February 5, 2015 • 42 mins
We all scream for ice cream, sure, but did you know we're all technically screaming about a colloidal foam? Prepare for deep cravings that will surely emerge as you learn the history of ice cream, how to make it yourself and lots more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you Stuff you should Know from house Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry.
So this is stuff you should know, The Dreaming of
Summer in the Middle of Winter edition. Oh my friend,
(00:23):
ice cream is a year round treat for me? Yeah
sure from Oh yeah, what you have? We're gonna buzz
market a lot, probably Rocky Road and vividly Vanilla. What
brand is? Oh? Yeah? Yeah, there were the lists ms.
Was it heavier? Light? It was light? After reading this,
I was like, man, this is very light, a lot
(00:45):
of air in there. I taught myself to juggle with them.
Oh well, that's exciting. That was a cross reference. Yeah,
I'm I've been a Jerry's guy. Well, yeah, it's great stuff. Yeah.
I can't have too much of it though, because I
got the lactose issues. Really. Yeah, and ice cream is
your favorite treat? Yeah, it's pretty sad. That's that's self hate. Yeah,
(01:06):
ice cream followed by a large glass of milk, right,
just then you just inject a bunch of casines directly
into your neck. Yeah, I mean it's not like I
don't have lactose issues such that any kind of milk product. Really,
it's just if I overdose on it, Like if I
have a a bunch of like pizza and ice cream
or something. What do they call it, like mildly sensitive
(01:28):
maybe maybe mildly intolerant. Yeah, I get the poopy butt
like like you're you're cool with like, um, lactose at work,
but you don't want lactose Marry and your your kid.
You're that kind of intolerant to exactly. I just don't
want to live in next door to me. I can
I can get a I can do a pint of
(01:48):
ice cream though, and or is it the half point
the Ben and Jerry's but little one? I think it's
a point. Is a point a little not the little
baby one that's just like a fistful on that on seven? Yeah, right,
I think it's a point, is what they sell them. Yeah,
I can do a pint of like the Chubby Hubby,
that's my old favorite. That's a good one. Um. Well,
basically any Ben and Jerry's is good. I'm not a
(02:10):
big fan of cherries and stuff me neither. Um. But
other than that, I'm like pretty cool with with all
ice cream. And I used to not like bananas and things,
but now I'm like, I'm cool with bananas. Yeah, like
bananas an ice cream I would never have eaten before
and now I will. I'm pretty picky with my ice
cream flavors. I'm trying to think of one I really
(02:32):
don't like, and nothing's coming to mind except for stuff
with cherry in it. Yeah. I don't like mint um crazy.
I don't like coconut crazy. Uh. My favorite is the
Chubby Hubby. And then they have, you know, have the
limited runs. Uh. They have one out now called Candy
Bar Pie. Candy Bar Pie, Like what kind of candy
bar is I don't know. It's got nugat in it. Um.
(02:56):
It doesn't taste like a specific candy bar though. It's
not like they're trying to be like a Snicker's ice
cream sneakily. It just tastes. It's just delicious. Nice. I
like butterfinger and ice cream. Yeah, what about so like
places to get ice cream? Jenny's is delicious. Where is that?
They have it here on the West Side over by
(03:16):
Star Provisions, And they got a new one in or
in a croc Street market. There's a place in old
town Alexandria outside of DC called Pops. It's like an
old timey ice cream parlor. Awesome. I think I went
in there actually last summer. It's awesome. But it did
not did they have like candy and all that stuff? Um?
(03:36):
Or is it just an ice cream? It's pretty much
just ice cream. There's like a couple of like long cases.
They've got like the old like turn of the last century,
like furniture and everything in the striped wallpaper like they're
doing it right. But then their ice cream stands behind
it too. It's good. Uh. And then of course Friendlies, Yeah,
Friendlies has the Reese's Piece of Sunday, which is probably
(04:00):
be the greatest ice cream treat ever created in a
history of humanity. Yeah. Growing up in Atlanta, they had
something called Farrel's, which was they have those. They had
that in Ohio too, And on your birthday they'd come
out with that big drum, scare me to death. It
went under the table, old school ice cream parlor, scaring
the Bejesus of children every year. Now they had a
(04:22):
lot of candy selection too. Yeah, man, let's just talk
about let's just not even do this. Let's just talk
about ice cream. We love. I like disflavor. I like disflavor.
Everyone's starving right now for it, though, I guarantee it
that intro. I have one more though. Um, have you
ever been to the Plaza Fiesta I think is what
(04:42):
it's called over on Beauford Highway. Yeah? Okay, um, they
had they have a gelato place there that had tuna
flavored gelato, raw tuna flavored gelato, and by god, it
tasted exactly like raw tuna. You're gonna say it was good.
It isn't bad, Like, yeah, if you if you like
(05:02):
seshimi or something like that, you would appreciate this. It's
not something you're like, oh man, I've got to get
some tuna flavored gelato. But you're not like it's not
like one bite and you spit it out. Yeah. Yeah,
you're just like, this is really odd but interesting, unusually tasty.
Have to try that. Yeah. My other quickly. The other
thing I like lately is a little heat in the
(05:23):
ice cream, like some of them have a little cayenne
in the chocolate or oh yeah, or with cinnamon or something. Yeah.
That and some salted caramel. I am so over salted
caramel or bacon and sweetness. I'm just so sick of
that combination. Yeah, it's all basically a rip off of
Wendy's fries and a frosty dip together. That's fine, that's
(05:47):
the original, that one like im Yeah, alright, well I'm
salivating now I am as well. Let's get through this
and we can go get some ice cream. Okay, you're buying, okay. Um,
so the history of ice cream chuck couldn't possibly have
been around. Where'd you find this? By the way, that
we need to give a good shout? Was that the
Dairy Association? Y yeah, yeah, the I think the International
(06:10):
Dairy Association, the big guy, Uh, not the regional daiies.
They came up with this. Uh, this kind of this
history of ice cream or dairy frozen dairy treats. It's
a better way to put it, because ice cream is
the lion's share of frozen dairy treats, but technically it
falls under the umbrella of frozen dairy treats along with
(06:32):
things like sherbet and gelado and frozen yogurt right there.
Um uh, ice cream sandwiches, yeah, novelties exactly, those for
good too. Um. Well, my friend, it goes back, they say,
as far as second century BC. But they can't pinpoint
like a definite person or place forture. They just know
that it started popping up in history. Um, like with
(06:55):
Alexander the Great. Um, he had flavored um ice and
snow with honey and nectar. Yeah, snow cone. Yeah, and
that that makes sense that that would be the origin
of ice cream. Um, it makes me laugh. In this thing,
they said that Nero and Claudius Caesar would frequently send
runners to the mountains for snow. That just seems like
a very Roman emperor thing to do, Like that's like
(07:16):
something cold and sweet. Go in like three hours later
they'd come back, you know, half dead. Here is your
ice snow cone exactly. But they would flavor those with
fruits and juices and that was sort of, um, another
part of the beginning of ice cream. Apparently all this
is going on in a vacuum to like over in
Asia in different places. Yeah, and the in the mid
(07:37):
eastn Asia, um, wherever they had mountains in these areas
and they could get snow and ice. Um. Because Marco
Polo and I think the thirteenth century UM came back
to Italy and said check this idea out frozen fruit
treats and that was basically the origin of ice cream
(07:58):
in the West. Yeah. And uh. In England they were
big on what they called cream ice because England, you
gotta say it's slightly funny, um, or they would probably
call it proper, right. You know there's an e at
the end of cream is there? No, but there probably
would be uh. And um. Catherine de Medici, who we
(08:20):
mentioned in the episode, Oh Nostradamus, Nostradamus episode, that's right,
she was big on it, and she was the wife
of Henry the second And back then though it was
you know, in the fift hundreds, in the sixteenth century,
it was only like royalty because ice was you know,
they didn't have freezers and they didn't have ice machines.
(08:42):
You needed a guy to go run up to the
mountain down. Yeah, it was a big deal to have ice, unless,
of course, it was winter, in which case you're like, oh, yeah,
I can have a frozen treat. But if there were
summer and you were enjoying a frozen dairy treats and
the runner, you're rich. You're super rich. Um. So apparently
(09:02):
by about the seventeenth century there was at least one
cafe in Paris. I think it was the first cafe
in Paris um that started selling ice cream to the
public in sixteen sixty. They basically made it egalitarian and um.
From that point on, ice cream was a definite luxury item,
(09:24):
but you didn't have to be royalty to obtain it. Yeah,
that's a good way of saying it. Um. In the
United States, the first time they found it in print
was in a letter in seventeen forty four by a
guest of the Governor of Maryland, William Bladen or Bladden.
And there was an ad in seventeen seventy seven May
twelve the New York Gazette for ice cream. So it
(09:47):
was for sure for sale to the people back then
by that time. Uh, George Washington had a recipe. Thomas
Jefferson had a recipe. Dolly Madison used to like this,
serve it at the White House watching ate a lot
of it, right, didn't they say two hundred dollars for
one summer? Yeah, and I failed to go to the
West Egg currency converter at of I imagine that's a
(10:10):
lot of money. Yeah, but he may you know that
he had guests and he may have shared it with
his Uh oh, I would hope so. Staff. You never know,
especially if that's like fifty dollars worth of ice cream.
