UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1161 
Washington, D. C. T June 7, 1923 
EFFECT OF COMPOSITION ON THE PALATABILITY 
OF ICE CREAM. 
By Owen E. Williams and George R. Campbell, Dairy Manufacturing Specialists, 
Dairy Division, Bureau of Animal Industry. 
CONTENTS. 
Page 
Factors influencing quality of ice cream 1 
Experimental work 2 
Treatment of mixes and conditions of whip- 
ping and freezing 2 
Method of comparing the different ice 
creams 3 
Effect of fat content on palatability of ice 
Page. 
Experimental work — Continued. 
Effect of sugar on palatability of ice cream. . ; 
Effect of milk sohds not fat on palatability 
of ice cream £ 
Effect of gelatin on palatability of ice cream. ( 
Influence of fat content on quantity eaten. . 
Best combinations of ice-cream ingredients. 
cream 4 i Summary 8 
FACTORS AFFECTING QUALITY OF ICE CREAM. 
It has often been said of ice cream that its palatability would be 
impaired by making it rich in milk solids and sugar, particularly if 
the fat content reached or exceeded 14 per cent. The correctness of 
such statements has generally been questioned, although no one has 
ever shown in a systematic way the actual rate at which desirability 
may be altered by using various percentages of fat, sugar, and other 
constituents in the manufacture of ice cream. Manufacturers have 
already obtained much information of this character by experiment- 
ing with different formulas in their factories and comparing the 
results. Many soon found the quality of their product depended on 
three main factors: First, the quantity of milk solids the ice cream 
contained (composition) ; second, the initial quality of each ingredient; 
and third, workmanship. 
In an effort to show how important the first factor, composition, 
may be to the quality of ice cream, several experiments have been 
made to determine what would constitute a relatively good propor- 
tion of each of the three principal classes of solids, namely, fat, cane 
sugar, and milk solids not fat, in the mix. A similar experiment was 
also made with gelatin as an ingredient in ice cream. 
40523°— 23— Bull. 1161 1 
