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Ice, cream, the typical cold Italian treat which is famous the
world over, has high nutritional value; soft and thick at the
same time, flavoursome, refreshing and genuine and, especially
if it is homemade fresh daily, is a joy for the eyes and the
palate, just right for persons of any age.
It's made up of a blend of various ingredients in a stable
solution suitably balanced, pasteurized, homogenized, cold
cured and churned, then held at an adequate freezer
temperature.
The mixture represents the first phase that consists in
putting together the ingredients which come together to make
ice cream in the times and methods which will be explained,
the basis for each specific flavour.
When the various solid ingredients have been dissolved in the
liquid ingredients in very fine particles that are intimately
bound and stay that way, as stabile solutions formed.
This important result, necessary to obtain good texture of the
ice cream, is achieved with the rights amounts of the
ingredients and with the various operations which consist in
heating the liquid parts and subsequent dispersion in sugar,
fats, and other solids, and in keeping them amalgamated and
equally distributed i all of the subsequent phases in the
process. This is the function of the milk protein, egg, fruit,
stabilizers and emulsions.
A SIMPLE CLASSIFICATION
If we were to try to classify the main categories of ice cream
products (voluntarily excluding the wide array of chilled
deserts which would necessitate an entire chapter of their
own) we would proceed in the following way: water or milk
based granite (shaved ice); water-based (fruit or citrus
fruit-based, or wine/liqueur bases) sorbets; cream-bases (egg
or cream), fruit (water or milk-based) ice cream.
NUTRITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
It almost seems pointless, or at least repetitive, to say that
today ice cream doesn't have to be considered simply as a
voluptuous food category, a treat for children, or simple
refreshment good for temporarily cooling you off in the summer
heat, but as a complete food which has no contra-indications.
Despite this, our country (among those countries with a
marketeconomy and high quality of life) has a per-capita
consumption of ice cream that is only slightly higher than
France and Germany. What is more, the consumption of ice cream
in Italy (country with a moderate Mediterranean climate) is
generally relegated to the summer season, while the greatest
consumers, year-round, are North American countries (including
Canada and Northern Europe (including Sweden) where
the summer season is shorter and the winters are longer
and colder than ours. The answer for this apparent paradox is
simple. In Anglo-Saxon countries ice cream is practically
considered to be a food at the same level as milk, butter,
jams, meat or fish. This is not only because of its high
nutritional value but also thanks to the fact that it is
offered in so many flavours and is presented in such a
pleasant manner.
Let's look briefly at the main components of our product and
its active nutritional principles.
A classification of the ingredients used in the production of
homemade ice cream could be organized in the following manner:
dairy products (milk, cream, butter, condensed sweetened and
non-sweetened milk, powdered milk); sweeteners (saccharose,
dextrose, glucose syrup, inverted sugar, fructose, lactose)
flavourings (cocoa, chocolate, nut paste - hazeInut, etc.,
fruit - juice and pulp, natural aromas; various products (egg,
fats - animal and vegetable - additives, alcohol, food
coloring.
When we speak of "characteristics contained" in ice
cream from a dietary and nutritional view-point, all of the
above mentioned ingredients should be broken down and
regrouped according to the needs of the human body.
Thus we have:
Water : hydrologic need. Water has a constructive function in
that it is the vehicle that carries construction materials we
need for our bodies.
Glycosides : energy need. Glycosides, or glucides or
carbohydrates that encompass all sugars, are nutritional
factors of enormous energetic importance and immediate
utilization.
Lipids: energy need. Lipids (animal or vegetable facts)
are indispensable to the human organism and are more or less
present in almost all foods, with the exception of sugars.
Proteids: plastic-constructive needs. Protieds, or proteins, are the
principle elements in the nourishment of human beings and the
etymology of the word suggests their importance. They are
called proteins, from the Greek word "protos," which
means "first," to indicated their primary
nutritional importance.
Minerals: mineral elements need. These com-ponents are
indispensable for normal execution of the food's nutritional
functions.
Vitamins: vitaminic needs. Their presence in necessary in the
regulation of the reactions of the utilization of food.
Taken altogether, homemade ice cream contains all of these
active essential principles for complete nutrition.
We must only remember the prevalence of milk in ice cream, in
which an infant would find all that he needs: water,
glycosides, lipids, proteids, mineral salts and vitamins. If
we compare the nutritional values of milk with ice cream, we
will find a greater concentration in the latter. This of
course does not mean that man can feed only on ice cream, just
as one could not live only by consuming milk. The comparison
is meant to highlight the highly complete characteristics in
addition to the high biological and energetic value of ice
cream, which lends itself even to an elevated level of energy
consumption.
Nutritional
physiology, i.e. the science of functions and exchanges, has
devoted considerable study to ice cream and has uncovered very
interesting aspects. For
example, the nutritional substances contained therein are
dispersed in a mass made up of many frozen water droplets that
incorporate, like snow, notable amounts of air, As a result,
the above listed nutritional sub-stances offer digestive
juices a wide field of attack; in short, they are more easily
and more rapidly digested compared to other foods which can be
more or less accurately broken down only by chewing. Often, in
fact, it has been noticed that persons who are unable to
digest milk or cream can consume a notable quantity of these
same substances in the form of ice cream, without related
problems, because consumption takes place in an extremely
subdivided form and gastric juices have the opportunity of
attacking the minute particles present in ice cream whereas,
for example, they cannot do the same with large mouthfuls or
spoonfuls of milk or cream in
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