The Test Kitchen: Milkshakes, Malts, and More Frozen Desserts

Desserts: they’re what’s for dinner.  Only, they’re for after you eat your dinner, so they’re for dessert.  And who doesn’t love a nice cold dessert during the winter, especially that American classic, the milkshake?  Well, some people like malts, but that begs the question: just what exactly is a malt?  And actually, if you’re from somewhere other than the USA, you might be asking “what’s a milkshake?” like a friend of mine from Mexico once did.  And since we’re trying to figure out what to have for dessert, what really is the difference between frozen yogurt and frozen custard?  And just what the hell are sorbet and gelato, and how do they figure into this picture?  Loosen your belts, unbutton your pants, and let’s find out in this discussion in The Test Kitchen.

Milkshakes and malt balls

When talking about frozen desserts, the first thing that comes to most people’s minds would probably be ice cream.  And when most people think of ice cream, they think of a mixture of milk or cream, fruits or syrups, and sugar or other sweeteners.  But did the dessert known as ice cream come about in this form originally, or were there earlier variations that eventually led to the dessert as we know it today?  While accurate dating is not easy for topics dating to ancient history, some schools of thought say that the Persians or the Chinese were the first to enjoy desserts made from ice and fruit or syrups several hundred years before the Common Era.  In the first century of the Common Era, it is known that the Roman emperor Nero enjoyed frozen desserts similar in nature.  The Arabian world had frozen desserts using milk, yogurt, fruits, and nuts as early as the 10^th century, and there is thought that these desserts were based on older recipes.  French and Italian recipes for frozen ices and sorbets are recorded as early as the 17^th century, and possibly date earlier. 

The first known recipes for ice cream in a form similar to the current popular form were from the 18^th century in Britain and America.  Desserts using ice cream, such as ice cream sodas and sundaes, first appeared in the 19^th century.  Until the spread of affordable refrigeration in the second half of the 20^th century, however, ice cream was a relatively rare commodity around the world.  It was most prevalent in the United States, where it could be found at soda parlors and malt shops.  Another development in the spread of ice cream in the late 20^th century was the invention in Britain of soft ice cream, which doubled the amount of air in the dessert and thus allowed manufacturers to use less ingredients to deliver the same quantity of product.  The change of technique was not without its tradeoffs, however; soft-serve ice cream introduced a greater usage of stabilizing agents such as gluten.  The increased use of gluten and advanced testing mechanisms for lactose intolerance have led to more people becoming aware that ice cream is bad for them, and not just because it is essentially frozen fat and sugar.  So, having established a rough timeline for the history of ice cream, what about the other frozen desserts that people enjoy?

In modern times, the common milkshake – in all its flavors – is at its core a mixture of milk and ice cream combined together in a blender.  But the drink actually predates the invention of the blender, and did not originally include ice cream.  In early usage (the first usage recorded in print is 1885) “milkshakes” were an alcoholic drink made of whiskey and eggs whisked together, similar to egg nog.  By 1900, the term milkshake referred to a mixture of milk and flavored syrups, with some people adding ice cream to the drink.  Before the invention of the electric blender in 1922, milkshakes were either hand-mixed or hand-shaken.  And in 1936, an automated milkshake machine was created that both froze the ice cream and blended the drink together.  More recently, many fast food restaurant chains automated the process further by using machines that freeze a premade mixture of milk, a sweetened flavoring agent, and a thickening agent.

So that establishes what a milkshake is and how it was created, but that still begs the question: what is a malt?   The process of malting refers to wetting cereal grains with water to begin them germinating, and then drying them with hot air to prevent them from germinating further which allows the development of sugars within the grains.  The term malt used when discussing the dessert refers to a malted milkshake, or a milkshake that has had malted milk powder (dried milk, malted barley, and wheat flower) added to it.  Malt powder was used as one of the flavoring agents added to milkshake drinks before ice cream was widely available, but the use of malt powder as a flavoring continued in soda shops and malt shops after the spread of cheap refrigeration allowed ice cream to be used as a primary ingredient more frequently.

And what about frozen yogurt and frozen custard?  Well, as the names imply, these are frozen treats made with yogurt and custard as the primary ingredient instead of milk or cream.  The overall process is similar, and sugars, syrups, or fruits are often added to give specific flavoring to the yogurt or custard.  Frozen yogurt tends to be tarter than ice cream, as well as lower in fat.  Frozen yogurt hit markets in the United States in the 1970s, and has continued to grow its market share amongst frozen desserts since then.  Frozen custard is made of eggs in addition to cream and sugar, and is generally much thicker and smoother than ice cream.  It is also generally more fattening than either ice cream or frozen yogurt because of the higher concentration of milk fats and egg yolks in the mixture.  Frozen custard was invented in 1919 at Coney Island.  It is usually sold at the place it is created and is not shipped, although there are a few brands that are available at supermarkets in some locations.

Having established the meaning of frozen yogurt and frozen custard, what about sorbet, sherbert, gelato, and italian ice?  Sorbet is typically a dessert made of frozen water and fruits or syrups, and as stated above is thought to have been created by the Romans or Persians in ancient times.  Sorbet does not have air mixed into it, and so is generally a denser dessert than ice cream.  Sorbet is sometimes confused with sherbet, which – in the United States – is a frozen dairy product that only contains a small amount of milk fat as compared to ice cream but that has predominantly fruit flavorings similar to sorbet.  It should be noted that sherbet in other parts of the world refers to various other things, although the term is almost always used to refer to a sweet treat that would typically be eaten as a dessert.  Italian ice is a frozen dessert that is similar to sorbet in that it does not contain dairy or eggs, but is similar to ice cream in that the ingredients are mixed together while they are frozen.  Italian ices are typically flavored with fruits or syrups, again similar to sorbets, but the mixing process introduces air into the dessert making it less dense.  Italian ice is not supposed to be flavored shaved ice similar to a snow cone or snowball, although some places label shaved ice fruit desserts as italian ices.  Finally, gelato refers to the italian version of ice cream.  Gelato uses dairy, sugar, and fruit or syrup flavorings, and must contain a larger percentage of milk fat than sherbet.

If all of this is not confusing enough for you, realized that the terminology for which frozen dessert is which differs from country to country.  There are different regulations for what the dairy, fat, sugar, or water content must be for a dessert to “officially” be called that dessert, and these regulations vary depending on where you are.  There are also differences in the actual freezing processes used when making the different delicacies, but getting into that aspect of the topic would blow the scope of this discussion too wide open to fit inside the confines of one blog post.  The bottom line is that there are a wide array of desserts out there to try, so don’t be so vanilla when you’re making your decision on which dessert to enjoy the next time the topic comes up.  And remember: as always, moderation is key; otherwise, this blog post isn’t the only thing that can blow up on you when it comes to frozen desserts.  Enjoy the meal.