Foods and Nutrition

     The Ice that it is not Ice:
                                                       The Water Ice

The Water Ice is a mix and it is made of ice, sugar, fruit juices, infusions or fruit puree that it is obtained leaving to crystallize slowly the water contained in the mixture itself.

Among several products of ice cream, water ice is among the sorbets and ice-creams, in fact consists of countless micro-crystals of ice, its name comes from their crystal structure and rough.

 However, the ice crystals are crucial components of the Slush, but should be very small ones, they are noticeable on our tongue and they dissolve fastly in our mouth.

It is easy to distinguish Water Ice among Ice creams and Sorbets, for several structural aspects:

      1 Absence of creaminess and softness

  The creamy texture is a feature that is not derived from the combination of sugar and water for a      while is not desired or wanted in the food product.

     2  Appearance grainy and crystalline

   The crystalline aspect is the real characteristic of the this product, that feature is given by the presence of aspecific amount of crystalline sugar and water at low temperatures that create a particular crystalline network  obtained after slow cooling and with a continuous movement.

This allows to avoid compaction of the ice crystals which remain very small, the cool mode, the mixing speed lead to the creation of the appropriate size of the ice crystals .

· Middle-dense Texture ( Middle)

Consistency is another important feature of the mixture. That is manageable by evaluating the amount of micro - crystals that are formed during the hardest cooling process.

· Overrun minimum (“overrun” means the ability of the mixture to incorporate air during the freezing phase): in the Water Ice, the air incorporation must be very low

· slow Freezing

THE WATER ICE PRODUCTION

The preparation of Water Ice is different from the ice cream one and it requires less attention, less time for the formulation and the cost is lower than the other one .

The most important step for the production of water Ice can be summarized in a few simple steps :

    1. Formulation of the mixture

During the phase of the formulation, concentrations of sugar and moreover the type of sugar, must be managed, in this case crystalline sugar such as Sucrose have to be preferred because it reinforces the mesh crystalline freezing of the Water Ice , in addiction the amount of water and possible additives such as colorants and stabilizers should be considered if it is an Industrial Water Ice or for a long shelf life.

    1.  Freezing and curettage

    2.  Sale ( in the case of homemade Water Ice) or immediate consumption.

Mixture Formulation

In the formulation of a traditional Water Ice just simplex and a small amount of ingredients are notable: water, sugar and juice ( or infusions ) .

The percentage of sugar contained in a Slush is between the 20 and 24 %, although it is not rare That Water Ice with 17% sugar could be found. General speaking, the percentage of sugar is changeable according to the type of fruit type used.

The most popular sugar used in the preparation of absolute Water Ice is the common Sucrose. Instead, it is not common to use any secondary added sugar for instance (dextrose, invert sugar, honey, glucose syrup, etc.), As it happens in the formulation of an ice cream. These sugars, in fact,

If the Freezing point of Water contained in the mixture was lowerd would lead to control the formation of ice crystals instead they are required in the Slush.

In the production Water Ice is therefore seeking different conditions - almost contradictory - than those you need for ice cream: on one hand we find grit and slush of ice crystals, the other is found with the creaminess and softness of the ice cream .

Generally, the base of a Water Ice is a Syrup prepared with water and sugar to 60%. This means that to prepare 1 L of syrup for slush will have to dissolve 600 g of sugar in 400 ml of water.

At this basic Syrup, then add juice (or pulp) of fruit or infusions of tea or coffee. Afterwards, we proceed to phase chilling, without the detour of the maturation of the mixture (instead of the typical ice cream).

FREEZING AND SCRAPER

After the formulation and preparation of the mixture, immediately the freezing process is required, that it must be static or discontinuous to avoid incorporating air into the mixture. In other words, during the freezing phase, Water Ice should not be continuously whipped (as is the case for ice cream) in order to avoid that air is including into the mixture.

Any incorporation of air would produce a slush excessively dry: the product must instead be wet and soft, just like snow during dissolution.

During freezing process, the product should be scraped from time to time with a depressor in that points where crystallizes are formed: this operation has the aim to help the creation of new ice crystals. It goeson in this way until  the desired consistency is got.

In industrial / Homemade preparation  certain machines namely "vertical freezer", allowing the slow freezingto the  mixture. Occasionally, during the chilling of the mass, it should be operated a special mechanical arm connected to the machine, that it scrapes the crystallized product from the walls.

With the housemade product is just enough to use the freezer (not the ice cream maker) and "scrape" from time to time the ice mass from the container walls.

Water Ice is therefore ready to be exhibited in the windows of sale or to be served and tasted (at home).

PREPARATION OF SLUSH HOME

To prepare a lemon Watre Ice with 20% sugar, we could do in this way.

Prepare the Syrup base by dissolving 250 g of sugar in 500 ml of water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then let it cool completely.

    Put the cool syrup in a plastic container and you should never use copper or aluminum containers because these metals could alter the taste of the fruit.

  Combine 500 ml of lemon juice and mix.

    Place the container in a freezer at temperatures between -15 and -16 ° C.

    Remove the pan after a few hours: you will be trained minute ice crystals. Scraping the crystallized to facilitate the development of new micro-crystals, then put the can back in the freezer.

    Continue in this manner until the desired texture and grit. Freezing time varies from 5 to 8 hours, and is mainly influenced by the size of the pan.

When finished, you will get a crystalline mass and soft at the same time: then the slush can be served immediately in glasses or bowls.