Thursday, January 2, 2014

The Cold Facts About Ice Cream

By Marquerite Velasquez


While you probably already knew that ice cream was one of the most popular sweet treats in the United States, you might not realize that the average American eats about 20 quarts of ice cream each year. Your local ice cream shop as well as the local grocery store sells a wide variety of ice cream and related treats and here are some facts about these tasty treats.

Ice cream, to be officially labeled as such, should contain 10 percent and can even be more, of milk fat. Sweeteners make up an additional 12-16 percent of the ingredients in this product, but one of the ingredients found in ice cream, and can be considered the main ingredient, is actually air. A similar product, labeled as ice milk, is a treat that will contain less than 10 percent of milk fat in it. This is a product that often is called low fat ice cream product, and is not only low fat but also often a lower priced product. Sugar and other sweetener content in ice milk is the same as that in ice cream, so while the fat might be lower, the calories are about the same.

A product containing less milk fat compared to ice cream but containing more sugar or sweetener than ice milk or ice cream is sherbet, a product that is also a frozen treat. A frozen dessert product from frozen fruit juice or sweetened fruit puree is called sorbet, and this is also a frozen treat you can find in your local ice cream stores. For those who do not eat dairy products, this can be a nice alternate, although this is not truly ice cream.

There are other interesting treats out there that are similar to ice cream, such as frozen custard. This confection has the cream and sugar similar to ice cream, but it also contains eggs. Frozen custard typically is a bit denser in consistency than ice cream. This treat was invented in Coney Island in the early 20th century by two ice cream vendors who found that adding eggs improved the texture of their ice cream and it also seemed to help the treat stay cold for a longer period of time.

Another frozen delight that Americans love is gelato, a product that is also a favorite in Italy. This is a frozen product similar to American ice cream but with less air in the product, and it may be interesting to note that gelato is also "ice cream" in Italian. It also can be frozen custard with egg yolks added, much like with zabaione where it contains sweet wine.

If you are searching for the best ice cream treats in the Los Angeles area, head over to YoKuMon, a unique Culver City ice cream shop. This ice cream store offers a gourmet ice cream cookie sandwich priced at just $2. The ice cream in this product is rich and creamy and the cookies that the sandwiches are made of are the freshly baked throughout the day. Different varieties of the cookies are available and also you can pair your favorite cookies with your favorite flavor of ice cream to create the ideal ice cream sandwich for you.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment