Maybe I am going crazy, but I have noticed a difference about ice cream and its only been Maybe the last 8-10 years was when I first noticed it.
Ice cream from the supermarket doesn’t seem to melt properly, and is also way too soft. This seems most noticeable in novelties now, but also most hard ice cream as well.
Did they add some component to make it softer or less likely to freezer burn? Am I just going crazy?
(US, but I assume anywhere else where the same brands are sold have had the same issue.)
Make sure the words Ice Cream are on the container, otherwise it is only a frozen dairy dessert. You will be surprised how many are not really ice cream.
Lots of stuff in the store isn’t even labeled ice cream anymore…
More fillers, less milk, less actual sugar, and no egg.
A trick I learned how to find better quality ice cream is to compare the weights on same liquid ounce packages. The one that weighs more will be the one with more real food ingredients and less artificial shit like fillers, emulsifiers, flavors and other additives.
Price can also be an indicator; cheap ice cream is almost always crappy ice cream.
They also are just always trying to figure out how to trap more air in the ice cream, so that reduces the weight too.
This is called overrun and is the main way you get shorted on product. More overrun means a creamier feeling product, but it also means you get less. So there’s that.
No, but that’s also just after I lost my sweet tooth so you’re probably asking the wrong person here. If you’d asked me a decade earlier I’d probably have a much more cromulent answer
Yes on both accounts. It is frozen whipped topping. It had enough air to hold its shape when it melts.
I’m more annoyed with the shrinkflation of increasing the aeration and how almost every brand shrunk their standard size from 1.75qt to 1.5qt (1656mL to 1420mL)
Umpqua was the last holdout in my area before they caved.
And the 1.75 qt was from a previous shrinkflation from the 2 qt size that used to be standard. I just quit buying ice cream because I’m tired of the BS.
Its 50% air now. Costs the same price but half the cost u manufacture cos it half air. Good ol shrinkflation.
This reminds me of this ice cream I used to buy as a kid called the Snow Storm. I’ve eaten it over the years and one day the packaging slightly changed with a new emblem that stated now made with real ice cream. That’s when I started questioning all ice creams. Nowadays I’m more aware of ice cream as opposed to a frozen dessert or treat which a lot of “ice creams” now have on their packaging here at least in the US.
Haagen Daaz has been the only brand worth buying for at least a decade now.
Häagen-Dazs is always disappointing though because they use skim milk instead of full fat cream. Tillamook is so much better.
I recently started buying Tillamook, and it is sooo much better than the other brands. It kind of ruined the other brands for me now, I’ll buy them on sale and then be disappointed that I did when I eat it.
pretty much everything except soft serve tastes odd to me nowadays. even higher quality ice creams have this really artificial super sweet flavor that is not for me
Freezers are far more efficient and able to compensate for the ambient temperatures. I appreciate the softer stuff. But remember having to de ice freezers in my youth.
Big ice cream figured out churning is a pain in the ass. So now they just whip it and freeze it in bulk. It’s not the same product at all.
One thing most have done is incorporate more air, as part of shrinkflation. That makes it more soft because it’s less actual product.
Yep - overrun.
You see this mostly in cheaper brands.
Gums like guar and xanth. In small amounts they make ice cream better and help keep ice crystals small. I use them in my homemade ice cream.
Used in larger amounts they replace fat at the cost of taste and mouth feel. That’s what makes the ice cream stay a gel at room temp.
there is a segment on German public TV if that’s any help https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/zdfzeit/zdfzeit-tricks-der-lebensmittelindustrie-mit-sebastian-lege-104.html#xtor=CS5-95
(Starts at 13:15 min). from what i remember it shows the same pattern mentioned by other commenters. vegetable fats instead of milk, thickeners, stabilizers, artificial flavors.
vegetable fats instead of milk, thickeners, stabilizers, artificial flavors.
Aka goyslop
