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Frozen dessert From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Soft serve, also known as soft ice, is a frozen dessert and variety of ice cream, similar to conventional ice cream, but softer and less dense due to more air being introduced during freezing. Soft serve has been sold commercially since the late 1930s in the United States.[1]
In the United States, soft serve is not typically sold prepackaged in supermarkets but is common at fairs, carnivals, amusement parks, restaurants (especially fast food and buffet), and specialty shops. All ice cream must be frozen quickly to avoid crystal growth. With soft serve, this is accomplished by a special machine that holds pre-mixed product at a very low, but not frozen, temperature at the point of sale.
Brandon Lewis of Windsor , Canada, patented an automatic ice cream maker in 1926 that is reported to be the first soft-serve ice cream machine. His Taylor Company continues to manufacture the McDonald's ice cream machine.
Over Memorial Day weekend of 1934, Tom Carvel, the founder of the Carvel brand and franchise, suffered a flat tire in his ice cream truck in Hartsdale, New York. He pulled into a parking lot and began selling his melting ice cream to vacationers driving by. Within two days, he had sold his entire supply of ice cream and concluded that both a fixed location and soft (as opposed to hard) frozen desserts were potentially good business ideas.[2] In 1936, Carvel opened his first store on the original broken down truck site and developed a secret soft-serve ice cream formula as well as patented super low temperature ice cream machines.[3]
Dairy Queen also claims to have invented soft serve. In 1938, near Moline, Illinois, J. F. McCullough and his son, Alex, developed their soft-serve formula.[4] Their first sales experiment was on August 4, 1938, in Kankakee, Illinois, at the store of their friend, Sherb Noble. Within two hours of the "all you can eat" trial sale, they had dished out more than 1,600 servings—more than once every 4.5 seconds.[5]
It is a common myth that during the late 1940s, future UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher worked briefly as a chemist for a food manufacturer J. Lyons and Co., at a time when the company had partnered with the United States distributor Mister Softee and was developing a soft-serve recipe that was compatible with the American machines.[6] Thatcher's precise role at Lyons is unclear, but she is reported to have worked on the quality of cake and pie fillings as well as ice-cream, and researched saponification.
In the 1960s, ice cream machine manufacturers introduced mechanized air pumps into vending machines, providing better aeration.[6]
In the 1990's, Wadden Systems Inc introduced the 24 Flavor System, which enables an operator to transform soft serve into 24 or more flavors of soft serve, on a cone to cone basis.[7]
Soft serve is generally lower in milk-fat (3 to 6 per cent) than conventional ice cream (10 to 18 per cent) and is produced at a temperature of about −4 °C (25 °F) compared to conventional ice cream, which is stored at −15 °C (5 °F). Soft serve contains air, introduced at the time of freezing. The air content, called overrun, can vary from 0 to 60 per cent of the total volume of the finished product. The amount of air alters the taste of the finished product. Product with low quantities of air has a heavy, icy taste and appears more yellow.[8] Ice cream with higher air content tastes creamier, smoother, and lighter and appears whiter. The optimum quantity of air is determined by other ingredients, if any, and individual taste. Generally, the ideal air content should be between 33 and 45 per cent of volume. If more than this, the product loses taste, tends to shrink as it loses air, and melts more quickly than that with less air. With less than 33 to 45 per cent, the product will not melt as quickly but will not taste good.
Some soft-serve forms, like many other processed foods, contain palm oil.
Ice cream and similar products must be frozen quickly to avoid crystal growth. Moreover, when the soft serve is stored below freezing temperature after dispensing for a substantial time, it will soon freeze solid. Thus, to sell and consume soft serve in its most palatable state, it must be prepared by a special machine at the point of sale. Pre-mixed product (see definitions below) is introduced to the storage chamber of the machine where it is kept at 3 °C (37 °F). When the product is drawn from the draw valve, a fresh mix combined with the targeted quantity of air is introduced to the freezing chamber by gravity or pump. It is then churned, quickly frozen, and stored until required.
While the most basic machines only dispense one flavor of the mix at a time, specific models of soft-serve machines have an additional nozzle that dispenses a mixture of two different flavors simultaneously. This mixture emerges in a distinct swirl pattern. Its distinctive flavor on menus is classified as swirl or twist.
Pre-mix can be obtained in several forms:
Various terms are used to refer to soft-serve ice cream:
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