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Edible Antifreeze For Smoother Ice Cream

Posted by kdawson on from the if-they-can-put-a-man-on-the-moon dept.

holy_calamity writes "Proteins extracted from gelatin can dramatically improve the quality of ice cream by preventing the growth of ice crystals that ruin its texture. Perfect smooth ice cream has ice crystals around 20 microns in size, but slight thawing and refreezing makes them grow and ruins the mouth feel, making it gritty. The new proteins are similar to those in the blood of the snow flea, an insect able to keep active in sub-zero temperatures." Here are the abstract and the full article as published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

17 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Mmm, Delicious by Courageous · · Score: 4, Funny

    The new proteins are similar to those in the blood of the snow flea,...

    Oh now that sounds delicious! Snow Flea Blood Ice Cream.

    Thank you, Slashdot, for making me not able to eat Ice Cream today.

    *wink*

    C//

    1. Re:Mmm, Delicious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Please STOP killing and disfiguring and horrible-izing my ice-cream (OK - some the words maybe in-appropriate in the context, but you get the idea). I just want a simple ice cream with real milk and not a "high fructose corn syrup, this sure isn't milk or cream but our just goo made to look like it" crap.

      Just check out the ingredients of any modern ice-cream and the you'll see what I mean.

      When I was younger, we made it at home from real milk, sugar and a bit of flavoring agent in a hand-turned ice-cream maker and it was yuumm. Very different from the goo they sell today

      The same holds for about all the things (at least foodstuffs). Oh, well - so much for progress ...

    2. Re:Mmm, Delicious by Naughty+Bob · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In the olden days, if they'd have discovered that some olden day ingredient (bat grease, shark lung etc...) made your ice cream all smooth, I bet they'd have used it in a second. It would now be an accepted part of 'good old ice cream'.

      What I'm saying is that new technology need not necessarily be bad. This stuff might be good. Agree with you about most modern ice cream though. The swine.

      --
      "Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
    3. Re:Mmm, Delicious by illegalcortex · · Score: 4, Informative

      When I was younger, we made it at home from real milk, sugar and a bit of flavoring agent in a hand-turned ice-cream maker and it was yuumm. Very different from the goo they sell today Just curious, but have you ever tried making it at home NOW? These days they have some pretty spiffy ice cream makers in the $40 range. Here's the one I have:
      http://www.cuisinart.com/catalog/product.php?product_id=45&item_id=82&cat_id=10

      It has a sealed bucket filled with some goo with an incredibly low freezing point. You just leave it in the freezer and pull it out when you are ready for ice cream. Put the bucket on the machine and plug it in. You mix up your incredients, which are typically real milk/cream, sugar and a bit of flavoring and dump it in the bucket. Then you turn the machine on. Thirty minutes later, you have ice cream that is already cold enough to eat. MUCH more solid than a lot of the old hand-cranked ones. Stick what you don't eat immediately in a tupperware container in the freezer and finish it at your leisure. Clean up is, as they say, "a breeze."

      Alton Brown did a couple of Good Eats episodes on making ice cream this way. The second one is dedicated to making "premium" style ice cream at home.
    4. Re:Mmm, Delicious by Bluesman · · Score: 5, Funny

      Step 0.5) Remove paint

      --
      If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
    5. Re:Mmm, Delicious by peragrin · · Score: 4, Funny

      no the paint adds color and creamyness, and that sticks to your ribs feeling. Oh and don't forget the nice buzz.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    6. Re:Mmm, Delicious by CodeMunch · · Score: 4, Funny

      When I was younger, we made it at home from real milk, sugar and a bit of flavoring agent in a hand-turned ice-cream maker and it was yuumm. Very different from the goo they sell today

      Shall I get off your lawn? ;)

  2. dear submitter: by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    with your headline, you pass science, but you flunk marketing

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  3. !vegan tag by EVil+Lawyer · · Score: 4, Informative
    Whoever tagged this "!vegan" should probably get a lesson in the difference between vegan and vegetarian.

    I assure you that almost no "ice cream" is actually vegan, because it has CREAM (i.e., from milk) in it. So the addition of this gelatin-extract does not change its status as vegan or non-vegan.

    However, !vegetarian would make sense, since gelatin is made from the animal itself, and ice cream does not generally contain any animal parts (as far as I know!).

    p.s. FWIW, I eat animals myself, but think gelatin (ground horse hooves) is kinda gross.

    1. Re:!vegan tag by maxgraphic · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Gelatin is not (commonly) made from horse hooves.

      "... gelatin is made from by-products of the meat and leather industry, mainly pork skins, pork and cattle bones, or split cattle hides. ... Contrary to popular belief, horns and hooves are not commonly used."

  4. oh wow. another way around doing it right. by Babu+'God'+Hoover · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now we can have ice cream that's been thawed and frozen after a meal of 'fresh' chicken that's been frozen and thawed.

  5. Bah! by jcr · · Score: 4, Funny

    In my day, if we wanted smooth ice cream, we had to mix in ethylene glycol by hand with a leaden spoon! and we were grateful! You kids get off my lawn!

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  6. We don't need this by DaveCBio · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Companies could just make ice cream properly and transport and store it well and not put so much chemical crap into it, but hey then it might cut into their 1500% profit margins.

  7. Edible Anti-Freeze? by nog_lorp · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've always just used car anti-freeze in my ice cream. It's an acquired taste, but it is really delicious!

    1. Re:Edible Anti-Freeze? by edwardpickman · · Score: 4, Funny
      I've always just used car anti-freeze in my ice cream. It's an acquired taste, but it is really delicious!

      So the blindness wasn't caused by too much mastrabation?

  8. Everyone is missing the point by edwardpickman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Real ice cream is made from cream which is expensive. Real Ice Cream maintains it's texture because it's mostly milk fat with very little water. The point is to take milk and cheaper water based products and still get that higher quality texture. This is about saving a buck not producing a higher quality ice cream.

  9. Re:Looks fine to me by kimvette · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It doesn't look fine to me. The soybean oil and soybean-derived mono- and diglycerides put me in bed for 2-3 days when I eat it. What's worse is that manufacturers have been lobbying the FDA to not have to itemize ingredients, particularly soy-derived ingredients.

    Bring back real ice cream, please!

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50