514 MANUAL OF MILK PRODUCTS 



Aging a cream tends to better the body of the product. 

 Preferably a cream should not be used until it is twenty-four 

 hours old as cream, or is even two days old ; and if it is held cold 

 (32° to 35° F.) during this time, so much the better. The same 

 cream which, when used within four hours after separation, 

 produces a weak, slushy-bodied article, may, when held at 32° 

 to 35° for twelve or more hours, produce a firm piece of goods. 

 This change is held by some to be due to the rearrangement of 

 the molecules of fat within the fat globule. 



Pasteurized cream makes a weak, slushy, and inferior article, 

 unless it has been held cold for twelve hours or more, when it 

 may yield a thoroughly satisfactory product. But twelve 

 hours' aging is not its only need ; it must have been kept cold 

 for the six hours immediately preceding its use, if the best 

 body and swell are to be secured. 



Fillers. — When it is difficult or impossible to control the 

 condition of the cream which is being used, a small investment 

 made in unsweetened evaporated milk will produce far more 

 and better body than will an equal sum expended directly for 

 butter-fat. Gelatin, also, tends to produce a more satisfactory 

 body. In fact a mature, tempered ice cream which contains no 

 gelatinoid binder is weak and will yield easily to slight pressure, 

 whereas the same cream "mix," made up with gelatin, offers 

 more resistance at any usual temperature of holding and is 

 found to be very slightly elastic under the touch. Wheat or 

 rice flour, or corn starch are not infrequently used in lean 

 creams. They are not needed in rich creams. Naturally the 

 more such materials are used, the more like a pudding and the 

 less like an ice cream the goods become and the firmer will be its 

 body. 

 Texture. 



A smooth, velvety texture is desired in ice cream rather 

 than a coarse-grained mass of crystals. Milk-fat is an excel- 

 lent agent in the production of a smooth cream ; the richer it is, 