You can't eat that in one summer, even if you're
Joey Chestnut, world record holder for most ice cream eating?
Is he? Yeah? How much did he eat? You know?
One point eight gallons in six minutes? One point eight
(10:33):
gallons in six minutes. That doesn't seem like that much.
Oh that's a lot. Yeah, that's pretty speedy, but hey,
that's why he's Joey Chestnuts. Plus, don't forget the brain freeze.
Oh yeah, man, do you have a thing on that
brain freeze? No, I've done it. Don't be dumb on
it though before do you remember what it is? Like?
What is brain freeze? Yea, oh what is brain freeze?
(10:54):
There's a there's a blood vessel that run from your
brain into the roof of your mouth. It becomes um constricted,
which changes the volume of your brain, which gives you
a headache, which is why if you place your tongue
against the roof of your mouth while you have brain freeze,
it warms up that that blood vessel, allowing it to
(11:17):
um relax again or just light a match and hold
that under your roof. Your another way to go. Yeah,
you'll concentrate on that pain instead of the brain freeze. Interesting,
I don't get brain freeze because, um, I think it's
an adult you know how not to wolf it down
like that. I've gotten it accidentally though as an adult
from time to time. Yeah, no, good, No, it's terrible.
(11:40):
It's as terrible as an adult as it is when
you're a child. It's probably worse as an adult debilitating
you know, YEA so painful. Um. So, like you said,
until around eighteen hundred, it was um mostly for for
the upper class. But then, like everything else in industry
in America, around that time, manufacture became more widespread and cheaper,
(12:02):
and all of a sudden you had uh, warehouses that
were big freezers, and you had shipping. Um, you could
ship things cold and frozen, right, So you had like
the manufacturing aspect in place. Yeah, homogenizer machines, electric power,
mechanical refrigeration basically. But even still you had you had
the manufacturing in place. The distribution that was still limited
(12:25):
to say, like a store somebody who could make money
by investing in some freezer cases and then selling it
to the public. It wasn't until UM ice boxes became
widespread in America that the ice cream industry really blew up,
because then you could sell to the guy down at Pops.
You could also sell to uh, pops, next door neighbor
(12:47):
who took at home that's right to keep in this freezer.
And thank god that happened. Yeah, And and actually as
far as making um ice cream, that the you know,
the hand crank ice cream maker that used like rock
salt and all that stuff. Sure, that was invented by
a woman named Nancy Johnson in the eighteen fifties, I think,
(13:09):
and she patented it, and apparently everybody ripped her off.
She sold the patent for like two hundred bucks, and
the guy who bought it from her turned around and
like made up fortune off of it. But I guess
he ultimately got ripped off by a bunch of copycats.
But that that same thing is still in use today,
Like you can go by the Johnson crank that same yeah,
the Johnson crank ice cream maker and make your own
(13:32):
ice cream the eighteen fifties way. Uh well, you mentioned
um take home ice cream being a big deal, uh too,
as far as it's spreading. Um, I do have a
little modern stat, at least from a few years ago.
That is still the biggest part of the market. Um,
sixty of the overall market is take home ice cream. Well,
I saw that seven percent of Americans have ice cream
(13:53):
in their freezer right now. Yeah, I don't. I can't.
It doesn't stick around like you know, if you're going
to get a pint, um, you might as well just
plow through it and be done with it and then
get some a few weeks later. You no, and I don't.
I can't just keep like a gallon of ice cream
in the house. That's um, oh, that's that's a bad move.
It's a bad move from Yeah, it's a bad move
(14:15):
for everybody. Well know, some people have wilpower. Yeah, I
guess you're right. I don't. You're one of them. I
don't keep a gallon of ice cream in my house. Yeah,
but you've got willpower to a large degree, I think. Yeah, Well,
you're the guy who quit smoking by just saying I'm
not gonna smoke anymore. Yeah, that's true. You know. Yeah,
I guess I do have a degree of willpower. Um,
but I do not, so we're now in the nineteenth century,
(14:37):
in late eighteen hundreds, and the professional soda jerk at
soda fountain shops pops up and they make things called
like root beer floats and coke floats and soda floats,
which I haven't had one in a long time. I
used to love root beer floats, but um, I don't
know why. I just it's not something I see very
much anymore. Well, you have to make it the trouble
(14:59):
of eating it together yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't
see floats very often anymore. I'm sure there's some places
that sell them. But they were good though. Oh yeah, man,
root beer and ice cream is a winning combination. Yeah,
I mean I haven't had one since I was a kid.
Probably coke works too, Yeah, coke floats good to root
beer floats with the thing though, I think you're right. Um.
And then this was for me the fact of the show.
(15:21):
I did not know about this religious criticism back then.
They didn't like you eating things that were so rich
and like a gluttonous I guess that was sinful. Yeah,
well yeah, on Sundays, that is. And so in response,
they took out the carbonated water or the root beer
or whatever and made a Sunday and that's what I
(15:41):
called it a Sunday originally. But apparently they were like,
are you mocking us? And the Soda Jerks Union said no, no,
and they changed the spelling from s u n d
a Y to s u n d a eat because
they were mocking them, right, yes, and they were like,
this is their active retribution changing the spelling of Sunday.
And the other cool two was during World War Two.
(16:01):
Apparently it was the armed forces were all trying to
outstep one another and providing ice cream to the troops
in new and exciting ways because it was such a
morale booster, of course to get ice cream when you're
at war, right, you know, a little taste of home.
And h I think that was it the Navy that
had the ship. Yeah, the world's first floating ice cream parlor.
That's awesome. In the Western Pacific. Well, even before that,
(16:24):
on World War One, ice cream was deemed an essential
food and so ice cream manufacturers got rations of sugar
um so they could keep making ice cream during the
war even though everything else is being rationed. Yeah, and
Ed points out that during the Depression, everything kind of
slowed down that was a non essential um including ice cream,
(16:46):
but it never went away and um through the years,
it's it's pretty much gained in popularity. I think in
the seventies is when you started to see a little
more health conscious efforts, like the frozen yogurts and the
like fro Yo fro Yo. Emily loves the fro Yo.
It's good stuff. Like the new stuff that's really like
from the Greek yogurt. You know, it's tangy, changes everything,
(17:09):
not like I think this can't be yogurt. Growing up,
was that even yogurt that was just like soft service
cream on it? Is it? This camp be? I thought
it was the country's best yogurt tc B Y. We
heard it was this can't be yogurt. Maybe it was different.
I wonder it had to be the same yeah, tc
B Y Yeah no, tc B I was great. I
don't know what it was. I think it's still around.
(17:31):
It had to be yogurt because they couldn't call it that,
but it wasn't definitely not the tangy stuff that you
seem like a pink berry and stuff like that. So good. Yeah,
I'm not the hugest fan. I love that stuff. Each
byte is just like it's just a trip through a
flowery mead every bit. Really, Yes, do you get the
(17:53):
vanilla and added stuff to it? Or I get the
regular like the yeah, just the I guess, plain person. Yeah,
and then you throw in a little mango, some blueberries,
look at you, the white yogurt chips on top. That's
a good combination. Or if you want to go a
different route, there's like, you know, chocolate crunch and maybe
some other kind of chocolate d delicious treat on top.
(18:18):
I want some ice cream so bad. All right, well
we'll get we'll get to the science of ice cream, um,
which is decidedly less yummy sounding right after these messages.
(18:46):
So buddy, you said that, um, all of that stuff
is frozen dairy treats, but not necessarily ice cream because
there's a definition, correct, Yes, So ice cream is a colloid, right,
which is an unusual and complex substance, and actually quicksand
(19:08):
is a colloid. It's a colloidal gel technically, um, But
ice cream is a colloid. And a colloid is a
substance where you have things that don't normally mix that
are mixed together, and in this case, you have fat
and sugar and milk mixed together with a little bit
of air thrown in. And what you need to create
(19:30):
a colloid is something called an emulsifier. That's the bonding
agent that holds everything together, these things that don't normally mix.
And in the earliest cases, egg yolks where the emulsifier
that held everything together. And of course, if you're making
ice cream at home, you can still use egg yolks
as an emulsifire. It's an easy go to thing, but
if you're manufacturing it on a large scale, you're probably
(19:52):
using something like zan thing um or something else to
emultify and stabilize the whole thing to hold it together.
But yes, ice cream spe typically is a colloid that
has undergone a very specific manufacturing process. And if you
take or add different ingredients or different steps in the process,
then you have something different, like frozen yogurt or a
(20:12):
saucer of ice cream or sure bert. Yeah, because frozen
yogurt isn't just yogurt that they freeze, which I never knew.
