3 ms·

Yeah, the secret of a good ice cream is the egg and cream custard, and churning while it freezes. Which does make it a bit of a pain, but well worth it.

irons 2y ago
My go-to ice cream book is Jeni Britton-Bauer's https://jenis.com/products/jenis-splendid-ice-creams-at-home https://jenis.com/products/jenis-splendid-ice-creams-at-home (which won a James Beard award), and her base for all but a few custard recipes is milk, cream, sugar, starch, and cream cheese. I love eggs, but they are not a required element of top-shelf ice cream.
- fn-mote 2y ago
  Starch and cream cheese?! Whoa. Talk about secret ingredients.
- mhuffman 2y ago
  I have also seen sweetened condensed milk used as a base for some really good ice creams.
- zabzonk 2y ago
  starch has no place in home-made ice cream, though it is there in various forms in commercial ones. cream cheese might be a good idea though. i once made smoked salmon ice cream (intended as a starter) which i could imagine being improved with a bit of cheese.
  - yareally 2y ago
    I think he means corn starch (which is also common in gelato made without eggs). There's better stabilizers out there, but Jeni suggested in her book the most common people can find. The cream cheese is for adding more milk solids and most cream cheese has some stabilizers in it as well. Something like a 4:2:1 ratio of locus bean gum, guar gum and lambda carrigean makes a good stabilizer. About a gram of LBG per quart Jeni's books have some great ideas for recipes, but if you're interested in the science behind ice cream making the recipe book by Dana Cree is much more informative Most (but not all) good recipes also measure in mass (grams) instead of volume. Super easy to measure and less dishes to wash when you put the bowl on a scale and keep hitting tare after each inclusion. https://www.amazon.com/Hello-My-Name-Ice-Cream/dp/0451495373 https://www.amazon.com/Hello-My-Name-Ice-Cream/dp/0451495373
yumraj 2y ago
I always worry about uncooked eggs in ice cream, so don’t use it. Not sure if the fear is justified.
- alpha_squared 2y ago
  Custard-based ice creams will often include some cooking so that you're not using raw eggs, but something closer in cooking to runny eggs (e.g. sunny-side up).
- zabzonk 2y ago
  so you would not eat home-made mayonnaise? or a sunny-side-up egg? classic French omelet (raw egg in the middle)? custard is always cooked, just slowly.
  - aziaziazi 2y ago
    > classic French omelet (raw egg in the middle) Are you referring the omelette baveuse (drooling)? They’re not supposed to be totally raw, you just stop the cooking a bit earlier, maybe 10 seconds before a normal omelette. Don’t add raw eggs at the end. I’m not a cook but that’s my local experience in restaurants and my kitchen during three decades. Perhaps a regional recipe?
    - zabzonk 2y ago
      Everyone has their own best omlette recipe - Elizabeth David :) mine is hers, except i whisk the eggs more before putting them in the pan
      - aziaziazi 2y ago
        Haha true! Googling Elizabeth’s raw eggs seems absent but probably some people do that. By the way she call it "omelet Molière" but I can’t find that recipe in any French cookbook, I guess it’s her creation. However "œuf (egg) Molière" is a classic, but has nothing in common with an omelet but the egg.
alpha_squared 2y ago
> the secret of a good ice cream is the egg and cream custard For French-style ice cream that's a must, but American ice creams index heavier on the cream/fat content and don't use a custard base. For American ice creams, I've found a good fat percentage is around 27% fat. That's a blend of about two cups heavy cream (@40% fat) for every cup of whole milk (@3% fat).
- yareally 2y ago
  One can also use sunflower or soy letchin instead of eggs. Letchin is the protein that provides the emulsification properties for eggs. You still get the creamy texture without the egg taste. It's beneficial for fruit ice creams or anywhere you don't want the egg taste to overpower everything else. Letchin also does not need to be tempered like eggs so I toss it in with the rest of the dry ingredients. Are you sure you're using 27% butterfat? Even ultra high premium ice cream is only 15-18%. I'm using about 15% for non fruit ice cream and I'm not using eggs, just letchin. https://www.dreamscoops.com/ice-cream-science/fat-in-ice-cream/ https://www.dreamscoops.com/ice-cream-science/fat-in-ice-cre...

