I decided to purchase store bought ice cream after years of just buying from places like Cold Stone. It seems to me most ice cream manufacturers have very soft ice cream now despite storing it in a freezer for a week straight. I could easily drop a spoon in the tub and watch it cut straight through to the bottom. The consistency is now kind of disgusting because it feels like I’m eating whipped cream instead of something that should be semi solid. So far I’ve tried Tillamook, Dryer’s, and Target’s in house brand and they all have that same mushy texture.
Before anyone suggests it’s my freezer, I’ve kept it relatively uncluttered and everything else stays frozen just fine. I also make sure not to purchase those tubs of “Frozen Dairy Dessert”. What happened? Is this some cost cutting measure or are customer’s preferences really going to extremely soft textures?
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Copious amounts of gums and max overruns (adding air) together result in softer texture when frozen, which the average consumer likes, and higher yields, which the producer likes.
Essentially you’re buying 40% air with most brands, and the other 60% is not entirely cream & sugar & flavors. Try gelato or a local producer.
“Is my freezer the problem? No, it’s every ice cream manufacturer that’s wrong.”
I’ve bought Target’s store brand ice cream fairly recently and it was a perfectly normal consistency, for what it’s worth. Maybe it’s regional?
What brand are you buying?
Please see the post. Tillamook, Dryer’s, and Target’s in-house brand.
Those don’t sound like any brands I’ve ever seen or heard of, which was why I was confused (and which might explain the problem).
A lot of ice cream makers have started manufacturing a substance which is a little more like plastering putty with sugar mixed in. Presumably it is cheaper than the ice cream substance which they used to make.
I recommend Häagen-Dazs. Turkey Hill is alright but it seems to have succumbed a little bit to the putty consistency. The Costco stuff is decent too. Get vanilla, then mix it up in the bowl with a strong spoon, to soften it, with big chunky chocolate chips (also available from Costco) sprinkled generously within it and then stirred in during the preparation phase.
Hope this helps
Tillamook has a weird fluffly texture and would be good otherwise. I haven’t had Breyer in a while, but recall that is used to be good. The Ultra Premium, or whatever dumb name is has, at Aldi is good.
Breyer’s has become an unrecognizable watery filth
It’s a shame because they used to be pretty good a few decades ago.
Yeah. They used to be the OG good stuff. No more. 😢
That’s disappointing.
Cold Stone is soft because they slap it around on that cold slab of stone before they put it in a cup or cone.
IDK what could be wrong with your store bought. Or maybe what’s right… The last few times I’ve gotten some ice cream, shits rock hard and full of ice crystals from having been melted and refrozen god knows how many times.
I do know a trick to find what ice cream has better ingredients though. Find two or more brands in the same size container, and then see which one actually weighs more. They’ll all be in ounces or some fluid measurement, and the weight will be heavier in the ones with fewer fillers.
i think ice cream shops in general keep their ice cream at higher temperatures than a typical residential freezer. our freezers at home are super cold for maximum preservation, but ice cream shops are more concerned about optimum ice cream consistency for single servings.
Experimenting with the freezer’s settings didn’t cause too much of a change with the ice cream’s texture. Max and minimum temperatures had pretty much no impact. I’ve even opened the tub right after purchasing and it still had the same issue. If the store’s freezers couldn’t keep it somewhat solid, then I can only assume it’s deliberately been made this way now.
Sorry you’re having this issue. It doesn’t line up with my recent experiences with ice cream. I’d recommend trying a different freezer (or multiple different freezers) with the same brand and see if the hardness is different. My bet is it’s not cold enough.
Are you always storing it in the same place in your freezer? Even if your freezer is the correct temperature it can still sometimes have spots where things don’t freeze properly.
i could easily drop a spoon in the tub and watch it cut straight through to the bottom.
Dude, if this is true, your freezer is not cold enough.
I will second this, please buy a thermometer or two. I like the ones that tell you the min/max temp its recorded. (Random example, never bought this particular one, check reviews etc.