It's actually during the ice cream making process they'll put
in the yogurt cultures to make it frozen yogurt. Yeah,
you don't start with yogurt. You make yogurt doing Yeah,
I didn't know that either. Pretty cool, agreed, which is
(20:33):
why every time I just throw the yogurt and the freezer,
it doesn't taste anything like really cold yogurt. Uh. The
U s d A actually has a ingredient standard for
it to be labeled ice cream, which has to it
has to be at least ten percent in milk fat
and a minimum of six percent non fat milk solids
(20:54):
like Casin's, and a gallon has to weigh four point
five pounds. I think that's neat. Yeah, sure, because I
can't get it act together and anything, but it can
define ice cream. Yeah. And the reason they have the
minimum or the yeah, the minimum poundage is because, as
we mentioned earlier, um, lighter ice cream is generally uh
(21:17):
cheaper because it means there's there's just more air whipped
in there. And that's why Ben and Jerry's pine is
like a brick in your stomach. Yeah. And um. The
Grabs who wrote this points out that that's usually a
general rule of thumb that the heavier the ice cream,
the higher quality it is, but he points out to
be fair, you need to compare like types like, you
(21:39):
can't compare something that's loaded down with like brownies and
snickers with like a plain vanilla, because you know the
brownies and snickers are gonna add weight and throw off
your judgment. That's right in more ways than one. Uh.
Some milk fat, there is um a range of milk
fat you can use. Premium ice creams max out at
about sixteen percent at the most, but generally they're about
(22:02):
fourteen uh and ice cream in general is a minimum
of about ten percent. And butterfat, which is another name
for its great um. Butter fat makes it taste good
and it makes it creamier and richer. But um, it's
interesting that they found that uh sixtent is about as
high as you want to go. Though it's not like, oh,
(22:24):
just make it fifty it would be even better. Um
vomited after everybody. Well, you would and people they point out,
their head points out, you wouldn't. People would need as
much because it is so rich and it is so
calorie rich as well. And so they found that perfect
combination of enough to make you plow through that pint
and want to get another one the next night. About
(22:46):
fourteen to sixteen percent. Yeah, that sounds pretty good when
you're talking butterfat te percent for the cheap stuff that
like ned Flanders would eat, you know, yeah, totally. Um. So,
like I said, ice cream is a alloid and it's
um created by adding egg yolk to milk, fat and
uh sugar. And I think that's a custard if you
(23:08):
use the egg yolk, right. I think he used more
egg yolk at one point for percent, at least something
like that high than that. Yeah, frozen custard is at
least one point four percent egg yolk solids, so they're
even that's even worse for you, right, So that's just
like well not necessarily cholesterolized. Um. But the ice cream
(23:29):
itself is specifically just this combination of um, different types
of ingredients with other agents that hold the whole thing
together that's put through this process. Right, So when you
have your sugar, when you have your cream, your milk,
and you have your eggs or whatever you're going to
(23:51):
use as stabilizer emulsifier, you put the whole thing together,
and what you have right there is an ice cream mix.
And no matter what the you're making it at home
or if you just bought a factory or inherited it
from your rich uncle who just died and they left
it to you. Um, then you're going to be following
(24:11):
pretty much the same process using virtually the same ingredients. Yeah,
I've got um an ice cream machine, which, um, when
I looked at the process of making ice cream, it's
pretty much what goes on in this little thing. Like
you freeze the canister, which I found out the hard way.
That's how you do it, because I was like, man,
it's not getting solid. No way you did it without
freezing the kyd, Like you just used it at room temperature.
(24:35):
At room temperature, and how long did you try that for?
It's fun for quite a while before I realized what
was going on. We luckily figured that out. Um from
the get go made some pretty killer lemon gelato ones. Yeah.
So you freeze the thing and then it's uh, the
canister actually spins and they have like a blade in
there that disrupts it introduces the air bubbles, which is
(24:56):
key um to making ice cream ice and rich and creamy.
And it also is acts as a scraper to keep
ice froom forming, which is exactly what happens in big factories.
It's pretty much the same process, right or if you're
using the hand crank thing. That's what you just said,
the Johnson crank. Right. What you just said listed off
all of the UM necessary components to making ice cream.
(25:19):
You've got UM something that's cooling it that whether that
little drum that you put in the freezer, or you
have ammonia filled tubes that are freezing a tube that
your mixes in. UM. So you've got that right, Yeah,
you have UM and the ammonia tubes. We should point
out that there's no ammonia. It's just making the tube cold, right.
(25:40):
The ammonia is not being introduced into ice cream, not
at all. It's just yeah, the tube is up against
the tube that the ice cream is in, that's right. UM.
Or if you are making it at home using a
Johnson crank, you're gonna use rock salt, right, that's right.
So I was kind of I didn't understand what the
point of using rock salt was, so looked into it.
(26:01):
We covered a little bit within the salt episode, but
not like super in depth. Okay, So basically, the reason
that you would add rock salt to ice is because
if you just used ice, the freezing point of ice
is UM thirty two degrees fahrenheit. It takes more than that,
more degrees than that. Let me put it in a
(26:21):
different way. The milk freezes at a lower temperature than ice, right,
so when you add salt, you actually lower the freezing
point of that ice. Because when you're using ice, it's
a fresh water mixture. Salt water ice has a lower
freezing temperature, so you're melting it and it's melting and refreezing,
(26:42):
and as the ice melts, the way that it's melting
is by drawing heat from something else, in this case
your ice cream mixture. Right, So when you add salt,
it has to draw more heat to melt because it
has a lower freezing point freezing temperature, So that's why
you add salt. It actually lowers the freezing point, which
allows you to to cool your ice cream faster. Right,
(27:06):
So it says it lowers the freezing point. Yeah, milk
has a lower freezing point, and it makes the draws
the heat out more quickly, so those ice crystals don't
form on the side. Just that simple little thing is
the magic that makes it happen. Yeah, we had a
electric ice cream maker growing up that was the same
as the Johnson crank version, but you just plug it in,
(27:29):
not like the new one that I have today, which
is much different, which you definitely plug in. Yeah, definitely
plug in, and you gotta freeze that thing apparently. But
my church, one of my favorite memories growing up is
my church would have ice cream socials where everybody would
bring their own homemade ice creams and there would just
be a table with like thirty of those steel containers.
(27:51):
You know. The people just take it right out of
the old you know, ice rock salt bin and just
set it on the table and you would just go berserk,
you know. As a child, we had a Johnson Frank. Yeah, yeah,
growing up, and you probably had to do it right
because the parents are always like that's the fun part.
I don't I'm sure I did. I don't really remember.
(28:12):
I just remember the wooden bucket thing with the crank
on top, That's what I remember. And like a bag
of rock salt, that's right, man, that we also used
for the driveway to Yeah, yeah, of course we did
in Atlanta. But I remember when I saw that rock
Salt come out. It was a special evening at the
Brian House. Yeah. Um, so I mentioned the little paddle, Um,
(28:33):
it's called a dasher, which is the blade inside the tube.
And this is if you're an ice cream factory, and
like we said, it whips it up, introducing those air
bubbles and that's what gives it the structure, and like
I said, also prevents the ice crystals, larger ice crystals
from forming because you don't want that. No, you want
a cold, but you don't want ice. And we should say,
by this time, you you've got your ice cream mixture,
(28:55):
but you've already added whatever flavor you're gonna add. But
if you're adding chunks of stuff, which you should, you're
not doing that quite yet. No, so you're freezing it.
What you've what you've just created is a frozen ice
cream mixture because not technically U s D a standard
ice cream. Yet if you stopped right here, and even
if you added the snickers of the brownies or whatever
(29:18):
or both, what you would have as soft serve ice cream,
the ice cream still has another step to go through
to become regular old ice cream. And that's the hardening process. Yeah,
the hard freeze. And that's basically all it is is
you take that soft serve and you have to get
it down super low at least to zero degrease fahrenheit.
But um, when you're an ice cream factory, you're gonna
(29:39):
pump it down even lower because you're gonna be shipping
it and packaging it, and that you want it to
stay nice and hard throughout that whole process. And um, yeah,
and that that's how you do it. That's pretty much it.
That's pretty much making ice cream. It's it's a great,
great thing that everyone should try making ice cream. Sure, sure, yeah, Well,
(30:00):
actually that's funny that you say that, because whether you
have a hand crank or one of those awesome electric
ones that you are that you have to freeze the
drum ahead of time. You you can also just make
it at home with like basically nothing, just using a
couple of bags baggies, like a bigger baggy, a smaller baggy,
(30:20):
and make a little rock salt mixture. And um, well,
I won't go through the whole recipe, but if you
go to how stuff works and look up how ice
cream works, there's a recipe for five minute ice cream
that makes us a little bit using nothing but plastic
bags and the ice cream ingredients. Yeah, and I don't
think we mentioned that. Um, it's pasteurized along the way
to Yeah, pasteurization keeps you from getting salmonella. Yes, and
(30:44):
if you're making your own mix at home, you can
even do that yourself with a double boiler. So, um,
we'll talk a little bit about just how much everybody
loves ice cream right after this, all right, buddy, Um,
(31:14):
we will finish this out with some stats and the like.
But first we should talk about overrun because that's an
important part of ice cream because when you're making ice
cream that there's gonna be an increase in volume as
you go because you're whipping all the air into it,
and that increases called overrun, and it's indicated by a percentage. Yeah,
(31:35):
so if you're if the volume goes from one gallon
of ice cream mixture to a completed one and a
half gallons of ice cream, it's over run, which is good.
