Creamy Goodness

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Soft serve ice cream is one of my favorite ice creams. Actually, I never met an ice cream I didn’t like. And I found on Google that there is no shortage of t-shirts and hats to show just how much ice cream means to you.  :))))

The things we often take for granted.  The car starts and runs.  The lights go on when you flip a switch.  The televisions, radios and computers just run, and run and run.  My phone connects to the internet and downloads in milliseconds. The washing machine cleans the clothes, and the dryer does its thing too.  I could go on.  But one invention that I’m a BIG fan of is soft ice cream.  Now, I’ll take any type of ice cream for sure – hard scoops of goodness from Mitchell’s or Malley’s here in Cleveland.  Lemon ice after a meal – especially when added to my favorite potent beverage!  But sometimes, when the moment is right, I’m just in the mood for soft ice cream served in a cone. Like you, I pause – sugar cone or traditional or in a cup.  Then comes the toppings (I must say Dairy Queen rocks here – hard shell dip, sprinkle dinkels (brilliant name) a little fudge and peanuts or just plain.  To compound decisions, some offer a “twist” of chocolate and vanilla – brilliant!  As a kid, we’d race on our bikes to meet the Mr. Softie ice cream truck in the neighborhood- I can still remember that music.  And then pass over our pocket full of change, after watching the magic twirl above the cone.  Our girls will tell you while trying not to laugh how Jackie would offer to help them “clean” the soft serve cones so they wouldn’t get messy when they were very young!  She is continuing this tradition with our grandkids! Yesterday was Soft Ice Cream Day,  so I just had to get some trivia and share.  Click on the music link and enjoy the read. And thanks to You Tube, Wikipedia and answers.com.

Mister Softee Ice Cream Truck Theme

Dog is crazy about Eddie the ice cream man

Video: The DQ Twist

Video: How Cones Are Made 

Soft serve, also known as soft ice, is a frozen dairy dessert, similar to ice cream but softer and less dense as a result of air being introduced during freezing.

Soft serve is generally lower in milkfat (3 to 6 percent) than ice cream (10 to 18 percent) and is produced at a temperature of about −4 °C (25 °F) compared to ice cream, which is stored at −15 °C (5 °F). Soft serve contains air, introduced at the time of freezing. The air content, called overrun, can vary from 0 to 60 percent of the total volume of the finished product. The amount of air alters the taste of the finished product.

Products with low quantities of air has a heavy, icy taste and appears more yellow. Ice cream with higher air content tastes creamier, smoother, and lighter and appears whiter. The optimum quantity of air is determined by other ingredients, if any, and individual taste. It is generally accepted that the ideal air content should be between 33 and 45 percent of volume. If more than this, the product loses taste, tends to shrink as it loses air, and melts more quickly than that with less air. Less than 33 to 45 percent, the product will not melt as quickly but will not taste good.

All ice cream must be frozen quickly to avoid crystal growth. With soft serve, this is accomplished by a special machine at the point of sale. Pre-mixed product is introduced to the storage chamber of the machine where it is kept at 3 °C (37 °F). When the product is drawn from the draw valve, fresh mix combined with the targeted quantity of air is introduced to the freezing chamber either by gravity or pump. It is then churned and quickly frozen and stored until required.

While some machines only dispense one flavor of the mix at a time, certain models of soft-serve machines have an additional nozzle that dispenses a mixture of two separate flavors simultaneously. This mixture emerges in a distinct swirl pattern. It is classified as its own separate flavor on menus as swirl or twist.

In the US, soft serve is not sold prepackaged in supermarkets, but is common at fairs, carnivals, amusement parks, restaurants (especially fast food and buffet), and specialty shops. All ice cream must be frozen quickly to avoid crystal growth. With soft serve, this is accomplished by a special machine that holds pre-mixed product at a very low, but not frozen, temperature at the point of sale.

Charles Taylor of Buffalo, New York patented an automatic ice cream maker in 1926 that is reported to be the first soft serve ice cream machine. His Taylor Company continues to manufacture the McDonald’s ice cream machine.

