Ice cream (derived from earlier iced cream or cream ice) is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It is usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavors. It is typically sweetened with sugar or sugar substitutes. Typically, flavourings and colourings are added in addition to stabilizers. The mixture is stirred to incorporate air spaces and cooled below the freezing point of water to prevent detectable ice crystals from forming. The result is a smooth, semi-solid foam that is solid at very low temperatures (< 2 °C or 35 °F). It becomes more malleable as its temperature increases.

The meaning of the phrase "ice cream" varies from one country to another.

Phrases such as "frozen custard", "frozen yogurt", "sorbet", "gelato" and others are used to distinguish different varieties and styles. In some countries, such as the United States, the phrase "ice cream" applies only to a specific variety, and most governments regulate the commercial use of the various terms according to the relative quantities of the main ingredients, notably the amount of cream. ^[34] Products that do not meet the criteria to be called ice cream are labelled "frozen dairy dessert" instead. ^[36] In other countries, such as Italy and Argentina, one word is used for all variants. Analogues made from dairy alternatives, such as goat's or sheep's milk, or milk substitutes (e.g., soy milk or tofu), are available for those who are lactose intolerant, allergic to dairy protein, or vegan.

Ice cream may be served in dishes, for eating with a spoon, or in cones, which are licked.

Ice cream may be served with other desserts, such as apple pie. Ice cream is used to prepare other desserts, including ice cream floats, sundaes, milkshakes, ice cream cakes and even baked items, such as the Baked Alaska.

During the 5th century BC, ancient Greeks ate snow mixed with honey and fruit in the markets of Athens. The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, encouraged his Ancient Greek patients to eat ice "as it livens the life-juices and increases the well-being."

In 400 BC, the Persians invented a special chilled food, made of rose water and vermicelli, which was served to royalty during summers. ^[38] The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavours.

A frozen mixture of milk and rice was used in China around 200 BC. "They poured a mixture of snow and saltpetre over the exteriors of containers filled with syrup, for, in the same way as salt raises the boiling point of water, it lowers the freezing point to below zero." ^[40]

The Roman Emperor Nero (37–68 AD) had ice brought from the mountains and combined it with fruit toppings to create chilled delicacies. ^[42]

In the sixteenth century, the Mughal emperors used relays of horsemen to bring ice from the Hindu Kush to Delhi, where it was used in fruit sorbets. ^[44]

When Italian duchess Catherine de' Medici married the Duke of Orléans (Henry II of France) in 1533, she is said to have brought with her to France some Italian chefs who had recipes for flavoured ices or sorbets. ^[50] One hundred years later, Charles I of England was, it was reported, so impressed by the "frozen snow" that he offered his own ice cream maker a lifetime pension in return for keeping the formula secret, so that ice cream could be a royal prerogative. ^[61] There is no historical evidence to support these legends, which first appeared during the 19th century.

The first recipe in French for flavoured ices appears in 1674, in Nicholas Lemery’s Recueil de curiositéz rares et nouvelles de plus admirables effets de la nature. ^[50] Recipes for sorbetti saw publication in the 1694 edition of Antonio Latini's Lo Scalco alla Moderna (The Modern Steward). ^[50] Recipes for flavoured ices begin to appear in François Massialot's Nouvelle Instruction pour les Confitures, les Liqueurs, et les Fruits, starting with the 1692 edition. Massialot's recipes result in a coarse, pebbly texture. Latini claims that the results of his recipes should have the fine consistency of sugar and snow. ^[50]

Ice cream recipes first appeared in England in the 18th century. The recipe for ice cream was published in Mrs. Mary Eales's Receipts in London in 1718. ^{[66] [68]}

An early reference to ice cream given by the Oxford English Dictionary

The 1751 edition of The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse features a recipe for ice cream. OED gives her recipe: "H. GLASSE Art of Cookery (ed. 4) 333 (heading) To make Ice Cream..set it [sc. the cream] into the larger Bason. Fill it with Ice, and a Handful of Salt." The year 1768 saw the publication of L'Art de Bien Faire les Glaces d'Office by M. Emy, a cookbook devoted entirely to recipes for flavoured ices and ice cream. ^[50]