But um, what the the pros shoot for? Like our
friends at Bluebell with the great, great commercials. Yeah, they
do make fantastic ice cream they Yeah, it is really good.
(31:58):
So if you are a national ice creamier, you might
have as much as overrun, but the premium ice creams
um are more dense, so they have less overrun, Right,
which is why they're heavier. But you can also get
into a situation where your ice cream is dense because
(32:18):
you're not using much UM stabilizer and emulsifier. So that's
not good no, because it makes your ice cream chewy.
So just really dense ice cream is not necessarily the
best thing. You want a mixture between the two of
somewhat dense but not totally dense, but not super light
ice cream. There's a there's a balance that you want
to achieve. Yeah, because the air, like we said, is
(32:40):
what gives it the structure that you appreciate, and you
know it's familiar it. Get some chewy ice creams no
good uh and chuck, we were remissing, not mentioning um
ice cream cones. Yeah, I'm not a cone guy, are you? Yes?
Oh really? So when you go to like you go out,
you get it in a cone every time? Just sometimes? Yes,
(33:03):
do you get the waffle cone? If I get a cone,
I like, I like it all except the I don't
know what they call the non sugar cone ones. Yeah, yeah,
that's definitely the lowest on my list. But that one's fine. Um,
but yes, I guess it does go waffle sugar cheap cone, um,
(33:25):
as far as order of preference goes, but no waffle
cone obviously that that like just adds to the whole thing,
smelling like fresh made waffle cones being made while you're
ordering ice cream. Really, I always get the cup, should
almost always do, just for like, just to be healthier
while I'm eating ice cream. Well no, but I mean
that's a decision. Yeah, for sure, you know, but it
(33:46):
is preferable in a waffle cone. I think they're delicious.
I might start getting a cone every now and then. Um.
So there's a there's an origin story to the waffle cone,
and a lot of people place it at the nineteen
o four World's Fair in St. Louis, and um, that
is probably not where ice cream cones were invented, but
that is where they were popularized. Yeah. I mean, if
(34:08):
you're at a World's Fair, there's gonna be some waffling
going on waffle making. There definitely was some waffles being made, um,
but there was also some ice cream being served, that's documented,
that's right. And the story goes that the ice cream
makers ran out of plates or bowls or whatever they
usually use, um, and they turned to the waffle makers.
Who said, hey, we can help you out for a fee,
(34:31):
Let's turn these things into some sort of cone and
bam that's what happened. But it turns out that the
person who actually invented the ice cream cone was an
Italian immigrant to America, uh named Italo Marque. Please go ahead,
you mean yeah? And he also invented the ice cream
area ice crema, and I think he was the first
(34:55):
one to coin that term. He was in the ice
cream big time. Yeah, but he actually filed the patent
for the on making machine a full year ahead of
the fair. Yeah, so they he generally gets credited with
the invention of the ice cream cone, although just because
you pattent the machine doesn't necessarily mean that you were
the first person who thought of the cone. No. Supposedly
there's French cookbooks that date back to the eighteen forties
(35:18):
that UM have recipes for ice cream cones. Oh really Yeah. Well,
and we also didn't mention Jacob Fusel. We'd probably need
to mention that guy because he was the first UM.
He opened the first wholesale manufacturing operation in the United
States in Baltimore, and he, like UM, some of the
greatest success stories in business sort of got into it
(35:39):
by accident because he was just a dairy guy who
had too much cream, and I was like, well, I
guess I can try this ice cream thing out. And
before you knew it, he was selling more ice cream
than he was anything else. Yes, it's good for him,
good for us, good for that's true, good for all
of us. So if you want to become like a
Jacob Fusele type, you can actually go, depending on where
(36:00):
you are in the country, to your local major university
and they may or may not, depending on the size
of their dairy program, offer like a real ice cream course. Yeah,
Penn State is known for one. Correct, Yeah, Wisconsin has one,
but of course, actually Penn State graduated Ben and Jerry
back in in ice creamery. Yes, I thought you could say, like, no,
(36:23):
they were architects. Now, one of them tried to get
into med school, he graduated and couldn't afford med school.
The other one just dropped out of college. But both
of them went together to Penn State's ice cream course
and graduated. Well, I saw um. I went to their
website to look at some of their facts and they
I think they said they started their initial business with
(36:45):
like four thousand dollars twelve grand. Yeah, either way, that's cheap,
you know it is. I do have some other stats, though,
lay him on us chuck. Uh. Yeah, it's been a
while since we've had a stat run. Uh. The majority
of US ice cream and frozen dessert manufacturers have been
in business for more than fifty years, and many are
(37:06):
still family owned. This is why you see like the
bluebells and stuff like that. You know, there's not a
lot of upstarts like uh, you know, like extreme ice
cream made with mountain dew code red. Oh god. Uh.
Usd area approximates and this is a few years ago.
Twenty courts per capita. Um, what the the U S
(37:31):
eats every year? No? Produced? Oh wow, yeah, they produced
twenty courts per capita. What's interesting, though, is the United
States isn't the leader in ice cream consumption. Did you
know that? Who is New Zealand? No way? Yeah, New Zealand?
Um per capita? I guess obviously. Yeah, well yes, yeah,
so the average New Zealander eats seven and a half
(37:53):
gallons of ice cream a year. Americans eat five and
a half gallons. Yeah. Apparently, Asia, the Caribbean and Mexico
and Latin America all import ice cream as well to
a large degree, and the most popular flavors still vanilla,
which I had to explain to Emily was a real flavor.
She thinks it's an absence of all flavors, like white light.
(38:17):
It was like, no, vanilla is a thing, and some
people love it. Vanilla is still good. She thinks it's
a waste of calories to eat anything that's just plain vanilla.
They are really good vanillas out there that you're just like,
this is this is all that's needed, like super creamy
like vanilla bean yummy. And then chocolate, chip mint and
cookies and cream followed as the next most popular. I'm
(38:39):
surprised plain chocolate is not on the list. Um. I
saw a grub hub survey. They did most popular ice
cream flavors by flavor ordered, and vanilla was number one. Um.
Green tea was number two. Hm, And I was thinking
about it, and it's probably because, uh, like at a
(39:01):
Japanese restaurant. Yeah, you don't really have any other options
besides you know, green tea. Yeah, I've never had the
green tea. Ice cream is a good Oh my god, really, dude,
I don't need dessert in restaurants. It's so good. Yeah,
I'm gonna have to start you. If you go to
a good Japanese restaurant, they bring it out whether you
ask for it or not. It's a part of the meal,
(39:22):
and it'll be like Green Tea or um red Bean.
There's another one too that's a pretty good ice cream,
but Green Tea definitely has it destroyed. That sounds delicious,
Yes it is. I'm hungry. Yeah. So if you want
to know more about ice cream and to get this awesome,
really easy five minute ice cream recipe, go to how
(39:43):
stuff works dot com and type ice cream in the
search bar. And since I said search bar, its time
for listener mail. I'm gonna call this first of two
um scientific method emails, so you're gonna hear one here
and then one of the next one awesome because these
are great. We I was super proud of that one,
and we got a lot of kudos from scientists, which
(40:04):
is always nice. Hey guys, my name is Danny. I'm
twenty three and recently graduated with a degree in astronomy
and physics. Now work at an aerospace company in l
A on a space mission concept called the Star Shade.
I know the star shade is a really awesome piece
of tech that allows will allow us to image planets
(40:24):
around other stars and ultimately search for life outside of
our solar system. I'm writing because I was just listening
to the podcast on the scientific Method, and as someone
whose job regularly involves the scientific method, I want to
express my appreciation for you guys recording such a great
discussion on the subject. It's extremely important to give the
public the opportunity to learn about science. I think that
your podcast is a great vehicle by which this is achieved.
(40:45):
So thanks. I remember once in the show, you guys
let it slip that you get a few hundred emails
a week, so statistically speaking, I'm twice as likely to
become a millionaire than to get my email read. On
the show, I saw that and I felt like he
was baiting us. Oh, he totally was, and it worked.
But in the case that some miracle happens and you
do read it, I'd love that if you could plug
the astrophysics blog my friends and I have. It's called
(41:08):
Astrophysics Unleashed and can be found online at astrophysics dash
Unleashed dot tumbler dot com, and it's a place where
we seek to expose the beauty hidden within astronomy and
modern science. It's a great place for the inquiring mind
to find food for thought or to ask questions. So
that is from Danny, and he said, I wanted to
(41:28):
shout out to Jerry j E. R Ibo was afraid
I'd spell her name wrong. Hopefully that is right. Tell
her that I have no idea what she's like at all,
but I'd be willing to bet that she's really cool.
That is nice man. Usually people have like a better
chance of getting struck by lightning. And it's spelling Jerry's
name correctly. But he nailed it well. And here's a spoiler.
(41:49):
The other scientists um said the exact same thing about
spelling her name wrong, and he spelled it right. Wow.
So how about that, man, scientists or smart uh. If
you want to get in touch with us, you can
tweet to us usually s y s K podcast. You
can join us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you
Should Know. You can send us an email to Stuff
Podcast at how Stuff Works dot com, and you can
(42:11):
join us at our home on the web, Stuff you
Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
Welcome to you Stuff you should Know from house Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry.
