Where did July go? It seems like just yesterday we were talking about the start of National Ice Cream Month, encouraging everyone to indulge in a double scoop of their favorite flavor, professing our undying love for ice cream and everything ice cream related. And now it’s July 31st. (sigh)

But if there’s one thing we learned during this delicious 31-day journey, it’s that we don’t need an excuse to celebrate ice cream. You said that time and again in your comments. “Every month is ice cream month!” was a common refrain. We agree. Especially August. It’s HOT in August. September can be pretty warm too. And October, as the first smell of autumn hits the air…well, nothing beats ice cream in October. Except for ice cream in November.

You get the idea.

Thanks for making this one of the best National Ice Cream Months ever and thanks for all your comments throughout the month. It seems like we gained a lot of new readers and we’re happy to have you onboard. Our goal for July was to post a new entry every day, and we did that (except for last Saturday…technology can be tricky sometimes). We’ll be going back to our normal entry schedule now—about three times a week. We hope that’s enough to sustain your craving for ice cream knowledge. If it’s not, just let us know with a comment!

Speaking of comments, since this is the last entry of the month, it will be your last chance to enter to win a ONE YEAR supply of ice cream. We’ll choose one July comment at random to receive the grand prize and four comments—no, make that TEN comments (we’re feeling nostalgic and generous at the end of National Ice Cream Month)—will receive a ONE MONTH supply of ice cream. Good luck!

That ribbon of vanilla-meets-chocolate running down the center of this photo is almost hypnotic. Your eye travels down the ice cream and back to the top, waiting for it to drip, drip, drip. Thanks to Joits over on Flickr for taking this one and letting us feature it here.

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday. The software we use to automatically post on the weekends must have had a hiccup. Hopefully this recipe makes up for it. It’s really just balls of ice cream rolled in various toppings, but it sounds fun and looks nice. Like most ice cream recipes it’s versatile too. Feel free to substitute various crushed up goodies for the malt balls, Heath bars or Pay Day bars. For a more upscale truffle appearance, we suggest using chocolate shavings or sliced almonds. You can also try dipping the ice cream balls in melted chocolate and then rolling it in the topping. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pint vanilla ice cream

• 10 malt balls, finely chopped (1/2 cup)

• 2 Heath bars, finely chopped (1/2 cup)

• 2 PayDay bars, finely chopped (1/2 cup)

• 10 ounces white chocolate

DIRECTIONS:

1. Line 2 small baking sheets with parchment paper or foil. Freeze for 10 minutes. Remove 1 sheet.

2. Using a melon baller, scoop the ice cream to form 1-inch balls and place on sheet. Return sheet to freezer.

3. Repeat this process with second sheet. Freeze the balls for 30 minutes.

4. Arrange the chopped malt balls, Heath bars, and PayDays on small plates. Working with 1 baking sheet at a time, roll the ice cream balls in the toppings, using your hands to gently press in the toppings. Freeze for 30 minutes.

5. For the white chocolate truffles, melt the chocolate in a bowl in a microwave or in the top of a double boiler. Dip the chilled balls, one at a time, into the melted chocolate. Remove with a fork, letting the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Freeze for 30 minutes.

Since we started the blog, we’ve heard from a lot of people who used to live in Pennsylvania or other areas where Turkey Hill Ice Cream is available but have since moved away. The result is a nagging craving for Turkey Hill. Sure, they try to fill that void with “another brand,” but that doesn’t always work.

If you or someone you know is among these long distance Turkey Hill lovers, you’ll be happy to hear that we offer packages of ice cream shipped right to your door. That’s right, you can still enjoy Mango Duetto (or any other Turkey Hill flavor) even if you live in Los Angeles or Topeka or El Paso.

We won’t lie, shipping ice cream isn’t cheap, what with all the dry ice and special handling (four 48-ounce or 56-ounce containers costs $86). But if you’ve gotta have some Turkey Hill, you’ve gotta have some Turkey Hill. If you want to order some Moose Tracks for yourself—or if you’re lucky enough to live in a Turkey Hill area and want to surprise someone with a shipment—check out this page for more information.

A few days ago we posted an entry about the homogenizer and its role in the ice cream making process (it breaks up the cream so that it mixes well with the rest of the ingredients to make a smooth, creamy finished product). Many of you posted questions about the homogenizer in your comments, so we turned to Ernie for the answers. Here’s what he had to say: 

1. What does (the homogenizer) weigh when it’s full?

Product is constantly passing throught the homogenizer at the rate of 38,000 to 40,000  pounds per hour.

2. How many gallons of cream do you mix at a time?

It varies, but we do process around 500,000 pounds of ice cream mix a day.

3. When you add the cream to the rest of the ingredients, how many gallons of ice cream do you get from one batch?

That depends upon the flavor, and how much of the really “good stuff” (fudge, pecans, chocolate chips, cookie, cookie dough, etc) is added.  After making a large batch of ice cream mix it is flavored in smaller quantities, frozen and whipped in a continuous freezer, after which the good stuff is added and then it is packaged.

