ICE CREAM MAKING 529 



The binders 

 Gelatin. 



Gelatin is a substance of animal origin. It is the water 

 extractive of bones, and the like, practically identical in charac- 

 ter with the jelly-like mass which the cook expects to find in the 

 pot after a soup bone has been boiled. Gelatin is prepared for 

 use by first dissolving it in hot water, or, better yet, in a portion 

 of the skim-milk with which the over-rich cream is reduced. 

 When this has been heated and stirred until entirely free from 

 small lumps or clots of undissolved gelatin, it is quickly strained 

 into the batch of cream while hot and well stirred. A good and 

 quick way to prepare this binder on a large scale is to put it 

 into a milk-can or pail with small top, to add the desired amount 

 of skim-milk, and then to insert a hose or steam pipe and turn 

 in live steam, stirring actively. 



Gelatin has been used in commercial ice cream for a great 

 many years and is still being used for the purpose of preventing 

 the water, which is normally and naturally present to the amount 

 of about 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the total weight of ice 

 cream, from forming into disagreeable, spiny crystals when the 

 goods have to be held for one or more days. When ice cream is 

 freshly made, only the veteran ice cream maker whose taste is 

 trained can distinguish that in which gelatin has been used from 

 that made without gelatin; but after the product has been 

 packed for twenty-four hours, that from which the binder was 

 omitted will be found to have a coarse texture while that made 

 with gelatin remains fairly smooth and agreeable. This differ- 

 ence continues to exist and, indeed, becomes greater with the 

 lapse of time. 



This substance is not in favor in many states, though its 

 use in ice cream is allowed by the laws of Vermont. Contro- 

 versy is still being waged as to the advisability of its use. 

 Some maintain that the possibilities of its contamination during 

 the process of manufacture are so great that gelatin is not a safe 



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