How and Why

Why our ice-cream on a stick is so good-tasting?

Because it unites all the healthiest principles of eating: flavour, naturalness, tradition and freshness in a creamy, thick semi-solid structure – otherwise known as ice-cream.

So what turns a mix of good ingredients into ice-cream?

When the water contained in the balanced blend is frozen it turns the blend into ice-cream..

What determines the quality of ice-cream?

The correct answer is the combination of product and production process. The ingredients are essential for the taste and naturalness of the ice-cream and the production process determines the structure and conservation over time.

The water contained in the mixture, when frozen at extremely low temperatures, changes his state of the mixture, becoming from liquid to ice-cream.
In order to produce a good quality ice-cream on a stick, this freezing process must occur as quickly as possible and at the lowest possible temperature.

In this way the water is micro-crystallised, or rather, by freezing it quickly at extremely low temperatures some extremely fine ice crystals are formed – imperceptible to the eye and taste-bud. This physical process gives ice-cream a thick, creamy quality and guarantees long life, maintaining the organoleptic and structural properties unchanged for months.

The deterioration of the ice-cream

As you know, water is the only element in nature that increases in volume when frozen. This condition varies depending on the freezing temperature: the slower the freezing process, the larger the ice crystals within the ice-cream.
The final result, therefore, varies depending on the time we take to freeze the water and the lowest temperature to which we subject our mixture.

Unless frozen at the lowest temperature possible, the crystallisation process continues in the display counter, thereby causing the water contained in the ice-cream to increase in volume and leading to the deterioration of the ice-cream.
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Ice-cream production example using La Ghiacciola:

PRODUCTION TEMPERATURE: -32°C

CONSERVATION TEMPERATURE: -18°C

In these conditions the crystallisation process of water is blocked: by producing ice-cream at a lower temperature than conservation, the water cannot recover the crystallisation process and therefore the crystals cannot grow in size.

THIS PRODUCTIVE PROCESS IS USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF INDUSTRIAL ICE-CREAM; TO REDUCE THE PERCEPTION OF COLD THE MIXTURE IS INFLATED WITH AIR AT 50% CAUSING A LOSS OF TASTE. IN ORDER TO AVOID THIS, FLAVOURINGS ARE REQUIRED TO RESTORE THE TASTE.

Example of production using the batch freezer

In artisanal production using a batch freezer for loose-serve ice-cream, they tend to maintain the following temperatures:

PRODUCTION: -9°C

CONSERVATION: -18°C

IIn such conditions, the crystallisation process is inevitable, and consequently the ice-crystals grow inexorably in size due to the reverse process compared to the example above.

The traditional ice-cream maker defends himself as best he can from this natural crystallisation phenomenon. One possibility is to find recipes and ingredients that allow the ice-cream to be conserved at temperatures similar to that of production, thereby penalising the quality of the product.