Ice Cream Calculator
Below, you'll find the ice cream calculator I use to balance my mixes. It's very much a work in progress. And may well contain mistakes!
If you do spot any mistakes or have any suggestions of things you'd like to see added, please let me know.
How it works
Hopefully this is pretty obvious. Add your data and measurements to the green cells. This should update the pink cells.
Once you've added your information, compare the numbers in the "Total %" row to the guidelines I've added below the calculator. If your numbers are way off, then your mix is probably unbalanced and you're likely to have problems!
"Relative Sweetness" is a measure of how sweet the mixture is. It's relative to the sweetness of Sucrose. So if you only have Sucrose in your mix, Relative Sweetness will be equal to the percentage of Sugar in the mixture.
"Overrun" is the amount of air that the ice cream maker has added to your mixture, as a percentage.
If you're adding fruit to your mixture, check out the Sugar and Other Solids percentages for loads of different fruit at the bottom of the page. You'll need to add these values at the top of the calculator before you add your fruit weights.
The calculator
Mix Composition Guidelines
The approximate compositions of commercial ice creams (taken from the book Ice Cream by Goff & Hartel)...
Ice cream | Fat % | MSNF % | Sugars % | Stabilizers % | Total solids % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nonfat ice cream | < 0.5 | 12-14 | 18-22 | 1.0 | 28-32 |
Low-fat ice cream | 2-5 | 12-14 | 18-21 | 0.8 | 28-32 |
Light ice cream | 5-7 | 11-12 | 18-20 | 0.5 | 30-35 |
Gelato | 4-8 | 11-12 | 16-22 | 0.5 | 36-43 |
Reduced fat ice cream | 7-9 | 10-12 | 18-19 | 0.4 | 32-36 |
Standard ice cream | 10-12 | 9-10 | 14-17 | 0.2-0.4 | 36-38 |
Premium ice cream | 12-14 | 8-10 | 13-16 | 0.2-0.4 | 38-40 |
Superpremium ice cream | 14-18 | 5-8 | 14-17 | 0-0.2 | 40-42 |
Frozen yogurt: regular | 3-6 | 9-13 | 15-17 | 0.5 | 30-36 |
Frozen yogurt: nonfat | < 0.5 | 9-14 | 15-17 | 0.6 | 28-32 |
Sherbet | 1-2 | 1-3 | 22-28 | 0.4-0.5 | 28-34 |
Useful data
Egg Weights
Egg | Small | Medium | Large | X-Large | Jumbo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yolk | 13 g | 15 g | 17 g | 19 g | 21 g |
White | 25 g | 29 g | 33 g | 37 g | 42 g |
Composition of Fruit and Vegetables
Fruit | Water % | Sugar % | Other Solids % | Total Solids % | Fat % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Apple | 85 | 11 | 4 | 15 | |
Apricot | 85 | 10 | 5 | 15 | |
Avacado | 68 | 1 | 31 | 32 | 24 |
Banana | 74 | 19 | 7 | 26 | |
Blackberry | 85 | 9 | 6 | 15 | |
Blackcurrant | 81 | 10 | 9 | 19 | |
Blueberry | 77 | 20 | 3 | 23 | |
Cherry (Morello) | 85 | 11 | 4 | 15 | |
Cherry (Sweet) | 83 | 13 | 4 | 15 | |
Clementine | 87 | 10 | 3 | 13 | |
Coconut | 45 | 5 | 50 | 55 | 36.5 |
Cranberry | 87 | 8 | 5 | 13 | |
Currant | 16 | 66 | 18 | 84 | |
Date (dried) | 20 | 65 | 15 | 80 | |
Elderberry | 81 | 7 | 12 | 19 | |
Fig | 80 | 13 | 7 | 20 | |
Fig (dried) | 25 | 54 | 21 | 75 | |
Gooseberry | 87 | 10 | 3 | 13 | |
Grape | 81 | 16 | 3 | 19 | |
Grapefruit | 89 | 9 | 2 | 11 | |
Greengage | 81 | 14 | 5 | 19 | |
Guava | 81 | 7 | 12 | 19 | |
Jackfruit | 73 | 15 | 12 | 27 | |
Kiwi | 84 | 10 | 6 | 16 | |
Lemon | 90 | 3 | 7 | 10 | |
Lime | 91 | 2 | 7 | 9 | |
Lychee | 82 | 17 | 1 | 18 | |
Mandarin | 87 | 10 | 3 | 13 | |
Mango | 82 | 13 | 5 | 18 | |
Medlar | 87 | 4 | 9 | 13 | |
Musk Melon | 87 | 12 | 1 | 13 | |
Nectarine | 88 | 9 | 3 | 12 | |
Orange | 86 | 10 | 4 | 14 | |
Papaya | 88 | 2 | 10 | 12 | |
Passion Fruit | 77 | 13 | 10 | 23 | |
Peach | 88 | 9 | 3 | 12 | |
Pear | 84 | 10 | 6 | 16 | |
Pepper | 91 | 3 | 6 | 9 | |
Persimmon | 81 | 16 | 3 | 19 | |
Pineapple | 85 | 13 | 2 | 15 | |
Plum | 84 | 12 | 4 | 16 | |
Prune | 24 | 55 | 31 | 86 | |
Pumpkin | 91 | 3 | 6 | 9 | |
Quince | 83 | 8 | 9 | 17 | |
Rasberry | 84 | 6 | 10 | 16 | |
Redcurrant | 85 | 8 | 7 | 15 | |
Rhubarb | 94 | 2 | 4 | 6 | |
Star Fruit | 91 | 4 | 5 | 9 | |
Strawberry | 90 | 6 | 4 | 10 | |
Tomato | 94 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
