Infrequently have store bought ice cream, so color me surprised when I had some - and it was soft.
Infrequently have store bought ice cream, so color me surprised when I had some - and it was soft. Not soft serve custard soft, did you leave this out and it got soft soft. Straight out of the freezer. Is this a thing, now? The chemical composition of hard ice cream is meant for it not to be hard? Because, ew. That is one nasty texture. If I want hard ice cream, I want hard ice cream. The fat and sugar and whatnot keep it from becoming inedibly hard, but it has that long lasting slow melting thing. Only now it doesn't. Good thing I don't eat it often.
The ice cream we buy is certainly "the cheap stuff" and it is softer the first night we have it, most likely due to the time it takes to get it home and back in the fridge. We actually prefer it that way, though. It is not overly-soft, just about the consistency it would be from a parlor shop, instead of hard-as-a-brick like it is the next day.
ReplyDeleteI want it hard! (Hi, Matt Schaefer )
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, I want something that takes a little effort to scoop and there seems to be a trend toward mitigating the effort to scoop. Maybe not with premium, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteHistorical note: before American brands like, first, Haagen Dazs and later Ben and jerrie's, arrived on the continent, all our ice cream was Italian style and would need maybe fifteen to twenty minutes of defrosting before it would be soft enough to even scoop.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that over the past five to ten years ago, that same ice cream — starting with the more expensive stuff and moving slowly on down to the cheaper stuff — is now usually scoopable straight from the freezer.
It sounds like you guys have gone through the same thing.
Jasper Janssen actually, at least in my lifetime, the situation is the opposite. Cheap stuff is easier to scoop because it contains more air, and probably that gum stuff Mike Kozlowski talks about. More expensive stuff is harder, although not to the point of being a block of ice (like you get if you make ice cream yourself and put it in the freezer.)
ReplyDeleteIn addition to all the gums, it does seem like a lot of brands are going for the whipped texture profile. Probably the food scientists who create these ice cream-like substances have studies showing that consumers prefer the greater spoonability and mouthfeel, plus the ROI on airier ice creams is greater.
ReplyDeleteWhat brands have specifically gone for the whipped texture? It seems like the high end brands are still the thicker ice creams, in my experience.
ReplyDeleteDavid Scotton Breyer's (which used to be a high-end brand), any of those "Slow-Churned" things, this local Moomer's stuff that's famous that I had recently.
ReplyDeleteMike Kozlowski's assessment seems about right. Obviously, I have not been invited to participate in their focus groups, because that texture grosses me out. Like, I have the five year old I want to spit it out reaction.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't consider Breyer's a premium brand. True, part of the reason I disqualify it is because of its texture, but the other big reason is that it's sold in those 1.75 quart containers (or at least I thought it used to be... now apparently it's 1.5 quarts). To me one of the hallmarks of a premium brand is that it's primarily sold in pints.
ReplyDeleteThe stuff that's sold in pints is not so much the "more expensive stuff" I was referring to but more the "ridiculously expensive" stuff. We didn't have that kind of stuff at all before Haagen Dazs attempted to expand into the European market with their American style super-high-fat-content ice cream.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet the stuff sold in Europe is better than here. There seem to be regulations over there that have that effect on many food items.
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