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Ice Cream Science

How to calculate an ice cream mix

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Below is the Excel spreadsheet I created to calculate my ice cream mix. It’s based on the calculations in Ice Cream (7th Ed) by Professor Doug Goff and Professor Richard Hartel, which I highly recommend reading. There are no restrictions on the use of this spreadsheet so feel free to download and use it as you see fit. It comes populated with what I’ve found to be the optimum mix composition for 900 ml (0.95 quart) of homemade ice cream mix.

You might also like to read:

Lello 4080 Musso Lussino Ice Cream Maker – A Comprehensive Review
Sugar in Ice Cream
Why are stabilizers used in ice cream?
Cuisinart ICE-100 Ice Cream Maker – A Comprehensive Review
Vanilla Ice Cream – Recipe

1. Download

You can download the spreadsheet from Microsoft OneDrive HERE. Click on the three horizontal dots in the top right of the screen under ‘Sign Out’ and then click ‘Download’. This spreadsheet is, and will remain, free to download and use as you see fit. If you’d like to say thanks and support my work, you’re welcome to make a donation through PayPal.

2. Ingredients

2.1 Mandatory Ingredients

To use this spreadsheet, the 3 ingredients that you have to use are cream, milk, and sugar. You can use either full-fat, semi-skimmed, or skimmed (fat-free) milk, as well as single, light, whipping, heavy, heavy whipping, or double cream. You can use any sugar that is composed of 100% solids (i.e. no water), which includes granulated (table), cane, demerara, turbinado, muscovado, light-brown, or dark-brown sugar, as well as fructose, lactose, and maltose, but excludes liquid sugar or sugar syrup, dextrose, honey, invert sugar, corn syrup solids (CSS), and maltodextrins, which contain some water.

2.2 Optional Ingredients

You can choose whether to use skimmed milk powder, stabilisers, and emulsifiers when composing your mix.

2.3 Ingredients you can’t use

I haven’t included water, butter, whey powder, or concentrated milk, as well as the sugars mentioned above, in this spreadsheet. I may create a second spreadsheet with these ingredients if there is enough interest.

3. Instructions

Step 1. How To Enter The Cream And Milk Fat

It’s important that you only enter data in the cells coloured in yellow. To start, in cell C3 enter the fat percentage of the cream that you’ll be using. I use fresh double cream comprising 47.5g of fat per 100 ml, or 47.5% fat. In cell C5, enter the fat percentage of the milk that you’ll be using. I use fresh fat-free milk comprising 0g fat per 100 ml, or 0% fat.

Step 2. How To Enter The Mix Weight Pre and Post Heating
2.1 If You Are Not Using My Method of Heating

If you’re not planning on using my method of heating the mix at 72°C (161.6°F) for 25 minutes to pasteurise and promote reversible protein denaturation, which I’ve found has a significant effect on texture, or are using a closed pasteuriser, the weight of your mix pre and post heating will remain constant. In cell C18 enter the weight in grams of the batch that you want to make; about 997g produces 900 ml (0.95 quart) of mix, 890g about 800 ml (0.85 quart), and 760g about 700 ml (0.74 quart). In cell G18, enter the same value that you entered in cell C18.

2.2 If You Are Using My Method Of Heating

If you intend to use my method of heating the mix at 72°C (161.6°F) for 25 minutes, you’ll need to account for the reduction of water through evaporation, which will increase the solids percentages of the mix after heating (displayed in cells D30 to D36). When I heat my mix, I use a pan with a 24 cm (9.45″) diameter and have found that 10% of the water in my 1150g starting mix evaporates, leaving 1035g of mix after 25 minutes of heating. Determining the amount of water that’s evaporated from your mix will take some trial and error and will depend on factors including the size of your pan, the heating temperature, elevation, and ambient temperature.

I recommend starting with 1150g in cell C18 and 1035g in cell G18. Cells C20 to C26 display the weight of each ingredient needed for your mix. Use these values to combine all of your ingredients in your pan. Once combined, place your pan on some kitchen scales and record the combined weight of the mix and the pan. My starting weight is 2488g (1150g starting mix weight + 1338g weight of pan). On a medium heat, bring your mix to 72°C (161.6°F), which will take between 10 and 16 minutes, whilst continuously stirring. Once your mix reaches 72°C (161.6°F), keep it as close to this temperature as you can for 25 minutes whilst stirring. After 25 minutes, place the pan back on the scales and record the combined weight of the pan and the reduced mix. Subtract the weight of the pan from the total weight of the pan plus the reduced mix to get the weight of the mix after heating; mine is 1035g (2373g total weight of pan and mix after heating – 1338g pan weight). Enter the weight of the mix after heating in cell G18. Use Steps 3-7 below to adjust the data so that cells D30 to D36 display the following optimum mix composition:

  • Total Solids – 55.3%
  • Not Fat Milk Solids – 10.8%
  • Fat – 24%
  • Sugar – 16.2%
  • Egg Yolk – 4.3%
  • Stabiliser – 0%
  • Emulsifier – 0%
Step 3. How To Enter The Mix Fat

The percentage of fat in your mix after heating is displayed in cell D32. For homemade ice cream, I’ve found a mix comprising 24% milk fat optimum for the promotion of smooth and creamy texture. If you’d like to change this, change the value in cell C4.

