Be sure to take a look at The Ice Cream Experiment: Take One if you haven’t already!
——————————————————-
I hereby declare that The Ice Cream Experiment is over. I got tired of looking at it. I got tired of it being in my way on my kitchen counter. I got tired of trying to prepare food around it.
After four days, I didn’t notice any more changes in the ice cream. After eight days…it looked the same way it had looked on day four and I decided to say goodbye to the ice cream sponges on my countertop.
Here are the final pictures…
Brand One:
Brand Two:
Brand One with a spoon stuck in it just for fun:
Brand Two with a spoon stuck in it for the same reason as above:
As you can see, if you compare the pictures from the beginning of the experiment until the last day of the experiment, the ice cream did do some melting . After four days, the towel under both boxes was wet and icky. So, it would appear that the milk, cream and buttermilk in these ice cream brands did what they were supposed to do: they melted. For some reason, it took four days…but they did melt.
But then there’s all the others stuff left in the box that didn’t melt.
Yes, I understand that stabalizers and stuff are added to make it easier to transport it all over the place…but that still doesn’t make me want to eat it.
My Conclusion:
If possible, I’ll stick to my Homemade Ice Cream.
Or, if I’m in a pinch and need to buy some ice cream at the store…I’ll definitely spend a little more and get “the good stuff” like Breyers or Haagen-Dazs that has basic, more natural ingredients.
And now…I am completely hungry for ice cream. The creamy homemade vanilla kind. Maybe with some fresh peaches in it. Or strawberries. Or both.
So what’s your favorite kind of ice cream?
————————————————-
Oh my! That has scared me away from those cheaper brands for sure!
I knew there was a reason I liked Breyer’s over the other stuff. I’ll have visions of that other stuff hanging out in my body and it will keep me away from it for sure!
I read somewhere that the cheap icecreams are filled with air, which also makes them less filling. Now I know what it is they’re being filled with! I prefer homemade, but Ben and Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk got me through pregnancy! It has good stuff, including almonds, walnuts, and pecans. Yum!
When I saw the title I wasn’t sure I want to read on (since I read Take 1 already and still have scary images in my mind), but I couldn’t hold back… I can’t believe how that ice cream looks! Now I’m ever grateful for the ice cream that melted into a sloppy mess as I as eating it. Who ever thought I would say thank G-d for melted ice cream! i’m glad we’re more fruit smoothies than ice cream people.
We have dairy allergies in our home so we make goat milk ice-cream. We usually will do some type of fruit ice-cream and have discovered that blackberry is the best! Raspberry, mixed berry, and peach is also good. I like strawberry as well, but my husband prefers one of the others. We have done mint chocolate chip and plain vanilla before as well. I’m still experimenting on a good chocolate recipe.
My husband and I bought Breyers ice cream from the store last night and I thought of you when I read the ingredients, because not only do they use real milk and cream, no stabilizers, but the chocolate that was mixed into the ice cream was made with coconut oil!
My husband is a HUGE ice cream fanatic so we always have it in our home. However, after reading your experiment I can’t stand the thought of eating any of it! GROSS! We usually eat Breyers but even the thought of that makes me sick now…
I started making my own ice cream a few months ago after reading Nourishing Traditions and finding out what some of those chemical additives are in the cheap ice creams. Not only are they filled with air, they are also filled with chemicals that can be found in paint thinners and household cleaners. Yuck. So, I’ve been making the homemade stuff, which is really quite easy. I use local raw milk and cream, a couple of pastured eggs, and rapadura in my basic recipe. It’s quite possibly the best ice cream I’ve ever had if I do say so myself.
What an interesting experiment. I’ve been contemplating buying an ice cream maker. I think I’ve made up my mind now.
My parents buy a powdered ice cream mix that you add milk to and then put it in the ice cream maker, so it’s semi-homemade. I wonder how it compares to store bought or from scratch homemade.
My hubby makes an AMAZING rum raisin ice cream. Delicious!
I like neopolitan. You get 3 flavors in ONE scoop! It’s the toppings that get me, WHEN (MAYBE once a year, for a month, then I’m good for another year lol) I eat ice cream. A must… walnuts, maraschino cherries (you don’t have a recipe for these do you???) and Hershey’s chocolate syrup.
Really made me want to buy the natural ice cream! I love to make homemade ice cream! It’s a summer favorite. My favorite recipe is for chocolate ice cream that everyone loves. I always make a double batch so we can have some in the freezer!
We are making ice cream today (first summer feeling day!) It’s going to be a coconut milk ice cream with strawberries and mangos. Yummy!
what kind of ice cream maker would you all recommend getting?
I just posted about my favorite ice cream maker here: https://heavenlyhomemakers.com/which-ice-cream-maker :)
I am a new reader to your blog. We have just started our quest for healthier eating. I love that you did this experiment! Just might be the little push I needed for hubby to buy an ice cream maker.
What kindf of ice cream maker would you recommend?
Here’s a post I just wrote to answer that: https://heavenlyhomemakers.com/which-ice-cream-maker
An excellent example of why I don’t eat ice cream! Interesting experiment!
I love love love Cherry Amaretto ice cream. I can’t remember the brand but it’s one of those made with coconut milk I think. Man is it good! Now if I could find a recipe for that!
I find it interesting that there doesn’t appear to be any mold after sitting on the counter for 8 days! If bacteria isn’t interested in that type of “food” then I’m not either! Wow.