So this is stuff you should know, The Dreaming of
Summer in the Middle of Winter edition. Oh my friend,
(00:23):
ice cream is a year round treat for me? Yeah
sure from Oh yeah, what you have? We're gonna buzz
market a lot, probably Rocky Road and vividly Vanilla. What
brand is? Oh? Yeah? Yeah, there were the lists ms.
Was it heavier? Light? It was light? After reading this,
I was like, man, this is very light, a lot
(00:45):
of air in there. I taught myself to juggle with them.
Oh well, that's exciting. That was a cross reference. Yeah,
I'm I've been a Jerry's guy. Well, yeah, it's great stuff. Yeah.
I can't have too much of it though, because I
got the lactose issues. Really. Yeah, and ice cream is
your favorite treat? Yeah, it's pretty sad. That's that's self hate. Yeah,
(01:06):
ice cream followed by a large glass of milk, right,
just then you just inject a bunch of casines directly
into your neck. Yeah, I mean it's not like I
don't have lactose issues such that any kind of milk product. Really,
it's just if I overdose on it, Like if I
have a a bunch of like pizza and ice cream
or something. What do they call it, like mildly sensitive
(01:28):
maybe maybe mildly intolerant. Yeah, I get the poopy butt
like like you're you're cool with like, um, lactose at work,
but you don't want lactose Marry and your your kid.
You're that kind of intolerant to exactly. I just don't
want to live in next door to me. I can
I can get a I can do a pint of
(01:48):
ice cream though, and or is it the half point
the Ben and Jerry's but little one? I think it's
a point. Is a point a little not the little
baby one that's just like a fistful on that on seven? Yeah, right,
I think it's a point, is what they sell them. Yeah,
I can do a pint of like the Chubby Hubby,
that's my old favorite. That's a good one. Um. Well,
basically any Ben and Jerry's is good. I'm not a
(02:10):
big fan of cherries and stuff me neither. Um. But
other than that, I'm like pretty cool with with all
ice cream. And I used to not like bananas and things,
but now I'm like, I'm cool with bananas. Yeah, like
bananas an ice cream I would never have eaten before
and now I will. I'm pretty picky with my ice
cream flavors. I'm trying to think of one I really
(02:32):
don't like, and nothing's coming to mind except for stuff
with cherry in it. Yeah. I don't like mint um crazy.
I don't like coconut crazy. Uh. My favorite is the
Chubby Hubby. And then they have, you know, have the
limited runs. Uh. They have one out now called Candy
Bar Pie. Candy Bar Pie, Like what kind of candy
bar is I don't know. It's got nugat in it. Um.
(02:56):
It doesn't taste like a specific candy bar though. It's
not like they're trying to be like a Snicker's ice
cream sneakily. It just tastes. It's just delicious. Nice. I
like butterfinger and ice cream. Yeah, what about so like
places to get ice cream? Jenny's is delicious. Where is that?
They have it here on the West Side over by
(03:16):
Star Provisions, And they got a new one in or
in a croc Street market. There's a place in old
town Alexandria outside of DC called Pops. It's like an
old timey ice cream parlor. Awesome. I think I went
in there actually last summer. It's awesome. But it did
not did they have like candy and all that stuff? Um?
(03:36):
Or is it just an ice cream? It's pretty much
just ice cream. There's like a couple of like long cases.
They've got like the old like turn of the last century,
like furniture and everything in the striped wallpaper like they're
doing it right. But then their ice cream stands behind
it too. It's good. Uh. And then of course Friendlies, Yeah,
Friendlies has the Reese's Piece of Sunday, which is probably
(04:00):
be the greatest ice cream treat ever created in a
history of humanity. Yeah. Growing up in Atlanta, they had
something called Farrel's, which was they have those. They had
that in Ohio too, And on your birthday they'd come
out with that big drum, scare me to death. It
went under the table, old school ice cream parlor, scaring
the Bejesus of children every year. Now they had a
(04:22):
lot of candy selection too. Yeah, man, let's just talk
about let's just not even do this. Let's just talk
about ice cream. We love. I like disflavor. I like disflavor.
Everyone's starving right now for it, though, I guarantee it
that intro. I have one more though. Um, have you
ever been to the Plaza Fiesta I think is what
(04:42):
it's called over on Beauford Highway. Yeah? Okay, um, they
had they have a gelato place there that had tuna
flavored gelato, raw tuna flavored gelato, and by god, it
tasted exactly like raw tuna. You're gonna say it was good.
It isn't bad, Like, yeah, if you if you like
(05:02):
seshimi or something like that, you would appreciate this. It's
not something you're like, oh man, I've got to get
some tuna flavored gelato. But you're not like it's not
like one bite and you spit it out. Yeah. Yeah,
you're just like, this is really odd but interesting, unusually tasty.
Have to try that. Yeah. My other quickly. The other
thing I like lately is a little heat in the
(05:23):
ice cream, like some of them have a little cayenne
in the chocolate or oh yeah, or with cinnamon or something. Yeah.
That and some salted caramel. I am so over salted
caramel or bacon and sweetness. I'm just so sick of
that combination. Yeah, it's all basically a rip off of
Wendy's fries and a frosty dip together. That's fine, that's
(05:47):
the original, that one like im Yeah, alright, well I'm
salivating now I am as well. Let's get through this
and we can go get some ice cream. Okay, you're buying, okay. Um,
so the history of ice cream chuck couldn't possibly have
been around. Where'd you find this? By the way, that
we need to give a good shout? Was that the
Dairy Association? Y yeah, yeah, the I think the International
(06:10):
Dairy Association, the big guy, Uh, not the regional daiies.
They came up with this. Uh, this kind of this
history of ice cream or dairy frozen dairy treats. It's
a better way to put it, because ice cream is
the lion's share of frozen dairy treats, but technically it
falls under the umbrella of frozen dairy treats along with
(06:32):
things like sherbet and gelado and frozen yogurt right there.
Um uh, ice cream sandwiches, yeah, novelties exactly, those for
good too. Um. Well, my friend, it goes back, they say,
as far as second century BC. But they can't pinpoint
like a definite person or place forture. They just know
that it started popping up in history. Um, like with
(06:55):
Alexander the Great. Um, he had flavored um ice and
snow with honey and nectar. Yeah, snow cone. Yeah, and
that that makes sense that that would be the origin
of ice cream. Um, it makes me laugh. In this thing,
they said that Nero and Claudius Caesar would frequently send
runners to the mountains for snow. That just seems like
a very Roman emperor thing to do, Like that's like
(07:16):
something cold and sweet. Go in like three hours later
they'd come back, you know, half dead. Here is your
ice snow cone exactly. But they would flavor those with
fruits and juices and that was sort of, um, another
part of the beginning of ice cream. Apparently all this
is going on in a vacuum to like over in
Asia in different places. Yeah, and the in the mid
(07:37):
eastn Asia, um, wherever they had mountains in these areas
and they could get snow and ice. Um. Because Marco
Polo and I think the thirteenth century UM came back
to Italy and said check this idea out frozen fruit
treats and that was basically the origin of ice cream
(07:58):
in the West. Yeah. And uh. In England they were
big on what they called cream ice because England, you
gotta say it's slightly funny, um, or they would probably
call it proper, right. You know there's an e at
the end of cream is there? No, but there probably
would be uh. And um. Catherine de Medici, who we
(08:20):
mentioned in the episode, Oh Nostradamus, Nostradamus episode, that's right,
she was big on it, and she was the wife
of Henry the second And back then though it was
you know, in the fift hundreds, in the sixteenth century,
it was only like royalty because ice was you know,
they didn't have freezers and they didn't have ice machines.
(08:42):
You needed a guy to go run up to the
mountain down. Yeah, it was a big deal to have ice, unless,
of course, it was winter, in which case you're like, oh, yeah,
I can have a frozen treat. But if there were
summer and you were enjoying a frozen dairy treats and
the runner, you're rich. You're super rich. Um. So apparently
(09:02):
by about the seventeenth century there was at least one
cafe in Paris. I think it was the first cafe
in Paris um that started selling ice cream to the
public in sixteen sixty. They basically made it egalitarian and um.
From that point on, ice cream was a definite luxury item,
(09:24):
but you didn't have to be royalty to obtain it. Yeah,
that's a good way of saying it. Um. In the
United States, the first time they found it in print
was in a letter in seventeen forty four by a
guest of the Governor of Maryland, William Bladen or Bladden.
And there was an ad in seventeen seventy seven May
twelve the New York Gazette for ice cream. So it
(09:47):
was for sure for sale to the people back then
by that time. Uh, George Washington had a recipe. Thomas
Jefferson had a recipe. Dolly Madison used to like this,
serve it at the White House watching ate a lot
of it, right, didn't they say two hundred dollars for
one summer? Yeah, and I failed to go to the
West Egg currency converter at of I imagine that's a
(10:10):
lot of money. Yeah, but he may you know that
he had guests and he may have shared it with
his Uh oh, I would hope so. Staff. You never know,
especially if that's like fifty dollars worth of ice cream.