Ice cream was introduced to the United States by Quaker colonists who brought their ice cream recipes with them. Confectioners sold ice cream at their shops in New York and other cities during the colonial era. Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson were known to have regularly eaten and served ice cream. Records, kept by a merchant from Catham street, New York, show George Washington spending approximately $200 on ice cream in the summer of 1790. The same records show president Thomas Jefferson having an 18 step recipe for ice cream. First Lady Dolley Madison, wife of U.S. President James Madison, served ice cream at her husband's Inaugural Ball in 1813. ^[70]

Small-scale hand-cranked ice cream freezers were invented in England by Agnes Marshall and in America by Nancy Johnson in the 1840s.

The most popular flavours of ice cream in North America (based on consumer surveys) are vanilla and chocolate. ^[72]

In the Mediterranean, ice cream appears to have been accessible to ordinary people by the mid-eighteenth century.

^[34] Ice cream became popular and inexpensive in England in the mid-nineteenth century, when Swiss émigré Carlo Gatti set up the first stand outside Charing Cross station in 1851. He sold scoops in shells for one penny. Prior to this, ice cream was an expensive treat confined to those with access to an ice house. ^[34] Gatti built an 'ice well' to store ice that he cut from Regent's Canal under a contract with the Regent's Canal Company. By 1860, he expanded the business and began importing ice on a large scale from Norway.

Agnes Marshall, regarded as the "queen of ices" in England, did much to popularize ice cream recipes and make its consumption into a fashionable middle-class pursuit. She wrote four books: Ices Plain and Fancy: The Book of Ices (1885), Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Book of Cookery (1888), Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes (1891) and Fancy Ices (1894) and gave public lectures on cooking. She even suggested using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream.

Ice cream soda was invented in the 1870s, adding to ice cream's popularity. The invention of this cold treat is attributed to American Robert Green in 1874, although there is no conclusive evidence to prove his claim. The ice cream sundae originated in the late 19th century. Several men claimed to have created the first sundae, but there is no conclusive evidence to support any of their stories. Some sources say that the sundae was invented to circumvent blue laws, which forbade serving sodas on Sunday. Towns claiming to be the birthplace of the sundae include Buffalo, Two Rivers, Ithaca, and Evanston. Both the ice cream cone and banana split became popular in the early 20th century.

The first mention of the cone being used as an edible receptacle for the ice cream is in Marshall's Book of Cookery of 1888.

Her recipe for "Cornet with Cream" said that "the cornets were made with almonds and baked in the oven, not pressed between irons".

^{[34] [34] [34] [34]} The ice cream cone was popularized in the USA at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, MO.

The history of ice cream in the 20th century is one of great change and increases in availability and popularity.

In the United States in the early 20th century, the ice cream soda was a popular treat at the soda shop, the soda fountain, and the ice cream parlor. During the American Prohibition, the soda fountain to some extent replaced the outlawed alcohol establishments such as bars and saloons.

Ice cream became popular throughout the world in the second half of the 20th century after cheap refrigeration became common. There was an explosion of ice cream stores and of flavours and types. Vendors often competed on the basis of variety. Howard Johnson's restaurants advertised "a world of 28 flavors". Baskin-Robbins made its 31 flavours ("one for every day of the month") the cornerstone of its marketing strategy. The company now boasts that it has developed over 1000 varieties.

One important development in the 20th century was the introduction of soft ice cream, which has more air mixed in thereby reducing costs. It made possible the soft ice cream machine in which a cone is filled beneath a spigot on order. In the United States, Dairy Queen, Carvel, and Tastee-Freez pioneered in establishing chains of soft-serve ice cream outlets.

