Many people have a hard time grasping the concept of "emulsifier" found in ice cream. And it gets worse when people actually confuse "emulsifier" with "stabiliser", and vice versa.
So, let us set the record straight. An emulsifier is a substance that helps prevent the separation of fat-in-water emulsions. This means that emulsifiers prevent fat from separating from rest of ice cream.
Stabilisers, on the other hand, contribute to the uniformity and consistency of a product from the time it is manufactured to the time it is frozen and stored. Stabilisers hold the water content found in ice cream in place.
How do stabilisers achieve this? Well, stabilisers promote air incorporation and even air bubble distribution throughout the ice cream. The collapse of the miniscule air bubbles is prevented.
The formation of tiny water portions that can combine into larger ice crystals in ice cream is also prevented or slowed down by stabilisers and this helps to promote shelf life.
Ice cream that have been stabilised are prevented from heat shock from the environment. Ice cream don't melt so quickly when it contains stabilisers and won't become too icy as formation of large ice crystals is prevented.
Some common stabilisers you might come across when reading the ingredients list of an ice cream pint: Xanthan gum, agar-agar, guar gum, locust bean gum (a.k.a. carob bean gum), pectin, gelatin (extracted from animals) and carrageenan.
You don't need to add stabilisers to the ice cream you make at home and you should find out why here.
No comments:
Post a Comment