Ice Cream: Solids, Water, Ice

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This post is addendum to the post on How To Build a Recipe, and the post on Sugars. I want to clarify the importance of solids—which is really a reflection of the importance of water. These are key ideas—if you master them, you will be well on your way to texture Ninjahood.

Scanning electron micrograph of ice crystals

We’ve discussed how ice cream is made up of three physical systems: an emulsion (fats suspended in water); a foam (air dispersed in a solid fat network); and a sol (solid water dispersed in liquid water).

Here we’re going to look at that sol—the interactions of water and ice. And we’re going to look at the effects of all the nonfat solids that are dissolved or suspended in the water.

It’s important—and instructive—that the ice is mostly pure water. This is the case because freezing acts as a purifying process; when ice crystals form, they expel dissolved and suspended solids. The result, besides much lower concentrations of stuff in the ice, is an increased concentration of stuff in the liquid portion of the water. 

This phenomenon is called Fractional Freezing. It creates an interesting system in which there’s no single freezing temperature for ice cream, or for any water-based solution. Instead there’s a temperature range between the extreme points where none of the water is frozen and where all of it is frozen. Between these points, you get a mix. The colder the temperature, the greater the proportion of frozen water, and the higher the concentration of solutes in the liquid water.

Fractional freezing works because of the colligative properties of water regarding freezing point depression.* The stronger a solution, the lower the freezing point. So when a bit of a solution freezes, strengthening the concentration of the remaining liquid portion, that liquid’s freezing point drops. And so on. This process is continuous and self-regulating. And pretty cool. 

So What? 

We need ice to make ice cream, but we don’t want too much. With too much ice, you get a popsicle. In order to have a lower proportion of ice, we need a higher proportion of other stuff. 

Some of that other stuff is fat. But we likewise don’t want too much, or the ice cream will be too rich and the flavors too muted. Some of that other stuff is air, but we really don’t want too much of that, or the ice cream will be too fluffy and insubstantial. 

The remainder is liquid water, and dissolved or dispersed nonfat solids. These two are intimately related, because 

1) the more nonfat solids, the lower the percentage of total water, and

2) the more nonfat solids, the greater the portion of that water that stays liquid

So, in general, solids are good. Solids with low molecular weights** depress the freezing point the most, while all solids displace some of the water. 

We especially like milk solids—specifically the nonfat portion—because they effectively concentrates the milk. We get more of the functional qualities of milk, like emulsification, freezing point depression, and improved body, but without added water. And milk tastes good, the way ice cream should.

Sometimes we get solids from the flavor ingredients: chocolate and cocoa, fruit pulp, nut butters, matcha powder, coffee solids, etc.

Remember from the How to Build a Recipe post, we typically aim for the following levels of solids in a well-balanced recipe:

Nonfat Milk Solids: 10-12%. Or higher for low-fat ice cream.

(everything in milk besides the water and fat)

Total Nonfat Solids: 22–25% 

(everything in the ice cream besides water, alcohol, and fats)

Total Solids: 37–42%

(total nonfat solids plus total fat. everything besides water and alcohol)

If solids levels are too low, ice cream can lack body, freeze too hard, and may have textural problems like iciness. If solids levels are too high, ice cream can be excessively chewy or cakey. If the milk solids specifically are too high, you can get grainy textures. 

Just remember that by managing the solids, you’re managing the water.

Periodic Table of the Elements. The number int the top left of each box is that element's atomic mass (when a molecule is made of many atoms, we add the individual atomic masses together to find the Molecular Mass). Lower number = smaller molecule = more molecules at a given weight = greater freezing point depression.

*Colligative properties are based on concentration of dissolved solutes in the water, and on the size of their molecules, but not on any special chemical qualities of those solutes. Two equally concentrated solutions of two chemicals that have the same molecular weight will depress the freezing point of water equally. This is handy to know; it gives us just two values to consider when adjusting ice cream’s hardness.

**Molecular Wuh?? The molecular weight (also called molecular mass) of substance is a number that tells us the size and mass of its individual molecules. Molecules are made of atoms, and atoms are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons and neutrons have equal mass, while the electrons are so tiny and insubstantial that we can ignore them. So the molecular weight is the total number of protons and neutrons. 

A high molecular weight means the individual molecules are relatively massive. This means that a gram of something with a high molecular weight contains fewer molecules than something with a low molecular weight. And this, in turn, is why substances with a low molecular weight are more powerful at depressing the freezing point: for a given mass, there are more individual molecules in dispersion in the water, exerting their colligative influence. 

Next post: infusing flavor (yes, we’re eventually getting to the good stuff)

Part 1 of this series: Introduction

Part 2 of this series: Components

Part 3 of this series: How to Build a Recipe

Part 4 of this series: Basic Recipe Examples

Part 5 of this series: Techniques

Part 6 of this series: Sugars

Part 7 of this series: Stabilizers
Part 8 of this series: Emulsifiers
Part 9 of this series: Booze
Part 10 of this series: Solids, Water, Ice
Part 11 of this series: Introduction to Flavor
Part 12 of this series: Ice Cream Flavor: Coffee

Part 13 of this series: Coffee Ice Cream Addendum: Origin Notes and Minutiae
Part 14 of this series: Chocolate Ice Cream

Part 15 of this series: Chocolate Ice Cream Addendum