Dear Food Doc: I just had the best ice cream ever at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. UW Madison makes their own Babcock brand ice cream on campus. Why is the UW ice cream so much better than University of Nebraska? Is it just the Wisconsin cows or is there more dairy science involved?
-- Signed UW alum living in Lincoln
My goodness, what blasphemy! And just days before our Huskers take on those big bad badgers from up north.
Sure, Wisconsin is “America’s Dairyland” state, but does that necessarily mean their university makes the “best ice cream ever”? Let’s review what it takes to make really good ice cream.
First, you have to start with the very best ingredients. Most important is fresh cream. While location may be important in real estate, cream from Nebraska cows is just as good as cream from Wisconsin.
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Cream provides richness, creaminess, and fullness. Most ice creams contain enough cream to give 10 percent fat, but the more the better. Premium brands like Ben and Jerry’s and Haagen-Dazs contain up to 15-20 percent fat.
For the record, the ice cream made at the UNL Dairy Store contains about 12 percent fat, the same as the University of Wisconsin dairy store. However, Wisconsin also makes a few premium flavors with much more cream.
Perhaps you enjoyed your alma mater ice cream from Wisconsin more than UNL ice cream because you ate one of their premium flavors. If so, comparing the two would not be a fair comparison.
Let’s briefly consider the other ingredients. The source of sweetener is also critical. Regular sugar is generally consider to be the best. However, many expert ice creamologists also add a small amount of corn syrup to enhance smoothness and mouthfeel.
Of course, you cannot make great ice cream without high quality flavoring agents. Real vanilla might be expensive, but there is no comparison between the real thing and artificial versions. The same goes for fruit and other flavors.
That’s nearly all you need to make ice cream. However, most commercial ice creams also contain emulsifiers and stabilizers to improve texture, melting properties and prevent ice crystal formation. The latter is one of the main defects in ice cream and this is why you see ingredients like carrageenan or guar gum in ice creams. At Wisconsin, they use gelatin for this purpose.
The final ingredient is also the cheapest. If you place a mixture of cream, milk, sugar, and flavor in your freezer, what you get is a concoction that is hard and unpalatable. What’s missing is air. By whipping in air, the ice cream becomes softer, lighter and voluminous.
Obviously, it would be tempting to incorporate as much free air as possible. Regular commercial ice cream contains about 50 percent air, which is the legal maximum. In contrast, premium brands contain only about 20 to 25 percent air. They cost more, but you get more actual ice cream.
Your regular Wisconsin ice cream, by my calculation, is about 40 percent air. That’s just about the same as the UNL Dairy Store ice cream.
The bottom line is that the ice cream from the UNL and UW dairy store have very similar compositions. Of course, the final product is more than the sum of its parts. Mixing, pasteurizing, freezing and storage conditions also influence product quality.
As I recall from my last visit to Madison several years ago, the UW-made ice cream was pretty good. But best ever? I’m from St Louis, so I don’t think Wisconsin even makes the best beer.
Bob Hutkins is the Food Doc. He is a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he teaches and conducts research in food science and food microbiology. Send your questions on any topic related to food, food safety, food ingredients and food processing to the Food Doc at features@journalstar.com.