During a discussion about ice cream, JP asked if I knew why a premium ice cream maker would use higher fat content milk and cream. I have some good ideas, but first some facts.
(1) Heavy cream in the U.S. is typically 36% buttermilk fat. You can always find higher fat content heavy cream from specialty distributors and wholesalers.
(2) In the U.K. and Australia “Double Cream” (which is readily available) is 48% buttermilk fat.
(3) In the U.S., the minimum percentage of buttermilk fat in ice cream for sale to consumers is 10%. Ben & Jerry’s is usually about 16%. Coldstone was the first producer to go with higher fat content, with 20% and higher in their extremely high fat products.
(4) The result of using more buttermilk fat is that the ice cream tastes a lot richer with a creamier texture. Since double cream is already higher in milk fat content than typical ice cream, it is usually thinned with milk or water to reduce the buttermilk fat content down for a typical ice cream implementation.
I’m not certain that many of my guests want to know this, but I make one version of chocolate ice cream that is approximately 40% buttermilk fat and double the calories of Coldstone ice cream. I typically don’t make this dessert because it is too rich (JP has had it once and he called it “decadent”).
So, in answer to the question, a vendor would want higher fat content milk and cream because they want the product to taste richer and have a creamier texture. On certain recipes, it really has a good effect.