Thanks. This was a great experiment!
Milk products don’t grow mold. They just sour, that must not have smelled nice!
My sour cream does!!! Lol.
I was impressed the other day to read that the “cookies” in the Bryers cookies’n cream ice cream had NO hydrogenated oils in them! I agree Bryers is better than most (although I’m still miffed about the size reduction).
Ben and Jerry’s and Tillamook both are good choices too. Tillamook’s company doesn’t use milk with growth hormones in it, and it is super creamy and delicious. Have you tried the ice cream from Azure? Yum!! We can get it at Fred Meyers too.
I agree, though, homemade is best! I really think I need an ice cream maker.
Oh, and thanks for this post on my first day back being Sugar-Free! ;)
Eek…sorry! :)
All I can say is GROSS!!!! We don’t care for the “cheap” brands of ice cream because they taste, well, CHEAP. What about Blue Bell, do you know if it is made from more natural ingredients?? That’s the brand we usually buy when we eat store-bought ice cream. I have to agree with you, though… nothing beats homemade ice cream!!
~Kristy @ Homemaker’s Cottage
I can’t find the ingredients listed on their website. We don’t have Blue Bell around here, so I’m not sure. You’ll have to read the ingredients list on the box. If they don’t have a bunch of “gums” listed, you’re probably good to go!
So is ONE “gum” ok? I just checked out my breyers natual ice cream…it has tara gum listed. What in the world is tara gum… it said NATURAL tara gum lol!
Oh, grr…last I looked at a Breyers box it didn’t have anything but cream, milk, sugar and vanilla I THOUGHT. I guess one gum is better than three gums and a bunch of other artificial stuff.
That IS disappointing :-( Guess we’ll have to make some homemade!
Here’s something I found when I searched for ‘tara gum’…
http://adailyscoop.com/2006/09/11/breyers-natural-ice-cream-and-tara-gum-unilevers-response/
PS. It also bugs me that Breyer’s is owned by Unilever — doesn’t
Unilever make LAVA soap??? yuck – sorta spoils my appetite
i think breyers only contains cream, milk, sugar and vanilla in the NATURAL variety of ice creams. The box i’m currently scarfing has all kids of gum.
I wonder if it would have ever even grown mold. I saw an experiment a long time ago that set real potato french fries against popular fast food chains. The fast food fries never got moldy. Scary!
Oh, and I also wonder if these brands were marketed as “Ice Cream” or
“Frozen Dessert.” I’ve seen some that are so fake I guess they can not
even sell it as ice cream.
Speaking of fries, I know of a chiropractor that has had a certain
clown’s chicken nuggets and fries on a shelf in his office for about
5 or 6 years and they NEVER molded, they just petrified–rock-hard!!
I would love to try making my own ice cream. My favorite flavor is mint chip, followed closely by plain ol’ vanilla.
I loved your ice cream experiment; thank you for doing it and reporting your results! And I laughed out loud at your pictures of spoons stuck into the dessicated ice cream sponges! Hilarious! You always make me laugh :-)
I just read this last night, hours before consuming a very cheap (but tasty) brand of ice cream. I really wanted some ice cream so badly (a favorite treat of mine) but the entire time I was eating it I was so distracted remembering your blog post that I couldn’t finish the whole bowl…which is quite an amazement for a sweet tooth like me. Thank you so much for this insight. I am DEFINITELY steering clear of cheap brand ice cream…maybe store bought altogether and will be making my own ice cream from now on! On another note, I love your blog!
i have been a big fan of yours for awhile now – your posts are always enjoyable & informative! i love this ice cream series and it actually convinced me to no longer buy ice cream from a store or anywhere that doesn’t use all natural/fresh ingredients – i’m working on a really rich, creamy/velvety homemade vanilla ice cream that is egg free – i’ll happily share it w/you when i’m done :-)
i really wanted to comment to tell you THANK YOU for sharing the ranch dressing recipe you got from your friend – i cannot tell you how many different homemade versions i’ve tried and none were very good – we LOVE ranch in our house and the store bought stuff is expensive not to mention full of who-knows-what! i just whipped up a batch according to your recipe and my kids are telling me i better never make anything else but your recipe again! so, again, THANK YOU so much for passing that along!
After we put the kids to bed last night, Hubby and I sat down for a bowl of Breyers Cookies and Cream. He was in the middle of something else and so didn’t begin eating for a few minutes. I kept telling him that his ice cream was going to melt. His response was, “actually I’ve got a few more days.” (I had told him about this post several days ago.) LOL.
WE used to buy Breyers all the time but in the last yr. or so, we think the taste has changed.
For several yrs. now we purchase Blue Belle. To us this seems to taste the closest to homemade. It is expensive but I think it is a quality product with limited ingredients.
I never saw this experiment before. I am so thankful you did it. I have noticed in the cheap stuff that sometimes it had a plastic appearance to the consistency, and I wondered why. Now I know!!!
Thank you so much for doing this for us all.
Sometimes we just don’t know what we are eating till someone like you comes along to make us aware of it.
Breyers natural?? The growth hormones in the cows they use for the milk in the ice cream is far from natural. Nor are the antibiotics given to them when they get udder infections or lame. Not only is it unnatural, it is cruel to the cows who at times are in severe pain because of these hormones.