Over Memorial Day weekend of 1934, Tom Carvel, the founder of the Carvel brand and franchise, suffered a flat tire in his ice cream truck in Hartsdale, New York. He pulled into a parking lot and began selling his melting ice cream to vacationers driving by. Within two days he had sold his entire supply of ice cream and concluded that both a fixed location and soft (as opposed to hard) frozen desserts were potentially good business ideas. In 1936, Carvel opened his first store on the original broken down truck site and developed a secret soft serve ice cream formula as well as patented super low-temperature ice cream machines.

Dairy Queen also claims to have invented soft serve. In 1938, near Moline, Illinois, J. F. McCullough and his son, Alex, developed their soft serve formula. Their first sales experiment was August 4, 1938, in Kankakee, Illinois, at the store of their friend, Sherb Noble. Within two hours of the “all you can eat” trial sale, they had dished out more than 1,600 servings—more than once every 4.5 seconds.

The Tin roof sundae (or hot tin roof) was a version of the Cherry sundae sold by Chester Platt in 1893. Platt’s soda fountain in Ithaca New York was popular at the time and several area fountains added various toppings. Chocolate syrup and peanuts made up the “TIN ROOF” topping based on the original sound of the peanuts being removed from the cans in which they were sold, like the sound of rain on a tin roof.

It is a common myth that during the late 1940s, future UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher worked briefly as a chemist for food manufacturer J. Lyons and Co., at a time when the company had partnered with the United States distributor Mister Softie and was developing a soft-serve recipe that was compatible with the American machines.  Thatcher’s precise role at Lyons is unclear, but she is reported to have worked on the quality of cake and pie fillings as well as ice-cream and researched saponification. (never thought of her as a “softie”).

The US produces about 6.4 billion pounds of ice cream treats a year.  #1 flavor – vanilla.

The average American eats 23 pounds of ice cream a year – (and many carry it around with them afterwards).

 

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DO YOU LIKE CONTESTS?
Me, too.
As you may know the Kowalski Heat Treating logo finds its way
into the visuals of my Friday posts.
I.  Love.  My.  Logo.
One week there could be three logos.
The next week there could be 15 logos.
And sometimes the logo is very small or just a partial logo showing.
But there are always logos in some of the pictures.
So, I challenge you, my beloved readers, to count them and send me a
quick email with the total number of logos in the Friday post.
On the following Tuesday I’ll pick a winner from the correct answers
and send that lucky person some great KHT swag.
So, start counting and good luck!  
Oh, and the logos at the very top header don’t count.
Got it? Good.  :-))))
Have fun!!

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What Floats Yours?

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Ahhh…the dog days of summer. When cold refreshing drinks are calling your name. Made from fruits, ice creams and sodas. Fancy and plain. Adult versions for, well, adults. It’s all a great part of summer. Read on for some really tasty recipes.

 

Summer.  August. Hot days. Beautiful nights.  Time for sitting on the back porch and sipping on a tasty float. Yep – big glasses, lots of ice cream, goodies, and bubbly beverages.  Open the windows, and let the breeze blow in, while enjoying yours.  As you know, I pretty much eat, and like, everything. (I am blessed this way!)  Ice cream floats – oh yea, bring ‘em on especially with freshly made popcorn or pretzels or crackers – see my dilemma!  My favorite is (Good ole vanilla ice cream and coke!) Jackie and the girls on the other hand love trying all sorts of different concoctions. They are not ice cream purists like myself – I love ice cream the way it was intended – Vanilla! Here’s some fun trivia, great variations, and a link to wonderful recipes. Thanks to tasteofhome.com, Wikipedia and the inventor of ice cream, King Tang – according to Google, an ice-cream-like food was first eaten in China in 618-97AD. King Tang of Shang, had 94 ice men who helped to make a dish of buffalo milk, flour and camphor – way easier now just going to the grocery store … or was it a kind of ice-cream said to be invented in China about 200 BC when a milk and rice mixture was frozen by packing it into snow… so where did the cherries and strawberries come from??