I looked at multiple sources to double check the correct temperature, many agree that the freezer should be at 0°F (-18°C)). Water freezes (and by extention most everything else) at 32°F (0°C), siginficatly higher than the recommended 0. Here’s the sceinific Wikipedia article about why, TLDR: not every food freezes at 0°C, so set freezer low enough everything will freeze.
I found this article that goes over all kinds of food storage info (fridge and how the produce drawers work, freezer temp, pantry etc.)
https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/refrigerator-freezer-use-and-temperature-tips
While you wait for your thermometer, ensure
nothing is blocking the freezer vents(you said you did that) and turn that thing up.The non-scientific, not recommended check; Your icecream should roughly be something in between a rock and butter. If its a rock, its too cold, and its its butter/soup its too warm.
Just to clarify, what temperature do you set your freezer at and does it stay that temp of do you notice it fluctuating more than a few degrees throughout the day?
I don’t have a thermocouple to slide into the freezer but I can confidently say water and even broth (which should have a freezing point depression due to the added salt) stays frozen no matter what temperature setting I pick and the time of day. It’s very likely then that it stays below 0 degrees C.
Freezers average -15 to -20C. Saying that your freezer temp is below 0 is like saying your fridge is above 0 - there’s a wide range there, and doesn’t give us much info to work with.
Your fridge is not working like it should.
Of course store-bought ice cream is soft. Have you noticed that they sell ice cream by volume and not by weight? They just add some more stabilizers, and basically “blow up” the mass with Nitrogen. Every liter of Nitrogen is a liter of ice cream more sold. Basically profit from the air. It is hard to get a cheaper ingredient except maybe water. And that is a bit harder to conceal.
Several years ago when I lived in PA I frequented an independent ice cream shop that made their own in house. He complained about all the air added to commercial ice cream lately. He had a conversion rate for how many pounds a gallon should weigh and would weigh his containers to ensure he sold the correct amount. Some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had, and had exotic flavors too such as Kulfi (cardamom) and ginger. Search Nutz about Ice Cream in Bethlehem PA. I was just thinking about him the other day and his ginger ice cream. The eggnog at the end of the year is amazing too. The “regular” flavors year round are good as well. I know he ships across the country, I’ve never looked into it yet.
Sounds like your freezer isn’t actually getting cold enough for the ice cream. Semi-melted Tilamook will get whipped-esque if not cold enough. Put a digital thermometer in there for a while and see what temp it’s holding! No ice cream is “drop metal into it and it slides to the bottom” unless it’s not cold enough
As for ice cream consistency, afaik more cream content (which is better ice cream) will be softer at the same temperature compared to ice cream with more water content (shit ice cream). Breyers regular (I think they have a fancy attempt with more cream) is pretty watery, Tilamook is creamed up
(Do you notice a lot of frost on stuff? That is a sign of a bad seal and (humid) air is getting in)
It’s your freezer. I’ve also been buying Tillamook lately because it is softer and creamier: I can scoop it with an ice cream scoop. I certainly can’t drop a spoon in it, nor can I usually scoop it without destroying a normal spoon. I have to assume that you’re either using hyperbole or your freezer is not working correctly
Before anyone suggests it’s my freezer, I’ve kept it relatively uncluttered and everything else stays frozen just fine. I also make sure not to purchase those tubs of “Frozen Dairy Dessert”. What happened? Is this some cost cutting measure or are customer’s preferences really going to extremely soft textures?
It’s both. Commercial ice cream is either overchurned to add more air, making it lighter and softer, or uses a lot of additives. You have to buy “premium” brands to get real ice cream, or get it from a local ice cream place.
It also sounds like your freezer is not cold enough. I know because I’m dealing with a similar issue. My freezer is cold enough to keep everything frozen, except ice cream. My freezer was only getting down to 20°F which is cold enough for most things, but ice cream needs 0°F to stay frozen/hard. It’s time to buy a new freezer.