irons 2y ago

My go-to ice cream book is Jeni Britton-Bauer's https://jenis.com/products/jenis-splendid-ice-creams-at-home https://jenis.com/products/jenis-splendid-ice-creams-at-home (which won a James Beard award), and her base for all but a few custard recipes is milk, cream, sugar, starch, and cream cheese. I love eggs, but they are not a required element of top-shelf ice cream.

fn-mote 2y ago
Starch and cream cheese?! Whoa. Talk about secret ingredients.
mhuffman 2y ago
I have also seen sweetened condensed milk used as a base for some really good ice creams.
zabzonk 2y ago
starch has no place in home-made ice cream, though it is there in various forms in commercial ones. cream cheese might be a good idea though. i once made smoked salmon ice cream (intended as a starter) which i could imagine being improved with a bit of cheese.
- yareally 2y ago
  I think he means corn starch (which is also common in gelato made without eggs). There's better stabilizers out there, but Jeni suggested in her book the most common people can find. The cream cheese is for adding more milk solids and most cream cheese has some stabilizers in it as well. Something like a 4:2:1 ratio of locus bean gum, guar gum and lambda carrigean makes a good stabilizer. About a gram of LBG per quart Jeni's books have some great ideas for recipes, but if you're interested in the science behind ice cream making the recipe book by Dana Cree is much more informative Most (but not all) good recipes also measure in mass (grams) instead of volume. Super easy to measure and less dishes to wash when you put the bowl on a scale and keep hitting tare after each inclusion. https://www.amazon.com/Hello-My-Name-Ice-Cream/dp/0451495373 https://www.amazon.com/Hello-My-Name-Ice-Cream/dp/0451495373

yumraj 2y ago

I always worry about uncooked eggs in ice cream, so don’t use it. Not sure if the fear is justified.

alpha_squared 2y ago
Custard-based ice creams will often include some cooking so that you're not using raw eggs, but something closer in cooking to runny eggs (e.g. sunny-side up).
zabzonk 2y ago
so you would not eat home-made mayonnaise? or a sunny-side-up egg? classic French omelet (raw egg in the middle)? custard is always cooked, just slowly.
- aziaziazi 2y ago
  > classic French omelet (raw egg in the middle) Are you referring the omelette baveuse (drooling)? They’re not supposed to be totally raw, you just stop the cooking a bit earlier, maybe 10 seconds before a normal omelette. Don’t add raw eggs at the end. I’m not a cook but that’s my local experience in restaurants and my kitchen during three decades. Perhaps a regional recipe?
  - zabzonk 2y ago
    Everyone has their own best omlette recipe - Elizabeth David :) mine is hers, except i whisk the eggs more before putting them in the pan
    - aziaziazi 2y ago
      Haha true! Googling Elizabeth’s raw eggs seems absent but probably some people do that. By the way she call it "omelet Molière" but I can’t find that recipe in any French cookbook, I guess it’s her creation. However "œuf (egg) Molière" is a classic, but has nothing in common with an omelet but the egg.

alpha_squared 2y ago

> the secret of a good ice cream is the egg and cream custard For French-style ice cream that's a must, but American ice creams index heavier on the cream/fat content and don't use a custard base. For American ice creams, I've found a good fat percentage is around 27% fat. That's a blend of about two cups heavy cream (@40% fat) for every cup of whole milk (@3% fat).

yareally 2y ago
One can also use sunflower or soy letchin instead of eggs. Letchin is the protein that provides the emulsification properties for eggs. You still get the creamy texture without the egg taste. It's beneficial for fruit ice creams or anywhere you don't want the egg taste to overpower everything else. Letchin also does not need to be tempered like eggs so I toss it in with the rest of the dry ingredients. Are you sure you're using 27% butterfat? Even ultra high premium ice cream is only 15-18%. I'm using about 15% for non fruit ice cream and I'm not using eggs, just letchin. https://www.dreamscoops.com/ice-cream-science/fat-in-ice-cream/ https://www.dreamscoops.com/ice-cream-science/fat-in-ice-cre...