An ice cream laboratory guide — Context and Discussion

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Authors: Fisk, W. W. (Walter Warner), 1888-1979, Ellenberger, H. B. (Howard Bowman), 1882-1970 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2025 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Ice cream, ices, etc. Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 13,275

Reading time 58 min

Text sections 34

The source record for An ice cream laboratory guide — Context and Discussion measures this digital text at 13,275 words, 58 min estimated reading time, and 34 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 18.0 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Ice cream, ices, etc.,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #77115

A 1917 Cornell University laboratory manual providing structured exercises for ice cream manufacture, emphasizing scientific principles, standardization, and systematic record-keeping through detailed report forms.

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File: pg77115

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Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_ in the original text. Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs. Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.

An Ice Cream Laboratory Guide

_Assistant Professor of Dairy Industry at Cornell University_

and H. B. ELLENBERGER

_Instructor of Dairy Industry at Cornell University_

NEW YORK ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 1917

PAGE PREFACE 1 DISCUSSION OF LABORATORY EQUIPMENT 3

EXERCISE I Inspection and Study of Ice Cream Machinery 6 DISCUSSION OF STANDARDIZATION 8

EXERCISE II Standardization 12

EXERCISE III Testing Ice Cream for Fat 14

EXERCISE IV Effect of the Salt and Ice Mixture on Temperature 16 CLASSIFICATION OF ICE CREAM 18 THE USE OF STABILIZERS 21

EXERCISE V Freezing Plain Ice Creams 24

EXERCISE VI Methods of Measuring Swell 26 HARDENING ICE CREAM 28

EXERCISE VII Freezing Fruit Ice Cream. Hardening in Salt and Ice 30

EXERCISE VIII Freezing Nut Ice Cream 32

EXERCISE IX Freezing Bisque Ice Cream 34

EXERCISE X Making Bricks and Fancy Moulded Ice Creams 37

EXERCISE XI Freezing Custard Ice Cream 41

EXERCISE XII Freezing Parfait or French Ice Creams 45

EXERCISE XIII Freezing Puddings 49

EXERCISE XIV Freezing Ices 52

EXERCISE XV Freezing Water Sherbets 54

EXERCISE XVI Freezing Milk Sherbets 56

EXERCISE XVII Freezing Punches and Lacto 58

EXERCISE XVIII Freezing Mousse 60

EXERCISE XIX Standardize Mix to a Given Percentage of Fat 62 SCORE CARD FOR JUDGING ICE CREAM 64

EXERCISE XX Judging Plain Ice Creams 66

EXERCISE XXI The Effect of Fat Content on Ice Cream 68

EXERCISE XXII The Effect of Different Binders on Ice Cream 70

EXERCISE XXIII The Effect of Varying Percentages of Milk Solids Not Fat on Ice Cream 72

EXERCISE XXIV Freezing Ice Cream from Raw, Pasteurized, Emulsified and Homogenized Cream 74

EXERCISE XXV The Effect of Aging Cream on the Viscosity and Swell 76

EXERCISE XXVI The Effect of the Temperature of the Mix as It Enters the Freezer on the Swell 78

EXERCISE XXVII Effect of the Time of Freezing on the Swell and Quality of the Ice Cream 80

EXERCISE XXVIII Bacterial Counts of Ice Cream 82

EXERCISE XXIX Testing Samples of Gelatin 84

EXERCISE XXX Trip to Commercial Plants 86

EXERCISE XXXI Students’ Receipts 88

The manufacture of ice cream is based on certain scientific principles. It is the purpose of this laboratory manual to help the student to better understand the application of these principles. This manual, which is the result of several years’ experience in teaching, is not intended as a textbook, but as a brief and concise outline of laboratory exercises. It will also serve as a suitable place for the student to record observations. The exercises have been prepared, so that each instructor may make selections and combinations suitable for the equipment and the needs of his course.

Because this is comparatively a new subject and the ideas regarding ice cream production and manufacture are constantly changing, the authors recognize that this manual will need frequent revisions. An effort will be made to keep it thoroughly up to date.

_Dairy Laboratories, New York State College of Agriculture, at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, February, 1917._

An Ice Cream Laboratory Guide

The exercises in this manual may be selected or easily modified, so that they will be suitable for any laboratory equipment. For example, the receipts have been prepared with the expectation that a 10-gallon freezer would be used; if a smaller freezer is used, the receipts may be reduced proportionally.