The ice cream float was invented by Robert McCay Green in Philadelphia, PA in 1874during the Franklin Institute‘s semicentennial celebration. The traditional story is that, on a particularly hot day, Mr. Green ran out of ice for the flavored drinks he was selling and used vanilla ice cream from a neighboring vendor, thus inventing a new drink.
His own account, published in Soda Fountain magazine in 1910, states that while operating a soda fountain at the celebration, he wanted to create a new treat to attract customers away from another vendor who had a fancier, bigger soda fountain. After some experimenting, he decided to combine ice cream and soda water. During the celebration, he sold vanilla ice cream with soda water and a choice of 16 flavored syrups. The new treat was a sensation and soon other soda fountains began selling ice cream floats.
Green’s lastwill and testament instructed that “Originator of the Ice Cream Soda” was to be engraved on his tombstone.
There are at least three other claimants for the invention of ice cream float: Fred Sanders, Philip Mohr, and George Guy, one of Robert Green’s own employees. Guy is said to have absent-mindedly mixed ice cream and soda in 1872, much to his customer’s delight.
In Australia and New Zealand, an ice cream float is known as a “spider”, because once the carbonation hits the ice cream, it forms a spider web-like creation.  In Mexico, it is known as “Helado flotante” (floating ice cream) and in Puerto Rico it’s referred to as a “black out”.
Root beer and Coke are typical carbonating beverages, but many variations exist (see recipes below).  Here are some fun variations – Although Root Beer and Coke are my favorites!

  1. Chocolate ice cream soda – this ice cream soda starts with approximately 1 oz of chocolate syrup, then several scoops of chocolate ice cream in a tall glass. Unflavored carbonated water is added until the glass is filled and the resulting foam rises above the top of the glass. The final touch is a topping of whipped cream and usually, a maraschino cherry. This variation of ice cream soda was available at local soda fountains and nationally, at Dairy Queen stores for many years.  A similar soda made with chocolate syrup but vanilla ice cream is sometimes called a “black and white” ice cream soda.
  2. Root beer float – Also known as a “black cow” or “brown cow”,the root beer float is traditionally made with vanilla ice cream and root beer, but it can also be made with other ice cream flavors. The similarly flavored soft drink birch beer may also be used instead of root beer.
  3. Coke float – A coke float can be made with any cola, such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi, and vanilla ice-cream.
  4. Boston cooler – A Boston cooler is typically composed of Vernors ginger ale and vanilla ice cream.
  5. Snow White – A Snow White is made with 7 Up or Sprite and vanilla ice cream. The origin of this variation is unknown, but it is found in some Asian eateries.
  6. Purple cow – In the context of ice cream soda, a purple cow is vanilla ice cream in purple grape soda. In a more general context, a purple cow may refer to a non-carbonated grape juice and vanilla ice cream combination.
  7. Sherbet cooler – The American Friendly’s chain also had a variation known as a “sherbet cooler,” which was a combination of orange or watermelon sherbet, vanilla syrup and seltzer water. (At present, it is billed as a “slammer”.)
  8. Vaca-preta – At least in Brazil and Portugal, a non-alcoholic ice cream soda made by combining vanilla ice cream and coca-cola is known as vaca-preta (“black cow”).
  9. Helado flotante – In Mexico the most popular version is made with cola and lemon sherbet.
  10. Orange float – An orange float or orange whip consists of vanilla ice cream and orange soft drinks.
  11. Beer float – adult version is Guinness stout, Chocolate ice cream, and espresso. Although the Shakin’ Jesse versionis blended into more of a milkshake consistency, most restaurant bars can make the beer float version. When making at home, the beer and espresso should be very cold so as to not melt the ice cream.
  12. Nectar soda – A flavor popular in New Orleans and parts of Ohio, made with a syrup consisting of equal parts almond and vanilla syrups mixed with sweetened condensed milk and a touch of red food coloring to produce a pink, opalescent syrup base for the soda.
  13. Melon cream soda – Cream soda with melon flavor is a common drink in Japan. Melon soda is served with ice and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

 

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