You can't eat that in one summer, even if you're
Joey Chestnut, world record holder for most ice cream eating?
Is he? Yeah? How much did he eat? You know?
One point eight gallons in six minutes? One point eight
(10:33):
gallons in six minutes. That doesn't seem like that much.
Oh that's a lot. Yeah, that's pretty speedy, but hey,
that's why he's Joey Chestnuts. Plus, don't forget the brain freeze.
Oh yeah, man, do you have a thing on that
brain freeze? No, I've done it. Don't be dumb on
it though before do you remember what it is? Like?
What is brain freeze? Yea, oh what is brain freeze?
(10:54):
There's a there's a blood vessel that run from your
brain into the roof of your mouth. It becomes um constricted,
which changes the volume of your brain, which gives you
a headache, which is why if you place your tongue
against the roof of your mouth while you have brain freeze,
it warms up that that blood vessel, allowing it to
(11:17):
um relax again or just light a match and hold
that under your roof. Your another way to go. Yeah,
you'll concentrate on that pain instead of the brain freeze. Interesting,
I don't get brain freeze because, um, I think it's
an adult you know how not to wolf it down
like that. I've gotten it accidentally though as an adult
from time to time. Yeah, no, good, No, it's terrible.
(11:40):
It's as terrible as an adult as it is when
you're a child. It's probably worse as an adult debilitating
you know, YEA so painful. Um. So, like you said,
until around eighteen hundred, it was um mostly for for
the upper class. But then, like everything else in industry
in America, around that time, manufacture became more widespread and cheaper,
(12:02):
and all of a sudden you had uh, warehouses that
were big freezers, and you had shipping. Um, you could
ship things cold and frozen, right, So you had like
the manufacturing aspect in place. Yeah, homogenizer machines, electric power,
mechanical refrigeration basically. But even still you had you had
the manufacturing in place. The distribution that was still limited
(12:25):
to say, like a store somebody who could make money
by investing in some freezer cases and then selling it
to the public. It wasn't until UM ice boxes became
widespread in America that the ice cream industry really blew up,
because then you could sell to the guy down at Pops.
You could also sell to uh, pops, next door neighbor
(12:47):
who took at home that's right to keep in this freezer.
And thank god that happened. Yeah, And and actually as
far as making um ice cream, that the you know,
the hand crank ice cream maker that used like rock
salt and all that stuff. Sure, that was invented by
a woman named Nancy Johnson in the eighteen fifties, I think,
(13:09):
and she patented it, and apparently everybody ripped her off.
She sold the patent for like two hundred bucks, and
the guy who bought it from her turned around and
like made up fortune off of it. But I guess
he ultimately got ripped off by a bunch of copycats.
But that that same thing is still in use today,
Like you can go by the Johnson crank that same yeah,
the Johnson crank ice cream maker and make your own
(13:32):
ice cream the eighteen fifties way. Uh well, you mentioned
um take home ice cream being a big deal, uh too,
as far as it's spreading. Um, I do have a
little modern stat, at least from a few years ago.
That is still the biggest part of the market. Um,
sixty of the overall market is take home ice cream. Well,
I saw that seven percent of Americans have ice cream
(13:53):
in their freezer right now. Yeah, I don't. I can't.
It doesn't stick around like you know, if you're going
to get a pint, um, you might as well just
plow through it and be done with it and then
get some a few weeks later. You no, and I don't.
I can't just keep like a gallon of ice cream
in the house. That's um, oh, that's that's a bad move.
It's a bad move from Yeah, it's a bad move
(14:15):
for everybody. Well know, some people have wilpower. Yeah, I
guess you're right. I don't. You're one of them. I
don't keep a gallon of ice cream in my house. Yeah,
but you've got willpower to a large degree, I think. Yeah, Well,
you're the guy who quit smoking by just saying I'm
not gonna smoke anymore. Yeah, that's true. You know. Yeah,
I guess I do have a degree of willpower. Um,
but I do not, so we're now in the nineteenth century,
(14:37):
in late eighteen hundreds, and the professional soda jerk at
soda fountain shops pops up and they make things called
like root beer floats and coke floats and soda floats,
which I haven't had one in a long time. I
used to love root beer floats, but um, I don't
know why. I just it's not something I see very
much anymore. Well, you have to make it the trouble
(14:59):
of eating it together yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't
see floats very often anymore. I'm sure there's some places
that sell them. But they were good though. Oh yeah, man,
root beer and ice cream is a winning combination. Yeah,
I mean I haven't had one since I was a kid.
Probably coke works too, Yeah, coke floats good to root
beer floats with the thing though, I think you're right. Um.
And then this was for me the fact of the show.
(15:21):
I did not know about this religious criticism back then.
They didn't like you eating things that were so rich
and like a gluttonous I guess that was sinful. Yeah,
well yeah, on Sundays, that is. And so in response,
they took out the carbonated water or the root beer
or whatever and made a Sunday and that's what I
(15:41):
called it a Sunday originally. But apparently they were like,
are you mocking us? And the Soda Jerks Union said no, no,
and they changed the spelling from s u n d
a Y to s u n d a eat because
they were mocking them, right, yes, and they were like,
this is their active retribution changing the spelling of Sunday.
And the other cool two was during World War Two.
(16:01):
Apparently it was the armed forces were all trying to
outstep one another and providing ice cream to the troops
in new and exciting ways because it was such a
morale booster, of course to get ice cream when you're
at war, right, you know, a little taste of home.
And h I think that was it the Navy that
had the ship. Yeah, the world's first floating ice cream parlor.
That's awesome. In the Western Pacific. Well, even before that,
(16:24):
on World War One, ice cream was deemed an essential
food and so ice cream manufacturers got rations of sugar
um so they could keep making ice cream during the
war even though everything else is being rationed. Yeah, and
Ed points out that during the Depression, everything kind of
slowed down that was a non essential um including ice cream,
(16:46):
but it never went away and um through the years,
it's it's pretty much gained in popularity. I think in
the seventies is when you started to see a little
more health conscious efforts, like the frozen yogurts and the
like fro Yo fro Yo. Emily loves the fro Yo.
It's good stuff. Like the new stuff that's really like
from the Greek yogurt. You know, it's tangy, changes everything,
(17:09):
not like I think this can't be yogurt. Growing up,
was that even yogurt that was just like soft service
cream on it? Is it? This camp be? I thought
it was the country's best yogurt tc B Y. We
heard it was this can't be yogurt. Maybe it was different.
I wonder it had to be the same yeah, tc
B Y Yeah no, tc B I was great. I
don't know what it was. I think it's still around.
(17:31):
It had to be yogurt because they couldn't call it that,
but it wasn't definitely not the tangy stuff that you
seem like a pink berry and stuff like that. So good. Yeah,
I'm not the hugest fan. I love that stuff. Each
byte is just like it's just a trip through a
flowery mead every bit. Really, Yes, do you get the
(17:53):
vanilla and added stuff to it? Or I get the
regular like the yeah, just the I guess, plain person. Yeah,
and then you throw in a little mango, some blueberries,
look at you, the white yogurt chips on top. That's
a good combination. Or if you want to go a
different route, there's like, you know, chocolate crunch and maybe
some other kind of chocolate d delicious treat on top.
(18:18):
I want some ice cream so bad. All right, well
we'll get we'll get to the science of ice cream, um,
which is decidedly less yummy sounding right after these messages.
(18:46):
So buddy, you said that, um, all of that stuff
is frozen dairy treats, but not necessarily ice cream because
there's a definition, correct, Yes, So ice cream is a colloid, right,
which is an unusual and complex substance, and actually quicksand
(19:08):
is a colloid. It's a colloidal gel technically, um, But
ice cream is a colloid. And a colloid is a
substance where you have things that don't normally mix that
are mixed together, and in this case, you have fat
and sugar and milk mixed together with a little bit
of air thrown in. And what you need to create
(19:30):
a colloid is something called an emulsifier. That's the bonding
agent that holds everything together, these things that don't normally mix.
And in the earliest cases, egg yolks where the emulsifier
that held everything together. And of course, if you're making
ice cream at home, you can still use egg yolks
as an emulsifire. It's an easy go to thing, but
if you're manufacturing it on a large scale, you're probably
(19:52):
using something like zan thing um or something else to
emultify and stabilize the whole thing to hold it together.
But yes, ice cream spe typically is a colloid that
has undergone a very specific manufacturing process. And if you
take or add different ingredients or different steps in the process,
then you have something different, like frozen yogurt or a
(20:12):
saucer of ice cream or sure bert. Yeah, because frozen
yogurt isn't just yogurt that they freeze, which I never knew.