Step 4. How To Enter The Milk Fat-Not-Solids

The percentage of not fat-milk-solids in your mix after heating is displayed in cell D31. I’ve found the optimum milk fat-not-solids percentage in homemade ice cream to be 10.8%. You can change this by entering a different value in cell C6. If you don’t want to use skimmed milk powder, decrease the value in cell C6 so that cell D31 displays 0.

Step 5. How To Enter The Stabiliser and Emulsifier

The percentage of stabiliser in your mix after heating is displayed in cell D35 and the percentage of emulsifier in cell D36. I don’t use stabilisers or emulsifiers in my mix but If you’ d like to use either of these two ingredients, enter the amount of stabiliser in cell C12 and emulsifier in cell C13. Usually, 0.2-0.5% of a stabiliser/emulsifier blend is used in ice cream.

Step 6. How To Enter The Sugar

The percentage of sugar in your mix after heating is displayed in cell D33. I’ve found that around 16.2% sugar in homemade ice cream works well. To change this, you can increase or decrease the data in cell C14.

Step 7. How To Enter The Egg Yolk

The percentage of egg yolks in your mix after heating is displayed in cell D34. To increase or decrease this, change the value in cell C15. I’ve found that around 4.3% egg yolk solids works well in homemade ice cream.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Hi there Clubannie!

      I haven’t yet tried making vegan or non-dairy ice cream but it is number 1 on my research list as I keep getting asked about this. I’ll post my findings and recipe when I finish my research.

      Until then, let me know if you need a hand with anything else.

      All the best,

      Ruben

      Reply

  2. Hi Ruben, thanks for posting this, it is very useful. I’ve made a lot of homemade ice cream that was pretty good but the texture was not as rich. Thanks to your blog and this spreadsheet, I now know it helps to add skim milk powder and how much of it to use. Interestingly enough, even though a lot of milk powder is produced in the Netherlands, it is quite difficult to purchase it here. Supermarkets do not carry it. Probably because fresh milk is so easily available.

    Reply

    • Hey again Stefan,

      Hope the spreadsheet helps. How are you getting on with it? Did you manage to get hold of some skim milk powder?

      All the best,

      Ruben

      Reply

    • Hi there Itay,

      Microsoft One Drive seems to be down. It will hopefully be back up and running tomorrow. Let me know if you still have trouble getting the spreadsheet and I’ll send it through to you via e-mail.

      All the best,

      Ruben

      Reply

  4. Hi Ruben, thanks for providing this. This precision is exactly what I’ve been looking for. However, I notice the spreadsheet doesn’t account for the fat and water content of flavor ingredients. How do we calculate the right balance of fat and water content of our flavors? For instance I am making sour cream ice cream and I can never get the right texture when its finished. Fruit flavors are also challenging. Thanks for your help!

    Reply

    • Hi there Heather!

      Thanks for getting in touch. That’s a very good question. So I started out just using the same base recipe for all of my recipes, regardless of the flavour added. I’m now starting to account for the solids in added flavours, especially those high in fat, i.e. nuts, and am just basically testing different compositions of my base mix until I’m happy with the results. I might try and add another column in the spreadsheet to account for the solids and fat provided by added flavours.

      Yes fruit flavours will probably be the most challenging because of the varying amounts of sugar and water in fruits, which vary greatly depending on time of harvesting etc. I haven’t yet done much research into fruit flavours so don’t know how much help I can be there.

      I hope that answers your questions. Let me know if you need a hand with anything else.

      All the best,

      Ruben

      Reply

  5. Hello, Ruben!

    Thanks for your great work – this table is brilliant! I’m making my first steps in gelato making and it’s really helpful. With your recipes and technics my gelato became silky smooth.

    However I have a notice – your table does not count fats from yolks at all (about 27%). If you are interested – I’ve made some fixes and modifications to your table. You can find it here:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SuA1WMLVmAg7MpRpzm4hlZK6w5EEN6crNyLecukk4qw/edit?usp=sharing

    Have a nice day,
    Mikhail

    PS Hello from Russia 🙂

    Reply

    • Hi there Mikhail!

      Thanks for getting in touch. Glad the spreadsheet is helping. Yes the spreadsheet doesn’t count for the fat in the yolks because the calculations from Ice Cream by Goff and Hartel that the spreadsheet is based on also don’t take account of the yolk fat. I think this is because it is primarily the milkfat that contributes to smooth and creamy texture.

      Thank you for sending the modified spreadsheet, I’m sure there will be plenty of people that will be interested in this!

