Some people eat it on sweltering days to cool off, others eat it on frigid days to warm up and if life exists elsewhere in the universe, they probably eat ice cream too.
As ubiquitous as ice cream is, it is not a simple food. The creamy texture and luscious taste are a combination of precise ingredients and careful preparation.
\Ice cream is probably the most complex food, it's a multiphase system,"" said Richard Hartel, UW-Madison professor of food science.
The complexity is a result of combinations of solids, liquids and a gas in one food. Ice, liquid water, milk, emulsed fat, stabilizers and usually sugars and flavors are all part of the savory mixture.
Throwing those ingredients into a freezer will not turn out like Ben and Jerry's; ice cream has one more key ingredient'air.
Although air doesn't seem to be a tasty treat as one breaths it in, in ice cream it is a crucial element. As the mixture is stirred together, the amount of air trapped in by fats, milk proteins and stabilizers are crucial to the texture.
""The air has a physical function,"" Hartel said. ""And that's to give it a light, fluffier texture.""
Whatever the quantity of ingredients is before the addition of air, it will always increase when air is added. The amount this increases is called overrun.
""If you have one liter of ice cream mix and you make two liters of ice cream [after air is added], you have 100 percent overrun,"" Hartel said. ""Babcock ice cream has 80 percent overrun. Ben and Jerry's and H??agen-Dazs have 40 percent overrun.""
This difference is easily noticeable to the palette, so it is up to individual consumers to decide where their preference lies.
The air is also an ice cream maker's close ally.
""The more air in there, obviously, the less expensive it is to produce,"" said Bill Klein, a laboratory manager for the UW-Madison department of food science.
Each ingredient has a specific function to compliment the rest. The fat, while creating part of the rich taste, creates a smooth texture. The whipping process is similar to turning cream into whipping cream, creating a foamy, emulsed fat.
The fat, air bubbles and ice crystals all must be as small as possible to maintain the smooth texture consumers are used to.
Keeping the ice cream up to high standards has created a predicament for scientists. Manufacturers are trying to reach farther across the world as ice cream manufacturing becomes more centralized and the distribution chain gets longer. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep the ice crystals small and square.
""Those ice crystals are not very stable, and over time they start to grow in size,"" said Douglas Goff, professor of food science at the University of Guelph, in Canada. ""And that is especially exacerbated by heat shock. If you subject the ice cream to temperature fluctuations, that really accelerates the rate at which you get growth of ice crystals.""
These larger crystals create a texture more like a Sno-Cone than ice cream. In order to combat this defect, Goff is working to create an ice cream less susceptible to heat shock.
Along with his colleagues, Goff is trying to improve the stabilizers already used to keep the ice crystals small and discrete. Several cereal crops have the ability to overwinter without suffering any detrimental effects. They do this by secreting a protein that covers ice crystals early, while they are still small so the ice crystals do not grow to a size that could disrupt the plant's cells.
Goff is trying to incorporate that protein into ice cream. Along with a team of biologists, they are already deep into the project and according to Goff, ice creams he has made with the proteins are ""really smooth.""
While the texture and taste are already partially defined by the emulsed fat and trapped air, stabilizers are also a key component as they regulate the size of both air bubbles and ice crystals.
After the basic ingredients are put in the ice cream and it is frozen down, the possibilities are endless. Some ice creams add various caramels or chocolate swirls called variegates. Of course there are also the chunks of virtually every food item available. Whether it is pretzels, peanut butter and jelly or old-fashioned chocolate chips, it is already on the local grocer's shelves.
But these changes do not alter the ice cream-making process. They are all part of post-production, like adding a topping at a scoop shop.
One thing most experts agree on is that people enjoy ice cream the way it is. Humans have been eating this scrumptious frozen treat for centuries, and now scientists are trying to perfect what is already out there. Basic ice cream ingredients are not going to change much, so all one has to worry about is what flavor to try next.