Technological innovations such as these have introduced various food additives into ice cream, the notable one being the stabilizing agent gluten, ^[34] to which some people have an intolerance. Recent awareness of this issue has prompted a number of manufacturers to start producing gluten-free ice cream. ^[34]

The 1980s saw thicker ice creams being sold as "premium" and "super-premium" varieties under brands such as Ben & Jerry's, Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream Company and Häagen-Dazs.

Ice cream is a colloidal emulsion having dispersed phase as fat globules. It is an emulsion which is in the end made into foam by incorporating air cells which is frozen to form dispersed ice cells. In the composition of ice cream ice crystals are of most importance as they give a desirable mouth feel. Ice cream is composed of water, ice, milk fat, milk protein, sugar and air. Water and fat have highest proportions by weight creating an emulsion. The triacylglycerols in far are non polar and will adhere to itself by van der Waals interactions. Water is polar thus, emulsifiers are needed for dispersion of fat. Also ice cream has a colloidal phase of foam which helps in light texture. Milk proteins such as casein and whey protein present in ice cream are amphiphilic, can adsorb water and form micelles which will contribute to consistency. Sucrose which is disaccharide is usually used as a sweetening agent. Lactose which is sugar present in milk will cause freezing point depression. Thus, on freezing some water will be unfrozen and will not give hard texture. ^[34]

Before the development of modern refrigeration, ice cream was a luxury reserved for special occasions. Making it was quite laborious; ice was cut from lakes and ponds during the winter and stored in holes in the ground, or in wood-frame or brick ice houses, insulated by straw. Many farmers and plantation owners, including U.S. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, cut and stored ice in the winter for use in the summer. Frederic Tudor of Boston turned ice harvesting and shipping into a big business, cutting ice in New England and shipping it around the world.

Ice cream was made by hand in a large bowl placed inside a tub filled with ice and salt.

This was called the pot-freezer method.

French confectioners refined the pot-freezer method, making ice cream in a sorbetière (a covered pail with a handle attached to the lid).

In the pot-freezer method, the temperature of the ingredients is reduced by the mixture of crushed ice and salt.

The salt water is cooled by the ice, and the action of the salt on the ice causes it to (partially) melt, absorbing latent heat and bringing the mixture below the freezing point of pure water. The immersed container can also make better thermal contact with the salty water and ice mixture than it could with ice alone.

The hand-cranked churn, which also uses ice and salt for cooling, replaced the pot-freezer method.

The exact origin of the hand-cranked freezer is unknown, but the first U.S. patent for one was #3254 issued to Nancy Johnson on 9 September 1843.

The hand-cranked churn produced smoother ice cream than the pot freezer and did it quicker.

Many inventors patented improvements on Johnson's design.

In Europe and early America, ice cream was made and sold by small businesses, mostly confectioners and caterers.

Jacob Fussell of Baltimore, Maryland was the first to manufacture ice cream on a large scale.

Fussell bought fresh dairy products from farmers in York County, Pennsylvania, and sold them in Baltimore.

An unstable demand for his dairy products often left him with a surplus of cream, which he made into ice cream.

He built his first ice cream factory in Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania, in 1851.

Two years later, he moved his factory to Baltimore.

Later, he opened factories in several other cities and taught the business to others, who operated their own plants.

Mass production reduced the cost of ice cream and added to its popularity.

The development of industrial refrigeration by German engineer Carl von Linde during the 1870s eliminated the need to cut and store natural ice, and, when the continuous-process freezer was perfected in 1926, commercial mass production of ice cream and the birth of the modern ice cream industry was underway.

In modern times, a common method for producing ice cream at home is to use an ice cream maker, an electrical device that churns the ice cream mixture while cooled inside a household freezer. Some more expensive models have an inbuilt freezing element. A newer method is to add liquid nitrogen to the mixture while stirring it using a spoon or spatula for a few seconds; a similar technique, advocated by Heston Blumenthal as ideal for home cooks, is to add dry ice to the mixture while stirring for a few minutes. ^[36] Some ice cream recipes call for making a custard, folding in whipped cream, and immediately freezing the mixture. ^[36] Another method is to use a pre-frozen solution of salt and water, which gradually melts as the ice cream freezes.

