540 MANUAL OF MILK PRODUCTS 



Re-freezing ice cream. 



The taking back of melted ice cream as a practice should 

 be most emphatically discouraged, because of the dangers which 

 arise from the possible decomposition of the product and con- 

 sequent ptomaine poisoning and from the danger of scattering 

 contagious diseases. However, ice cream that for any reason 

 has happened to melt while still new and fresh enough so that 

 there is no danger of decomposition having started, may be 

 refrozen by again placing it in the freezer and treating it as an 

 ordinary run. This second freezing, however, requires a con- 

 siderably longer time than does the initial effort, because of the 

 air it contains ; and, moreover, it is liable so to increase the 

 amount of air contained in the cream, as to cause it to become 

 very fluffy and weak bodied. Such thawed ice cream, if not old, 

 may be mixed with the ordinary new "mix" and run out there- 

 with without likelihood of this difficulty. 

 Butter from ice cream. 



Ice cream which has melted and soured or gone "off flavor" 

 need not be an entire loss. If such stuff is returned to the 

 factory the butter-maker can, by mixing it with a small quantity 

 of skim-milk and souring it yet more, churn it, and, by washing 

 the butter rather more and salting it a little more heavily than 

 usual, produce a butter, which, though not first class, still has 

 market value. It would not be wise to put such a lot of ice 

 cream, even though quite fresh, into the usual batch of cream 

 for butter-making, for the reason that the sugar contained 

 in the ice cream will often ferment enough to give the entire 

 batch a sharp, unpleasant character, and the flavor used in the 

 ice cream will cling to the butter. If the returned ice cream is 

 quite bad, it may, if there is enough of it to pay, be churned out 

 with the least possible amount of labor and the product sold 

 as packing stock, eventually to find its way, with country butter 

 which is no better, into the renovating establishments. This 

 is one method of preventing the total loss of returned goods. 



