetened chemical gook.

I think the whole "holier than thou" attitude when it comes to soft ice cream is just food snobbery showing its ugly head - like all foods, it can be done well and it can be done horribly, but the only reason to hate it is because you actually really don't enjoy eating it.

[Chris Hennes]

To be honest, I prefer McDonald's soft serve to Dairy Queen's. But I'm not going to turn down a free cone from either!

[tim]

What's the deal with soft-serve ice cream? .... I had some Dairy Queen soft serve yesterday and thought it was pretty delicious. Where's the flaw in my taste on this issue?

Dairy Queen is ice milk, not ice cream. Most soft serve ice creams are ice cream custard. A side by side comparison will make the differences clear.

Yes, there are many custard stands in Wisconsin with loyal customers. I think the loyalty to the local stand is just that, not food snobbery and definitely not ugly.

[HungryChris]

The way I understand it, all ice cream exits the manufacturing stage in the form of soft serve ice cream. The so called hard ice cream goes into the deep freeze to be hardened up. So it really does not make much sense to try to distinguish between hard and soft serve, because that plays little or no role in the quality of the product. When I make ice cream, I can tell when I taste it at the soft serve stage, if I am happy with it or not. If I am not pleased with it at the soft serve stage, I can be pretty sure that will not change after the hard freeze. I guess what I am saying is that you either like it or you don't and you should be able to tell the good from the bad regardless of which stage it is in.

HC

[Trev]

I don't know if it's ice milk or ice cream, but when I hear that music on a hot afternoon and see the ice cream truck rollin' down the street I can easily outrun almost any kid in the neighborhood to be the first in line. I love it whether it's from the truck, from DQ or almost any place. They're kind of different from one another but I've never met a cone I couldn't learn to love!

Edited July 18, 2011 by Trev (log)

[Lindacakes]

The texture is the thing. Didn't you take a bowl of ice cream when you were a kid and stir it like mad until it was the consistency of soft serve? So delightful.

[Tri2Cook]

The way I understand it, all ice cream exits the manufacturing stage in the form of soft serve ice cream. The so called hard ice cream goes into the deep freeze to be hardened up. So it really does not make much sense to try to distinguish between hard and soft serve, because that plays little or no role in the quality of the product.

That makes for a nice story but the reality is that a whole lot of (most?) soft serve places are mixing a powder into water and dumping it into the soft serve machine. I'm not casting judgement on it, I've had some I liked, but it is not the same critter as your average hard ice cream in most cases.

[heidih]

The texture is the thing. Didn't you take a bowl of ice cream when you were a kid and stir it like mad until it was the consistency of soft serve? So delightful.

Exactly. Also why we let the 1/2 gallon sit a bit and ate directly from the container scraping and scooping from the edges where that nirvana texture begins

As to the commercial product on the McD or the like scale - it is comfort food like mac n' cheese from a box - all creaminess plus a bit of taste.

[CaliPoutine]

To be honest, I prefer McDonald's soft serve to Dairy Queen's. But I'm not going to turn down a free cone from either!

I agree. Pretty darn good for 75 cents and only 4 Weight Watcher Points.

[nolnacs]

The texture of gelato is pretty close to soft serve and it certainly isn't being looked down upon. Perhaps soft serve just needs a fancier name....

Personally, I have always preferred the texture of soft serve ice cream - it is just more pleasant to eat. Of course, I did grow up in the midwest eating frozen custard so that probably has something to do with it as well.

[TheNoodleIncident]

To be honest, I prefer McDonald's soft serve to Dairy Queen's. But I'm not going to turn down a free cone from either!

I agree. Pretty darn good for 75 cents and only 4 Weight Watcher Points.

what about a Wendy' Frostie? Not sure where that falls regarding ice cream, ice milk, dry chemicals mixed with water, etc. - but I like it the best!

[Tri2Cook]

what about a Wendy' Frostie? Not sure where that falls regarding ice cream, ice milk, dry chemicals mixed with water, etc. - but I like it the best!

To be fair, I didn't say anything about chemicals mixed with water. I said a dry powder mixed with water.

[DanM]

I'll have to put my two cents in for Kopp's frozen custard in Milwaukee... best soft serve custard anywhere. There is nothing more entertaining than a 1.5 y/o on a sugar high after eating a good amount of frozen custard. An honorable mention to IKEA for their non fat frozen yogurt. If you want a strange look, ask them for a cinnamon bun covered in frozen yogurt.

I wonder if the issue some people have with soft serve is with shops that use commercial mixes instead of making their own. Those mixes can be quite artificial and nasty.

[thock]

Having grown up in St. Louis, Ted Drewes is my favorite frozen custard, but I can't get it in KC, where I live, now. Sheridan's just doesn't cut it.

I like soft serve. I STILL stir up my ice cream until it's like that. One thing I can't understand about my partner is that he LOVES soft serve, but doesn't get the stir-it-up thing with harder ice cream. Oh, well. Who said I needed to understand?

Tracy

[Renn]

While soft serve generally gets short shrift in the US...it's not the case in Japan, where it is the dominant ice cream style. Yes, there still are plenty of places that also use some sort of powder + liquid mix, but there are also a number of folks who give the form a bit more respect.

One of my favorites is Barnes in Sapporo:

Here, the owner only offers 2 flavors at any time. One of them is always milk to highlight the quality of the local diary.

Closer to home, sketch ice cream in Berkeley used to make wonderful, very carefully made soft serve. Unfortunately for us, they closed down shop as they decided to focus on their family. (I'm still hoping for their return one day)

[JTravel]

In this part of western NYS it has to be Abbott's Frozen Custard. Lots of locations from on the beach at Lake Ontario to the suburbs. They are even "inside" the local Bill Gray's chain of burger places.

As they say on their webpage (http://abbottscustard.com/Frozen%20Custard.htm)....

"By definition, frozen custard is ‘super premium ice cream’. In reality, it’s a concoction all its own. Frozen custard is richer and creamier than standard ice cream. It has a noticeably different texture, which we describe as velvety and smooth. This is the result of unique ingredients, slower production time and a less aerated mix ."

Not sure about all that, but it tastes good to me....and many others...and it would hit the spot for sure in this heatwave.

[threestars]

I love soft-serve ice cream! Specially DQ's Butternut flavor.

[Renn]

I guess, here in the US, we also have a tendency to prefer ice creams that are bigger, richer, and have stronger flavors. All of which makes sense considering that more and more people grow up with grocery store/baskin robbins ice cream, then move on to "discover" ice creams that are just the opposite of the high-overrun, lots of stabilizer styles. So then folks either tend to like the punch of mix ins...or the richness of low overrun, higher fat ice creams. But Soft-serve, inherently, is an excellent platform for a lighter style of ice cream. If we can let go of richness as the only measuring stick (kind of like letting go of marbling as the only measuring stick for beef), there are some pretty exciting soft serves out there.

A few more local places that do well with soft serve are Pizzeria Picco in Larkspur, Zero Zero in SF, and Hawker Fare in Oakland... The first two being in the same restaurant group have chocolate and vanilla available with differing sets of toppings. And HF, has condensed milk flavor with more South East Asian toppings.

[Alcuin]

There's a group of frozen custard places called Michael's (http://www.ilovemichaels.com/) here in the Madison, WI area. Invariably there's a long snaking line. I don't go there much because my girlfriend can't eat icecream, but it is very good.