It's actually during the ice cream making process they'll put
in the yogurt cultures to make it frozen yogurt. Yeah,
you don't start with yogurt. You make yogurt doing Yeah,
I didn't know that either. Pretty cool, agreed, which is
(20:33):
why every time I just throw the yogurt and the freezer,
it doesn't taste anything like really cold yogurt. Uh. The
U s d A actually has a ingredient standard for
it to be labeled ice cream, which has to it
has to be at least ten percent in milk fat
and a minimum of six percent non fat milk solids
(20:54):
like Casin's, and a gallon has to weigh four point
five pounds. I think that's neat. Yeah, sure, because I
can't get it act together and anything, but it can
define ice cream. Yeah. And the reason they have the
minimum or the yeah, the minimum poundage is because, as
we mentioned earlier, um, lighter ice cream is generally uh
(21:17):
cheaper because it means there's there's just more air whipped
in there. And that's why Ben and Jerry's pine is
like a brick in your stomach. Yeah. And um. The
Grabs who wrote this points out that that's usually a
general rule of thumb that the heavier the ice cream,
the higher quality it is, but he points out to
be fair, you need to compare like types like, you
(21:39):
can't compare something that's loaded down with like brownies and
snickers with like a plain vanilla, because you know the
brownies and snickers are gonna add weight and throw off
your judgment. That's right in more ways than one. Uh.
Some milk fat, there is um a range of milk
fat you can use. Premium ice creams max out at
about sixteen percent at the most, but generally they're about
(22:02):
fourteen uh and ice cream in general is a minimum
of about ten percent. And butterfat, which is another name
for its great um. Butter fat makes it taste good
and it makes it creamier and richer. But um, it's
interesting that they found that uh sixtent is about as
high as you want to go. Though it's not like, oh,
(22:24):
just make it fifty it would be even better. Um
vomited after everybody. Well, you would and people they point out,
their head points out, you wouldn't. People would need as
much because it is so rich and it is so
calorie rich as well. And so they found that perfect
combination of enough to make you plow through that pint
and want to get another one the next night. About
(22:46):
fourteen to sixteen percent. Yeah, that sounds pretty good when
you're talking butterfat te percent for the cheap stuff that
like ned Flanders would eat, you know, yeah, totally. Um. So,
like I said, ice cream is a alloid and it's
um created by adding egg yolk to milk, fat and
uh sugar. And I think that's a custard if you
(23:08):
use the egg yolk, right. I think he used more
egg yolk at one point for percent, at least something
like that high than that. Yeah, frozen custard is at
least one point four percent egg yolk solids, so they're
even that's even worse for you, right, So that's just
like well not necessarily cholesterolized. Um. But the ice cream
(23:29):
itself is specifically just this combination of um, different types
of ingredients with other agents that hold the whole thing
together that's put through this process. Right, So when you
have your sugar, when you have your cream, your milk,
and you have your eggs or whatever you're going to
(23:51):
use as stabilizer emulsifier, you put the whole thing together,
and what you have right there is an ice cream mix.
And no matter what the you're making it at home
or if you just bought a factory or inherited it
from your rich uncle who just died and they left
it to you. Um, then you're going to be following
(24:11):
pretty much the same process using virtually the same ingredients. Yeah,
I've got um an ice cream machine, which, um, when
I looked at the process of making ice cream, it's
pretty much what goes on in this little thing. Like
you freeze the canister, which I found out the hard way.
That's how you do it, because I was like, man,
it's not getting solid. No way you did it without
freezing the kyd, Like you just used it at room temperature.
(24:35):
At room temperature, and how long did you try that for?
It's fun for quite a while before I realized what
was going on. We luckily figured that out. Um from
the get go made some pretty killer lemon gelato ones. Yeah.
So you freeze the thing and then it's uh, the
canister actually spins and they have like a blade in
there that disrupts it introduces the air bubbles, which is
(24:56):
key um to making ice cream ice and rich and creamy.
And it also is acts as a scraper to keep
ice froom forming, which is exactly what happens in big factories.
It's pretty much the same process, right or if you're
using the hand crank thing. That's what you just said,
the Johnson crank. Right. What you just said listed off
all of the UM necessary components to making ice cream.
(25:19):
You've got UM something that's cooling it that whether that
little drum that you put in the freezer, or you
have ammonia filled tubes that are freezing a tube that
your mixes in. UM. So you've got that right, Yeah,
you have UM and the ammonia tubes. We should point
out that there's no ammonia. It's just making the tube cold, right.
(25:40):
The ammonia is not being introduced into ice cream, not
at all. It's just yeah, the tube is up against
the tube that the ice cream is in, that's right. UM.
Or if you are making it at home using a
Johnson crank, you're gonna use rock salt, right, that's right.
So I was kind of I didn't understand what the
point of using rock salt was, so looked into it.
(26:01):
We covered a little bit within the salt episode, but
not like super in depth. Okay, So basically, the reason
that you would add rock salt to ice is because
if you just used ice, the freezing point of ice
is UM thirty two degrees fahrenheit. It takes more than that,
more degrees than that. Let me put it in a
(26:21):
different way. The milk freezes at a lower temperature than ice, right,
so when you add salt, you actually lower the freezing
point of that ice. Because when you're using ice, it's
a fresh water mixture. Salt water ice has a lower
freezing temperature, so you're melting it and it's melting and refreezing,
(26:42):
and as the ice melts, the way that it's melting
is by drawing heat from something else, in this case
your ice cream mixture. Right, So when you add salt,
it has to draw more heat to melt because it
has a lower freezing point freezing temperature, So that's why
you add salt. It actually lowers the freezing point, which
allows you to to cool your ice cream faster. Right,
(27:06):
So it says it lowers the freezing point. Yeah, milk
has a lower freezing point, and it makes the draws
the heat out more quickly, so those ice crystals don't
form on the side. Just that simple little thing is
the magic that makes it happen. Yeah, we had a
electric ice cream maker growing up that was the same
as the Johnson crank version, but you just plug it in,
(27:29):
not like the new one that I have today, which
is much different, which you definitely plug in. Yeah, definitely
plug in, and you gotta freeze that thing apparently. But
my church, one of my favorite memories growing up is
my church would have ice cream socials where everybody would
bring their own homemade ice creams and there would just
be a table with like thirty of those steel containers.
(27:51):
You know. The people just take it right out of
the old you know, ice rock salt bin and just
set it on the table and you would just go berserk,
you know. As a child, we had a Johnson Frank. Yeah, yeah,
growing up, and you probably had to do it right
because the parents are always like that's the fun part.
I don't I'm sure I did. I don't really remember.
(28:12):
I just remember the wooden bucket thing with the crank
on top, That's what I remember. And like a bag
of rock salt, that's right, man, that we also used
for the driveway to Yeah, yeah, of course we did
in Atlanta. But I remember when I saw that rock
Salt come out. It was a special evening at the
Brian House. Yeah. Um, so I mentioned the little paddle, Um,
(28:33):
it's called a dasher, which is the blade inside the tube.
And this is if you're an ice cream factory, and
like we said, it whips it up, introducing those air
bubbles and that's what gives it the structure, and like
I said, also prevents the ice crystals, larger ice crystals
from forming because you don't want that. No, you want
a cold, but you don't want ice. And we should say,
by this time, you you've got your ice cream mixture,
(28:55):
but you've already added whatever flavor you're gonna add. But
if you're adding chunks of stuff, which you should, you're
not doing that quite yet. No, so you're freezing it.
What you've what you've just created is a frozen ice
cream mixture because not technically U s D a standard
ice cream. Yet if you stopped right here, and even
if you added the snickers of the brownies or whatever
(29:18):
or both, what you would have as soft serve ice cream,
the ice cream still has another step to go through
to become regular old ice cream. And that's the hardening process. Yeah,
the hard freeze. And that's basically all it is is
you take that soft serve and you have to get
it down super low at least to zero degrease fahrenheit.
But um, when you're an ice cream factory, you're gonna
(29:39):
pump it down even lower because you're gonna be shipping
it and packaging it, and that you want it to
stay nice and hard throughout that whole process. And um, yeah,
and that that's how you do it. That's pretty much it.
That's pretty much making ice cream. It's it's a great,
great thing that everyone should try making ice cream. Sure, sure, yeah, Well,
(30:00):
actually that's funny that you say that, because whether you
have a hand crank or one of those awesome electric
ones that you are that you have to freeze the
drum ahead of time. You you can also just make
it at home with like basically nothing, just using a
couple of bags baggies, like a bigger baggy, a smaller baggy,
(30:20):
and make a little rock salt mixture. And um, well,
I won't go through the whole recipe, but if you
go to how stuff works and look up how ice
cream works, there's a recipe for five minute ice cream
that makes us a little bit using nothing but plastic
bags and the ice cream ingredients. Yeah, and I don't
think we mentioned that. Um, it's pasteurized along the way
to Yeah, pasteurization keeps you from getting salmonella. Yes, and
(30:44):
if you're making your own mix at home, you can
even do that yourself with a double boiler. So, um,
we'll talk a little bit about just how much everybody
loves ice cream right after this, all right, buddy, Um,
(31:14):
we will finish this out with some stats and the like.
But first we should talk about overrun because that's an
important part of ice cream because when you're making ice
cream that there's gonna be an increase in volume as
you go because you're whipping all the air into it,
and that increases called overrun, and it's indicated by a percentage. Yeah,
(31:35):
so if you're if the volume goes from one gallon
of ice cream mixture to a completed one and a
half gallons of ice cream, it's over run, which is good.
