By freezing cream, we make it possible to taste the birth of creaminess, the tantalizing transition from solidity to fluidity
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. Ice cream consists of fresh cream, milk and table sugar. Sugar helps to make the frozen cream softer, but also lowers its freezing point, the dissolved sugar gets in the way as the water molecules settle into ordered crystals
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. The sweetened cream is unable to freeze in the slush because the cream freezes well below the freezing point of water
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. Slush forms as a warm object is placed in the ice mixture. Salts are added to help dissolve the slush. The salts lower its freezing point and allow it to get cold enough to freeze the sugared cream
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. As the ice crystals begin to form from water molecules as the ice cream mix begins to freeze, giving the ice cream its ability to solidify. During freezing, air cells in the mix are disturbed and mixed up. The air cells weaken and break down the matrix made from the ice crystals and cream. The breaking down of the matrix allows the ice cream to become lighter and easier to scoop out.
Ice cream consists of several variations on how it is made. The most popular is the standard or Philadelphia-style ice cream. This kind of ice cream is made from cream and milk, sugar, and a few other minor ingredients
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. French or custard ice creams contains egg yolks along with cream, milk and sugar. Some of these mixes are not made with cream but use milk instead. This type of mixture must be cooked in order to kill any bacteria from the raw yolks.