An unusual method of making ice-cream was done during World War II by American fighter pilots based in the South Pacific.

They attached pairs of 5-US-gallon (19 l) cans to their aircraft.

The cans were fitted with a small propeller, this was spun by the slipstream and drove a stirrer, which agitated the mixture while the intense cold of high altitude froze it.

^[36]

Ice cream can be mass-produced and thus is widely available in developed parts of the world. Ice cream can be purchased in large cartons (vats and squrounds) from supermarkets and grocery stores, in smaller quantities from ice cream shops, convenience stores, and milk bars, and in individual servings from small carts or vans at public events. In 2015, US produced nearly 900 million gallons of ice cream. ^[36]

Today, jobs specialize in the selling of ice cream.

The title of a person who works in this speciality is often called an 'ice cream man', however women also specialize in the selling of ice cream.

People in this line of work often sell ice cream on beaches.

On beaches, ice cream is either sold by a person who carries a box full of ice cream and is called over by people who want the purchase ice cream, or by a person who drives up to the top of the beach and rings a bell.

In the second method, people go up to the top of the beach and purchase ice cream straight from the ice cream seller, who is often in an ice cream van. In Turkey and Australia, ice cream is sometimes sold to beach-goers from small powerboats equipped with chest freezers.

Some ice cream distributors sell ice cream products from traveling refrigerated vans or carts (commonly referred to in the US as "ice cream trucks"), sometimes equipped with speakers playing children's music or folk melodies (such as "Turkey in the Straw"). The driver of an ice cream van drives throughout neighborhoods and stops every so often, usually every block. The seller on the ice cream van sells the ice cream through a large window; this window is also where the customer asks for ice cream and pays. Ice cream vans in the United Kingdom make a music box noise rather than actual music.

In the U.S., ice cream may have the following composition: ^[36]

These compositions are percentage by weight.

Since ice cream can contain as much as half air by volume, these numbers may be reduced by as much as half if cited by volume.

In terms of dietary considerations, the percentages by weight are more relevant.

Even the low-fat products have high caloric content: Ben and Jerry's No-Fat Vanilla Fudge contains 150 calories (630 kJ) per half-cup due to its high sugar content.

^[36]

According to Canadian Food and Drug Regulations, ice cream in Canada must be at least 10 percent milk fat, and must contain at least 180 grams of solids per liter.

When cocoa, chocolate syrup, fruit, nuts, or confections are added, the percentage of milk fat can be 8 percent.

^[36]

Ice cream is considered as a colloidal system.

It is composed by ice cream crystals and aggregates, air that does not mixes with the ice cream by forming small bubbles in the bulk and partially coalesced fat globules.

This dispersed phase made from all the small particles is surrounded by an unfrozen continuous phase composed by sugars, proteins, salts, polysaccharides and water.

Their interactions determine the properties of ice cream, whether soft and whippy or hard.

^[36]

Ostwald ripening is the explanation for the growth of large crystals at the expense of small ones in the dispersion phase.

This process is also called migratory recrystallization.

It involves the formation of sharp crystalsl Theories about Ostwald recrystallization admit that after a period of time, the recrystallization process can be described by the following equation:

r = r (0) + Rt exp(1/n)

Where r (0) is the initial size, n the order of recrystallization, t a time constant for recrystallization that depends on the rate R (in units of size/ time).

To make ice cream smooth, recrystallization must occur as slowly as possible, because small crystals create smoothness, meaning that r must decrease.

^[36]

Around the world, different cultures have developed unique versions of ice cream, suiting the product to local tastes and preferences.

The most traditional Argentine helado (ice cream) is very similar to Italian gelato, in large part due to the historical influence of Italian immigrants on Argentinian customs.

Per capita, Australians and New Zealanders are among the leading ice cream consumers in the world, eating 18 litres and 20 litres each per year respectively, behind the United States where people eat 23 litres each per year.