But um, what the the pros shoot for? Like our
friends at Bluebell with the great, great commercials. Yeah, they
do make fantastic ice cream they Yeah, it is really good.
(31:58):
So if you are a national ice creamier, you might
have as much as overrun, but the premium ice creams
um are more dense, so they have less overrun, Right,
which is why they're heavier. But you can also get
into a situation where your ice cream is dense because
(32:18):
you're not using much UM stabilizer and emulsifier. So that's
not good no, because it makes your ice cream chewy.
So just really dense ice cream is not necessarily the
best thing. You want a mixture between the two of
somewhat dense but not totally dense, but not super light
ice cream. There's a there's a balance that you want
to achieve. Yeah, because the air, like we said, is
(32:40):
what gives it the structure that you appreciate, and you
know it's familiar it. Get some chewy ice creams no
good uh and chuck, we were remissing, not mentioning um
ice cream cones. Yeah, I'm not a cone guy, are you? Yes?
Oh really? So when you go to like you go out,
you get it in a cone every time? Just sometimes? Yes,
(33:03):
do you get the waffle cone? If I get a cone,
I like, I like it all except the I don't
know what they call the non sugar cone ones. Yeah, yeah,
that's definitely the lowest on my list. But that one's fine. Um,
but yes, I guess it does go waffle sugar cheap cone, um,
(33:25):
as far as order of preference goes, but no waffle
cone obviously that that like just adds to the whole thing,
smelling like fresh made waffle cones being made while you're
ordering ice cream. Really, I always get the cup, should
almost always do, just for like, just to be healthier
while I'm eating ice cream. Well no, but I mean
that's a decision. Yeah, for sure, you know, but it
(33:46):
is preferable in a waffle cone. I think they're delicious.
I might start getting a cone every now and then. Um.
So there's a there's an origin story to the waffle cone,
and a lot of people place it at the nineteen
o four World's Fair in St. Louis, and um, that
is probably not where ice cream cones were invented, but
that is where they were popularized. Yeah. I mean, if
(34:08):
you're at a World's Fair, there's gonna be some waffling
going on waffle making. There definitely was some waffles being made, um,
but there was also some ice cream being served, that's documented,
that's right. And the story goes that the ice cream
makers ran out of plates or bowls or whatever they
usually use, um, and they turned to the waffle makers.
Who said, hey, we can help you out for a fee,
(34:31):
Let's turn these things into some sort of cone and
bam that's what happened. But it turns out that the
person who actually invented the ice cream cone was an
Italian immigrant to America, uh named Italo Marque. Please go ahead,
you mean yeah? And he also invented the ice cream
area ice crema, and I think he was the first
(34:55):
one to coin that term. He was in the ice
cream big time. Yeah, but he actually filed the patent
for the on making machine a full year ahead of
the fair. Yeah, so they he generally gets credited with
the invention of the ice cream cone, although just because
you pattent the machine doesn't necessarily mean that you were
the first person who thought of the cone. No. Supposedly
there's French cookbooks that date back to the eighteen forties
(35:18):
that UM have recipes for ice cream cones. Oh really Yeah. Well,
and we also didn't mention Jacob Fusel. We'd probably need
to mention that guy because he was the first UM.
He opened the first wholesale manufacturing operation in the United
States in Baltimore, and he, like UM, some of the
greatest success stories in business sort of got into it
(35:39):
by accident because he was just a dairy guy who
had too much cream, and I was like, well, I
guess I can try this ice cream thing out. And
before you knew it, he was selling more ice cream
than he was anything else. Yes, it's good for him,
good for us, good for that's true, good for all
of us. So if you want to become like a
Jacob Fusele type, you can actually go, depending on where
(36:00):
you are in the country, to your local major university
and they may or may not, depending on the size
of their dairy program, offer like a real ice cream course. Yeah,
Penn State is known for one. Correct, Yeah, Wisconsin has one,
but of course, actually Penn State graduated Ben and Jerry
back in in ice creamery. Yes, I thought you could say, like, no,
(36:23):
they were architects. Now, one of them tried to get
into med school, he graduated and couldn't afford med school.
The other one just dropped out of college. But both
of them went together to Penn State's ice cream course
and graduated. Well, I saw um. I went to their
website to look at some of their facts and they
I think they said they started their initial business with
(36:45):
like four thousand dollars twelve grand. Yeah, either way, that's cheap,
you know it is. I do have some other stats, though,
lay him on us chuck. Uh. Yeah, it's been a
while since we've had a stat run. Uh. The majority
of US ice cream and frozen dessert manufacturers have been
in business for more than fifty years, and many are
(37:06):
still family owned. This is why you see like the
bluebells and stuff like that. You know, there's not a
lot of upstarts like uh, you know, like extreme ice
cream made with mountain dew code red. Oh god. Uh.
Usd area approximates and this is a few years ago.
Twenty courts per capita. Um, what the the U S
(37:31):
eats every year? No? Produced? Oh wow, yeah, they produced
twenty courts per capita. What's interesting, though, is the United
States isn't the leader in ice cream consumption. Did you
know that? Who is New Zealand? No way? Yeah, New Zealand?
Um per capita? I guess obviously. Yeah, well yes, yeah,
so the average New Zealander eats seven and a half
(37:53):
gallons of ice cream a year. Americans eat five and
a half gallons. Yeah. Apparently, Asia, the Caribbean and Mexico
and Latin America all import ice cream as well to
a large degree, and the most popular flavors still vanilla,
which I had to explain to Emily was a real flavor.
She thinks it's an absence of all flavors, like white light.
(38:17):
It was like, no, vanilla is a thing, and some
people love it. Vanilla is still good. She thinks it's
a waste of calories to eat anything that's just plain vanilla.
They are really good vanillas out there that you're just like,
this is this is all that's needed, like super creamy
like vanilla bean yummy. And then chocolate, chip mint and
cookies and cream followed as the next most popular. I'm
(38:39):
surprised plain chocolate is not on the list. Um. I
saw a grub hub survey. They did most popular ice
cream flavors by flavor ordered, and vanilla was number one. Um.
Green tea was number two. Hm, And I was thinking
about it, and it's probably because, uh, like at a
(39:01):
Japanese restaurant. Yeah, you don't really have any other options
besides you know, green tea. Yeah, I've never had the
green tea. Ice cream is a good Oh my god, really, dude,
I don't need dessert in restaurants. It's so good. Yeah,
I'm gonna have to start you. If you go to
a good Japanese restaurant, they bring it out whether you
ask for it or not. It's a part of the meal,
(39:22):
and it'll be like Green Tea or um red Bean.
There's another one too that's a pretty good ice cream,
but Green Tea definitely has it destroyed. That sounds delicious,
Yes it is. I'm hungry. Yeah. So if you want
to know more about ice cream and to get this awesome,
really easy five minute ice cream recipe, go to how
(39:43):
stuff works dot com and type ice cream in the
search bar. And since I said search bar, its time
for listener mail. I'm gonna call this first of two
um scientific method emails, so you're gonna hear one here
and then one of the next one awesome because these
are great. We I was super proud of that one,
and we got a lot of kudos from scientists, which
(40:04):
is always nice. Hey guys, my name is Danny. I'm
twenty three and recently graduated with a degree in astronomy
and physics. Now work at an aerospace company in l
A on a space mission concept called the Star Shade.
I know the star shade is a really awesome piece
of tech that allows will allow us to image planets
(40:24):
around other stars and ultimately search for life outside of
our solar system. I'm writing because I was just listening
to the podcast on the scientific Method, and as someone
whose job regularly involves the scientific method, I want to
express my appreciation for you guys recording such a great
discussion on the subject. It's extremely important to give the
public the opportunity to learn about science. I think that
your podcast is a great vehicle by which this is achieved.
(40:45):
So thanks. I remember once in the show, you guys
let it slip that you get a few hundred emails
a week, so statistically speaking, I'm twice as likely to
become a millionaire than to get my email read. On
the show, I saw that and I felt like he
was baiting us. Oh, he totally was, and it worked.
But in the case that some miracle happens and you
do read it, I'd love that if you could plug
the astrophysics blog my friends and I have. It's called
(41:08):
Astrophysics Unleashed and can be found online at astrophysics dash
Unleashed dot tumbler dot com, and it's a place where
we seek to expose the beauty hidden within astronomy and
modern science. It's a great place for the inquiring mind
to find food for thought or to ask questions. So
that is from Danny, and he said, I wanted to
(41:28):
shout out to Jerry j E. R Ibo was afraid
I'd spell her name wrong. Hopefully that is right. Tell
her that I have no idea what she's like at all,
but I'd be willing to bet that she's really cool.
That is nice man. Usually people have like a better
chance of getting struck by lightning. And it's spelling Jerry's
name correctly. But he nailed it well. And here's a spoiler.
(41:49):
The other scientists um said the exact same thing about
spelling her name wrong, and he spelled it right. Wow.
So how about that, man, scientists or smart uh. If
you want to get in touch with us, you can
tweet to us usually s y s K podcast. You
can join us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you
Should Know. You can send us an email to Stuff
Podcast at how Stuff Works dot com, and you can
(42:11):
join us at our home on the web, Stuff you
Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
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