UK - Read Our Ultimate Ice Cream Guide from Carpigiani UK

Everyone loves ice cream whether it’s in the summer to cool down or in the winter as a delicious and sweet treat. For lots of people, it brings back fond memories and some people, if they are anything like me will go to great lengths to find the type and flavour of ice cream they love. We have put together an Ultimate Ice Cream Guide for you and you never know you might find something out about ice cream that you didn’t already know.

Where did Ice Cream originally come from?

So there are many thoughts from historians about where Ice Cream first came from. History tells us that ice cream was originally credited to the Chinese and it was created around 200 BC when a milk and rice mixture was frozen by packing it into the snow.

The explorer, Marco Polo is popularly cited for having seen ice-creams being made during his trip to China and later introduced these to Italy when he returned.

Roman emperors are supposed to have sent slaves to mountain tops to bring back fresh snow which was then flavoured and served as an early form of ice-cream.

The King of England, Charles I, is suggested to have offered his personal chef £500 a year to keep his ice-cream recipe a secret from the rest of England.

Ice Cream sundaes were invented when in the late 19th century it became illegal to sell ice-cream sodas on a Sunday in the American town of Evanston. Local Traders then replaced the soda with syrup and called the dessert an “Ice Cream Sunday” to get around this problem.

What types of Ice Cream are there?

There are so many types of ice cream across the world, ranging from soft-serve ice cream, gelato ice cream, sorbet ice cream, full-fat ice cream, low-fat ice cream, fat-free ice cream, hard ice cream, low sugar ice cream, vegan ice cream, lactose free ice cream, commercially made ice cream, homemade ice cream, supermarket brought ice cream and the list goes on.

Each one is slightly different, with varying tastes and textures.

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What are the main ingredients of Ice Cream?

In its most basic form, ice cream is a mixture of water, ice, cream and/or milk, sugar, protein, air, the specific flavour (vanilla, lemon, chocolate and so forth) and sometimes eggs that are frozen whilst it’s churned to create a deliciously frozen product. In commercial ice-cream making, stabilizers, such as plant gums can be used and the mixture is pasteurized and homogenized. Every ice cream recipe is different and the process to make it varies depending on if you are a business using a commercial ice cream maker, or if you are making it at home.

Commercially Made Ice Cream v Home Made

Making ice cream at home can be tricky as the process is detailed and the timings are essential, you also need a strong arm to ensure you have the power to mix it like the churn you would get from a commercial ice cream machine. The benefits of commercially made ice cream are; the ingredients are accurately measured every time and every part of the process is timed to the second. This gives you consistent flavours, textures and temperature which, in essence, are the essentials of producing excellent ice cream that you and all your customers love.

So that’s it, we think we’ve covered it all and hope you have learned some new things about ice cream and the wonderful things associated with it. You can read our full Ultimate Ice Cream Guide here: www.carpigiani.co.uk/ultimate-ice-cream-guide/