Ice Cream - Cook or Not

Most recipes call for cooking the mixture before cooling it in the refrigerator and freezing it.
There are several reasons for cooking:
1. Infuse the flavor of things like vanilla beans or mint leaves into the mixture. It can be done in a microwave.
2. Help dissolve the sugar.
3. To kill the starch digesting enzyme called alpha-amylase in egg yokes which allows the custard mixture to thicken.
4. Destroy salmonella in eggs
Vanilla Ice Cream II Recipe - Allrecipes.com has a recipe with uncooked eggs. This used to be common before eggs started having salmonella. They warn "We recommend that pregnant women, young children, the elderly, and the infirm do not consume raw eggs."
At "Making safe homemade ice cream" they recommend using pasteurized shell eggs or egg substitute if you're not going to cook.

But there are all kinds of thing that can go wrong with the cooking.
The eggs can curdle, the cream can scorch, ...
I've gone ahead and used a mixture that looked like watery scrambled eggs and it looked fine and was usable.
So the straining to remove the curdled eggs may not be that important.

You can make it without cooking (sometimes called Philadelphia-style), eliminating the eggs.
This style contains more air and water, it is actually colder and lighter than other ice creams — the better to set off the flavors and textures of warm pies, rich cakes and sweet fruit. It is less filling and dense, so it can be paired with another dessert without making the whole thing too heavy. (NY Times)

At Serious Eats they say, "The truth is, unless you're steeping something to infuse its flavor into the dairy, like vanilla beans or mint leaves, the only thing scalding dairy on your stovetop gets you is the risk of a boil-over. It's a great step in a recipe when you have someone else to clean your kitchen.

Yes, scalding impacts dairy's composition, altering proteins and milk sugars. But take a look at the word "pasteurized" on your carton of cream. In the U.S., virtually all dairy we buy is pasteurized, which means it's already been heated (you could even say scalded!) to between 145 and 280°F. Bringing your dairy to a simmer at home does nothing that hasn't already happened at the manufacturing plant.

Some recipes call for heating the ingredients to help the sugar disolve, but others do not.

If you're not steeping some flavor in your dairy, you can go ahead and combine your eggs, sugar, and dairy all in one pot, then slowly bring the whole thing to a simmer. Faster, easier, and way less fussy.

Tempering:
Many recipes call for tempering, adding 1/3 of the scalded dairy slowly to nthe eggs while whisking rapidly to keep the eggs from curdling.
Serious Eats says after an hour or so of steeping your dairy will be cool enough to avoid curdling the eggs.

Philadelphia Ice Cream:
After the great exposition of 1876 Philadelphia became known across the country for the excellence of its ice cream, by then a popular American delicacy, and to this day the words "Philadelphia ice cream" connote the highest quality. Philadelphia confectioners were famed for their ice cream.

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last updated 7 Aug 2017