Much better instruction can be given if the equipment includes an artificial refrigerating plant for freezing and hardening the ice cream. If the equipment does not include an artificial refrigerating plant, a tub and can freezer, using an ice and salt mixture for freezing, and a wooden box for packing and hardening the ice cream, in ice and salt, may be used. The hardening box should be made of 2 inch matched lumber so that it will not leak. The size of the box will be determined by the amount of ice cream manufactured. It should be built in compartments which will hold six five gallon cans. This will require a box 26 inches wide by 32 inches deep by 36 inches long, outside measurement, with a hinged cover for each compartment.

If much ice cream is to be made an ice cream mixer is a necessity, but if a small amount is made each batch may be mixed in a 40 quart milk can. A homogenizer and emulsor may be included in the equipment.

With whatever type of freezer is used, there should be one or two small hand freezers, to freeze small batches and to try new receipts. An ice crusher should be included for crushing ice.

The equipment should include the necessary small utensils, such as pails, dippers, ladles, spoons, thermometers, scales, measures, pack cans, etc.

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This 1917 laboratory manual from Cornell University’s dairy program treats ice cream making as a sequence of measurable, repeatable experiments. Each exercise pairs a concise procedure—such as freezing plain ice cream, testing for fat, or measuring swell—with a blank report form that demands precise entries for temperatures, weights, and timing. The authors, W. W. Fisk and H. B. Ellenberger, state plainly that the book is “not intended as a textbook, but as a brief and concise outline of laboratory exercises” where students record observations. The result is a document that reveals early twentieth-century food science in action: a world where gelatin is a standard binder, salt-and-ice mixtures are the primary freezing method, and every batch of sherbet or parfait must be accounted for in pounds, gallons, and percentages.

Standardization as a Core Discipline

The manual’s second exercise, simply titled “Standardization,” signals how central precise fat-content control was to early commercial ice cream. Later exercises ask students to “standardize mix to a given percentage of fat” and to calculate proportions using a formula: “x = the pounds of cream testing ___ per cent fat.” The report forms repeatedly demand entries for “Per cent fat in cream” and “Per cent fat in milk,” and one exercise explicitly tests “the effect of fat content on ice cream.” This relentless focus on standardization reflects an industry moving from guesswork to reproducible formulas, where a few percentage points could determine texture, cost, and legal compliance.

The Freezer as Laboratory Instrument

Freezing is not a single step but a timed, documented process. The report forms track “time of starting freezer,” “that mix reaches 30° F,” “required to reach 30° F,” and “total time required to freeze.” They also record brine temperature at key moments and the weight of ice and salt used. One exercise is devoted entirely to “the effect of the salt and ice mixture on temperature,” and another to “the effect of the temperature of the mix as it enters the freezer on the swell.” The freezer itself becomes a variable to be controlled, not a black box. Students learn that the ratio of ice to salt, the initial mix temperature, and the duration of freezing all directly affect the final product’s quality and yield.

A Taxonomy of Frozen Desserts

The manual classifies frozen desserts into distinct categories, each with its own exercise: plain ice cream, fruit ice cream, nut ice cream, bisque ice cream, custard ice cream, parfait or French ice cream, puddings, ices, water sherbets, milk sherbets, punches, lacto, and mousse. The sherbet recipes, for example, specify exact proportions of water or milk, sugar, lemon juice, fruit flavoring, gelatin, and egg whites. One water sherbet base is varied by substituting pineapple, grape, or orange juice. The milk sherbet exercise offers five fruit flavors and notes that if lemon is used, it should be combined with orange juice. This systematic approach reveals an effort to bring the same rigor to every type of frozen confection, from the simplest ice to the richest pudding.

Readers approaching this manual should treat it as a primary source on early food science education, not a modern recipe collection. The blank report forms are as instructive as the procedures: they show what data mattered to early twentieth-century dairy instructors. Pay attention to the repeated emphasis on swell (overrun), fat percentage, and temperature tracking. The manual’s value lies in its concrete, unadorned documentation of how ice cream was taught as a laboratory science—one batch, one measurement, one report at a time.

When I held the 1917 ice cream manual, I marveled at its insistence on precise records, every batch measured and noted for the unnamed student. Years later, reading how ancient hulls took shape plank by plank, I felt that same tender gravity—the quiet faith that careful hands build something lasting. Shipbuilding from its beginnings. Vol. 1 (of 3) — Reading Companion shares that patient arithmetic, each step a small act of devotion against the sea’s forgetfulness.