      All the best to you in Russia,

      Ruben

      Reply

  6. Hi Ruben. Thank you for your generosity with your knowledge and experience. You are one of the people who make the internet a great thing. We bought a Cuisinart Ice 100 based on your review and the it makes has been a big it with everyone. Going to use your basic recipe tonight for the first time as I finally found dried skimmed milk powder in the supermarket.

    Reply

    • Hi there Stephen,

      Thanks for getting in touch. I don’t have a spreadsheet specifically for gelato but you can use this one. Ice cream and gelato both use the same ingredients, just at different quantities. You can adjust the quantities in this spreadsheet to create a gelato recipe, as long as you know the composition you are aiming for. I haven’t tried making gelato myself so may not the best person to ask for a gelato mix composition.

      Let me know if you need a hand.

      All the best,

      Ruben

      Reply

  8. Ruben

    Have been following your website for a while and really enjoy it. I make lots of ice cream and find your method of cooking by weight very intriguing. Having said that, your spreadsheet makes my eyes glaze over. I have tried to follow it but need some help to simplify. Instead of “per 100 grams” can you tell me approximately, how much cream, milk, sugar and eggs are in a 900 ml (1 quart) batch when expressed as the number of extra large eggs & cups (or mls) for milk cream & sugar. I use 35% cream and 2% milk. For example; in a vanilla recipe my relevant ingredients are 2 cups cream, 6 large yolks, 1 cup milk, 3/4 cup of sugar. To follow your recipe I would also add skim milk powder.

    I particularly enjoy your reviews on ice cream makers and only wish they would make a good one for home use I could afford. Until then, I will stick with my freezer tubs.

    Thanks for any help.

    Marc W
    Lakeshore Ontario
    Canada

    Reply

    • Hi there Marc!

      Thanks for getting in touch. That’s a very good suggestion, thank you for letting me know. Are you using the weights in cells C20 to C28 for your recipe? You don’t need to use the weights in the ‘per 100g’ column to measure out your ingredients. I will have a think about incorporating a row to display ingredient amounts either in cups or ml. My only reservation is that this may not be as accurate as using grams but we shall see. Egg yolks will probably remain in grams because egg yolks size/weight is difficult to standardise.

      All the best,

      Ruben

      Reply

  9. Thanks for sharing the spreadsheet. It’s much cleaner than my messy spreadsheet. A couple questions: I’m assuming you are using 9% as the NFMS percent of cream and skim milk for simplicity? Using the USDA Food Composition Databases, my calculations on 37% cream vs. skim milk indicate the NFMS to be 9% in skim milk and 5% in 37% fat cream.
    Also in cell C11, what is the the /88*100?

    Reply

    • Hi there Jeff!

      Apologies for the delay, I’ve only just realised that this comment was here. Yes a 9% constant content of milk solids not fat is assumed in milk and cream. You can change this in the spreadsheet if you want to have more accurate figures for your cream. I can’t remember off the top of my head which formula will need to be changed for this but let me know if you need a hand with this and I’ll have a look.

      The /88 in cell C11 is the 97% milk solids not fat in skimmed milk powder – 9, which gives 88.

      I hope that makes sense. Let me know if you need a hand with anything else.

      All the best,

      Ruben

      Reply

  10. Thanks Ruben. This is helpful. I have difficulties making ice cream as I have HFI (Hereditary Fructose Intolerance) so not only is sugar out of the question, but I have a strong aversion to anything tasting sweet. Through trial and (a lot of) error I now make a reasonable ice cream from cream, evaporated milk and dried skimmed milk. Looking at your information the dried milk probably gives the sugar content from lactose. I will try working with the spreadsheet proportions (using lactose) and see how I get on.

    Reply

    • Hi there Carolyn,

      Apologies I’ve only just seen your comment. How are you getting on with the spreadsheet proportions? Yes the dried skimmed milk will contain some sweet lactose. I would recommend using a lot of cream, or cream with a high fat percentage. The higher the fat content, the lower the milk solids not fat in the milk and dried skimmed milk you will need and, consequently, the lower the lactose you will have.

      Let me know if you need a hand.

      All the best,

      Ruben

      Reply

      • Hi Ruben and Carolyn,

        I’ve been using a lot of Lactose powder in my ice creams in the last 6 months and have the following findings:

        1. Lactose is approximately 16% as sweet as standard table sugar (sucrose), but it has the same amount of softening power. So you may find that if you exchange 1 for 1 it might not seem sweet, but it holds about the same texture.

        2. The mixture will be good for about a week or two, but will for some reason form a weird coarse sandy texture. So you’ll want to consume in short time. This tends to matchup with what you can find googling lactose in ice cream.

        Carolyn, have you tried other sugars, like dextrose or glucose (there’s a bunch more). Does that result in issues? Dextrose is about 70% as sweet, but has 190% the softening power as sucrose.

        BTW, keep up the good work Ruben!

        David

        Reply

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