In China, besides the popular flavour such as vanilla, chocolate, coffee, mango and strawberry, many Chinese ice-cream manufacturers also introduced other traditional Chineses flavours such as black sesame and red beans.

In 1651, Italian Francesco dei Coltelli opened an ice cream café in Paris and the product became so popular that during the next 50 years another 250 cafés opened in Paris.

In Greece, ice cream in its modern form, or pagotó (Greek : παγωτό ), was introduced in the beginning of the 20th century.

India is one of the largest producers of ice cream in the world, but most of its ice cream is consumed domestically.

In Indonesia, a type traditional ice cream called "Es Puter" or "stirred ice cream is made from coconut milk, pandanus leaves, sugar —and flavors that include avocado, jackfruit, durian, palm sugar, chocolate, red bean, and mung bean.

In Iran, Fālūde (Persian: فالوده) or Pālūde (Persian: پالوده) is a Persian sorbet made of thin vermicelli noodles, frozen with sugar syrup and rose water. The dessert is often served with lime juice and sometimes ground pistachios.

Italian ice cream or Gelato as it is known, is a traditional and a popular dessert in Italy. Much of the production is still hand-made and flavoured by each individual shop in "produzione propria" gelaterias. Gelato is made from whole milk, sugar, sometimes eggs, and natural flavourings. Gelato typically contains 7–8% fat, less than ice cream's minimum of 10%.

Sorbetes is a Philippine version for common ice cream usually peddled from carts by pedlars who roam streets in the Philippines. Despite the similarities between the name "sorbetes" and sorbet, "sorbetes" is not a type of sorbet.

In Spain, ice cream is often in the style of Italian gelato.

Spanish gelato can be found in many cafes or specialty ice cream stores.

While many traditional flavours are sold, cafes may also sell unique flavouurs like nata, crema catalana, or tiramisu.

Dondurma is the name given to ice cream in Turkey.

Dondurma typically includes milk, sugar, salep, and mastic.

In the United Kingdom, 14 million adults buy ice cream as a treat, in a market worth £1.3 billion (according to a report produced in September 2009).

In the United States, ice cream made with just cream, sugar, and a flavouring (usually fruit) is sometimes referred to as "Philadelphia style" ice cream.

Ice cream that uses eggs to make a custard is sometimes called "French ice cream". American federal labeling standards require ice cream to contain a minimum of 10% milk fat. Americans consume about 23 liters of ice cream per person per year — the most in the world.

Mrs Marshall's Cookery Book, published in 1888, endorsed serving ice cream in cones, but the idea definitely predated that. Agnes Marshall was a celebrated cookery writer of her day and helped to popularise ice cream. She patented and manufactured an ice cream maker and was the first person to suggest using liquefied gases to freeze ice cream after seeing a demonstration at the Royal Institution.

Reliable evidence proves that ice cream cones were served in the 19th century, and their popularity increased greatly during the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. According to legend, at the World's Fair an ice cream seller had run out of the cardboard dishes used to put ice cream scoops in, so they could not sell any more produce. Next door to the ice cream booth was a Syrian waffle booth, unsuccessful due to intense heat; the waffle maker offered to make cones by rolling up his waffles and the new product sold well, and was widely copied by other vendors.

The following is a partial list of ice cream-like frozen desserts and snacks:

In 2006, some commercial ice cream makers began to use liquid nitrogen in the primary freezing of ice cream, thus eliminating the need for a conventional ice cream freezer.

Brands are Dippin' Dots. The preparation results in a column of white condensed water vapour cloud. The ice cream, dangerous to eat while still "steaming" with liquid nitrogen, is allowed to rest until the liquid nitrogen is completely vapourised. Sometimes ice cream is frozen to the sides of the container, and must be allowed to thaw. Good results can also be achieved with the more readily available dry ice, and authors such as Heston Blumenthal have published recipes to produce ice cream and sorbet using a simple blender. ^[38]

Another vendor, Creamistry, creates ice cream from liquid ingredients as customers watch. It has a softer texture than regular ice cream, because ice crystals have less time to form. ^[38]