history of ice cream

facts

stories

storing info

	Britons enjoy an average of 8.1 litres of ice cream but this amount of scooping is dwarfed by the American average of 21 litres. The Italians average was 9.1 litres. Britons are developing their taste for luxury ice cream.
	While many people are only aware of a handful of ice cream companies there are over 1,000 in the UK producing tens of thousands of flavours. Despite this fact, vanilla remains the favourite being chosen nine times out of ten.
	Surveys have shown that men are more likely to choose ice cream as a dessert than women.
	Flavours you'd never thought of and yet they're commercially available: Sorbets: Smoked Salmon, Tomato, Cucumber Ice Creams: Garlic, Avocado, Sweetcorn.
	The major food component in ice cream is milk and, of this, milk protein is the most important. There is more of this in most ice cream than in the same weight of milk. In addition, milk contains calcium and phosphorus which are very important in the building of bone, along with some essential vitamins.
	Fat is also necessary in the proper quantity to provide energy, along with sugar which includes lactose from the milk. Milk fat is especially useful in that it will normally contain Vitamins A and D.
	Another important aspect is that ice cream is very easily taken by sick people and particularly children. Its soothing feel is very helpful if you have a cold or throat infection - or for that morning after feeling!

Dairy Ice Cream
In a product labelled with this name the fat has all to come from milk, while a product labelled "Ice Cream" may contain vegetable fat. The amount of air in ice cream also varies and this is called "overrun". High overrun means a lot of air and the produce tastes "fluffy", low overrun means little air in the product which makes it heavier and scoop for scoop more filling.

Sorbet
These may be frozen either with or without aeration. If frozen without the incorporation of air the product will usually be in the form of an "ice lolly" on a stick. If frozen with air they may be called a "sorbet" or "water ice". They are both made from a mixture based on water, sugar and glucose syrup, fruit pulp, fruit juices, flavours, and some stabiliser to prevent the product from melting too quickly.

Sherbet
These are made from a mix similar to water ices but include some milk or ice cream mix. They will be frozen with the incorporation of air.

Unusual Flavours
The Japanese ice cream market is full of unusual flavours. Flavours include fish ice cream (sanma aisu - a Japanese salt water fish), However it has no fishy smell, as it also contains brandy. Octopus ice cream (taco aisu), squid ice cream (ika aisu), ox tongue ice c ream (gyutan aisu), sweet potato ice cream (yaki imo), fried eggplant ice cream (yaki nasu aisu) and crab ice cream (kami aisu) are among the other unusual flavours. Green tea ice cream known as 'maccha' is often served as a dessert in Japanese restaurants. Maccha is a powdered tea used in Japanese tea ceremonies. Although Japan has many ice cream parlours specialising in these flavours, some do concentrate on more traditional flavours.

Eating ice cream makes you happy, scientific researchers claimed yesterday. They found that people who enjoy eating ice cream are twice as likely to be happy and relaxed than stressed - probably because the ingredients trigger the brain chemical serotonin.