IT DID MELT. The fluids in it were at room temperature and fully fluid, if that’s their state at room temperature. The gums and trapped air just helped it maintain its shape as long as nobody handled it. Had she tried to pick it up it would have collapsed into a foamy ooze. Klondike Bars also have that quality, which is why I eat them with a spoon.
Ice cream sandwiches and other novelties are not intended for gourmets. They are for little kids. Gross, filthy, sticky little kids, and if a product can appease the little bastards while reducing how much more disgusting they will get I’m all for it.
NOT COMPLETELY. When Ice Cream melts, it should leave a puddle of liquid. The complaint is that this left an ice cream sandwich-shaped semisolid construction. In this universe, ice cream sandwiches shouldn’t do that, unless they’re those freeze-dried “astronaut” ice cream sandwiches.
Pfft. A few years ago, this was a feature, not a problem. Personally, I don’t have an issue with it and am surprised by the hubbub. If I want real ice cream, I buy real ice cream. If I want a frozen treat, then I just look at the cheap shit.
Well, aren’t YOU putting on airs and graces! You think you’re better than us, don’t you? I’ll have you laughed out of WalMart, I will. The nerve of some people, coming in here all lah-dee-dah. And prithee*, who makes an ice cream sandwich that meets your standards for purity?
“Prithee” is my word for the week. Next week it will be “riddle,” as in “riddle me this.”
This. Both dropzone and… um… dropzone are right on the money. There is nothing wrong or bad about gums. They are no worse than corn starch or flour, and they work in a number of circumstances where traditional thickeners or stiffeners would not. I am a semi-regular user of Xanthan and Guar gums. They are amazing.
Yep. I use Xanthan gum as well fairly regularly. And – god forbid – that poison known as “MSG.” I don’t even have the “Accent” bottle. I have the cheap 99 cent bottle of MSG that says “MSG” in big letters right in front. But that’s straying from the topic at hand.
I do like using gums as thickeners. But, I admit, there are some things I don’t like gums in, and I could understand the folk who don’t want it in their ice cream. It does change the texture a bit. For example, I always look for cream and sour cream that is simply made from cream, with no gums or carageenan or any of that stuff. It’s actually surprisingly difficult to find. And price is no guide. Sometimes the cheaper stuff is the one without any additives. (Here, I know Daisy brand sour cream is the one that is just cream, but I can’t remember which of the sweet cream brands are.)
Plus 1. Moms don’t want their kid’s melted ice cream bars ruining their car seats and furniture. Additives keep it semi solid and easier to clean up when a six year old walks away leaving it to melt on the family’s nice furniture.
The target market for cheap ice cream bars are kids. Kids are slobs that don’t realize mom wants nice furniture and carpet thats not stained and sticky.
I won’t buy Breyer’s either. They abandoned what made their product wonderful. I buy Hagen-Daaz since they have kept true to simple, pure ingredients. To me, it just simply tastes better.
“But this is not proper ice cream,” he said in false exasperation. “It’s shit for kids. The don’t deserve better. They’re just kids.”
Jewel had a new brand the other night and I bought whatever tiny amount they are pretending is a half gallon these days. I didn’t try it, being that it was for my kids. I wonder if there’s any left. The real crime is the shrinking half gallon.
It is not that there’s anything wrong with carageenan or xanthan or what - you’re perfectly correct that they’re natural substances, benign if not wholesome.
It is why they are used that raises questions. A recipe change from quality ice cream that does not use gums to one that does means something else was changed, and they’re trying to cover it up with a mouthfeel additive. It’s not a matter of just adding something; it’s a matter of changing the product so that it is not the same but brashly claims it is.
I do not know what to call the substance such a confection is made of. It might be a perfectly good food, both in gustatory experience and in nutritive value. It might, conceivably, even be better than ice cream. But if it doesn’t melt, then it isn’t ice cream.
That was mainly aimed at the “‘What am I feeding to my children?’ she asked, appalled.” quote and similar sentiments.
That is understandable. In this specific case, however, it certainly can be argued that the use of Guar gum is justified and makes a better product. It allows the ice cream sandwich to maintain its integrity over a longer period of time. It is less likely to end up as a gloppy mess on a hot summer day.
I don’t eat sugar so I don’t know about ice cream, but us salty old irrigators stuff white bread into main lines to dry them while we work, I’ve noticed lately that an opened loaf of white bread stays mold free and soft for weeks now, and this frightens me. What are you people eating? Real bread gets hard and crusty and moldy in 3-4 days, and the best part of an ice cream sandwich was always the race to eat the dern thing before it melted out the sides on a hot summer day…
Just for science, I got a Drumstick brand Sundae Cone from the local Sheetz. I kept it wrapped until I got home, at which time I opened it and ate it. (The things I do for science. :D) The ice cream had started to melt, but it held its shape fairly well. It didn’t drip a lot, and when it did, it dripped in a glob. I tore the ingredients list in half when I opened the thing, but I found them on the Internet:
(Sorry about the caps, but c’mon. It’s for science!)
Basically, it’s low-rent dairy products held together with gums and oils, kinda like an old car might be held together with duct tape and Bondo. It’s not going to kill you (unless you eat whole boxes at once), but it’s not the healthiest thing you can eat. The panic seems to come from the Food Babe fans who don’t get that just about anything out there has an unpronounceable name.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to get a sugar-induced buzz.