4. How did they make ice cream without the homogenizer?

In the days before the homogenizer, they would have mixed together the milk, cream and sugar and then placed this mixture in a batch freezer to be frozen. Ice cream during this period was sold close to the manufacturing plant and was meant to be consumed quickly.

5. If the homogenizer is so important, then why does home churned ice cream tastes so good?

That has a lot to do with the temperature of the ice cream, and the fact that it is consumed immediately after churning (similar to question #4). Ice cream begins freezing around 27 degrees F and the best flavor release is in the high teens.

6. How much does one homogenizer cost?

Depending on size it could run anywhere from $125,00 to $250,000, plus another $50,000 to $75,000 for installation.

7. Are the different ingredients put in the machine in the same order all the time?

In order to make a quality ice cream you must follow a recipe for quantity and blending order of all of the ingredients.

8. I wonder how long it takes to clean the homogenizer between batches?

The homogenizer and blend tanks associated with this process along with several other pieces of equipment are washed daily and take about 6 hours to clean.

9. If the cream wasn’t homogenized and you still made ice cream with it, would it separate in the ice cream carton or would it actually just not mix well to begin with?

You’re right about it not mixing well, but the frozen state of the ice cream would keep it from separating in the package.

We snuggle up with a big bowl of ice cream when we watch movies at home. Why don’t we have the same option when we watch a movie at the theater? It’s a shame. But it wasn’t always that way, as evidenced by the guest entry below.

(Originally posted on  March 1, 2007)

Not long ago we got an e-mail from 79-year-old Augie S. from Hamilton, New Jersey. We loved his story so much that we asked him if we could share it here on our blog and he happily obliged. And so, we present the Ice Cream Journal’s first guest blogger, Augie S.:

I would like to tell a little story related to ice cream.

I am 79 years old, and when I was about 12 years old, I had a part-time job in a movie theatre (the Luna Theater in Brooklyn, New York), which my older cousins were in charge of. My job was to walk up and down the aisle during the movies saying, “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” Then people would raise their hand and I would sell it to them.

Today, people would yell if someone would sell anything in that manner in a movie theater. I laugh whenever I think of those days!

We’re sure Augie was a welcome sight in those theaters on a hot summer day, but what do you think? Ice cream in movie theaters: An idea worth revisiting or a sticky mess waiting to happen?

One of the most important ingredients in ice cream is, not surprisingly, the cream. But cream has a tendency to float in milk or other liquid mixtures because it’s lighter and it doesn’t always like to play by the rules.

That’s where the homogenizer comes in. The homogenizer is one of the most powerful machines in the Turkey Hill Dairy. It’s basically a high pressure pump (up to 2500 psi), that shears the ice cream mix at extremely high rate of speed. This process breaks the heavy cream into tiny molecules which allows them to mix freely with the rest of the ingredients in ice cream to create a smooth and creamy, finished product.

On the left is a picture of a homogenizer. It’s not much to look at, but it’s a pretty important part of the ice cream making process.

Jean from Ohio asks:

Ernie, how long have you been on that job and how much weight have you gained? If you haven’t gained any weight, what’s your secret?

Thanks for your question, Jean. I started in the “Dairy Business” at 18 months of age, delivering an empty milk bucket to my dad for him to fill after he was finished milking the cows. I’ve been here at Turkey Hill for the last 14 years and actually over the past year I’ve been able to lose more than 40 pounds.

Eating sensibly with portion control and exercising regularly are the driving forces behind my fitness plan. But I still make room for ice cream by treating it as a reward to myself. Yes, you can literally have your Turkey Hill Ice Cream and eat it too!

Ernie

P.S. - I just noticed that this month’s poll crossed the 4,000 vote mark this weekend. That’s a lot of votes! I’d like to thank everyone who’s been reading the Ice Cream Journal and leaving comments throughout the month. It’s fun to hear from so many different people and even though we can’t respond to all of your comments personally, we do read and appreciate all of them.

A while back we wrote about a scientific study that proved that eating ice cream made people happy. Whoever painted this sign on this barn in Plymouth, Wisconsin many years ago already knew that. We like barn advertising, even though there’s not a lot of it in Lancaster County. Barn ads were probably frowned upon when they first started. Maybe people thought it was an eyesore. But over the years, these weathered and faded rural billboards have developed a sort of nostalgic quality that reminds you of the simpler times your parents and grandparents like to talk about.

Talk about simple. This dessert only takes 10 minutes to prepare, yet looks like it took a lot longer. And like the name says, orange sherbet plus vanilla ice cream equals a dreamsicle. You can’t argue with that.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened

• 1 (9 inch) graham cracker crust

• 1 pint orange sherbet, softened

• 2 cups whipped topping

• 1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges

• 2 tablespoons coconut, toasted

DIRECTIONS

1. Spread ice cream into crust; spread sherbet over ice cream. Freeze for at least 3 hours. Top with whipped topping. Cover and freeze. At least 30 minutes before serving, remove pie from freezer; arrange oranges on top and sprinkle with coconut.