Chapter 28 — Further Reading

Beginner

  • Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking (2004), Chapter 1 ("Milk and Dairy Products"), the ice cream section. McGee's discussion of ice cream's three-phase structure remains the single best non-technical introduction. He explains overrun, fat globule destabilization, and crystal size in plain language with no equations. Pair this with the same book's water chapter for the full water-and-cold story.

  • J. Kenji López-Alt, The Food Lab (2015), no dedicated ice cream chapter, but Kenji's website Serious Eats has an extensive series on home ice cream. His "Best Vanilla Ice Cream" piece walks through the custard-base argument, and his "Best Sorbet" piece covers freezing-point depression for fruit sorbets in cook-friendly terms.

  • YouTube: "Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Demonstration" by Heston Blumenthal. Several Blumenthal videos exist of the LN₂ ice-cream technique he pioneered; any of them shows the spectacle and the safety in roughly 5 minutes. Excellent for the visual learner.

  • Cook's Illustrated, "Why Some Ice Creams Are Creamier Than Others" (multiple issues across 2010–2020). Cook's Illustrated's experimental approach to home ice cream — testing different fat ratios, sugar types, and stabilizers in side-by-side panels — is among the most kitchen-grounded reference work on the topic.

Intermediate

  • Modernist Cuisine at Home (Myhrvold, Bilet et al., 2012), Volume 5, the chapters on "Plated Desserts" and "Crystals and Glass." The Modernist team's discussion of ice crystal formation, sugar glass transitions, and the relationship between cooling rate and texture is graduate-level detailed but written for cooks who want to apply it. The full Modernist Cuisine set (six volumes) is library-affordable and worth the trip.

  • R. T. Marshall, H. D. Goff, & R. W. Hartel, Ice Cream (6th ed., 2003). The textbook for industry. Goff and Hartel are the two most-cited researchers in modern ice-cream science. The book covers everything from milk-fat structure to overrun measurement to commercial freezer engineering. Out of print but available used and through libraries.

  • Hartel, R. W. (2001), Crystallization in Foods. The graduate text on food crystallization. Chapters on ice nucleation, growth kinetics, and recrystallization are exactly the formal framework that Chapter 28 introduces in narrative form. For the food-science student.

  • Heldman, D. R., & Hartel, R. W. (2018), Principles of Food Processing (2nd ed.). The engineering view of freezing — heat-transfer calculations, blast freezer design, the Plank equation for freezing time. Useful if you want to think quantitatively about how long it takes to freeze a particular item under particular conditions.

Advanced

  • Goff, H. D. (1997). "Colloidal aspects of ice cream — A review." International Dairy Journal, 7(6–7), 363–373. Foundational review of ice cream's three-phase structure. Cited by essentially every subsequent paper. Available through most university subscriptions.

  • Hartel, R. W. (1996). "Ice crystallization during the manufacture of ice cream." Trends in Food Science & Technology, 7(10), 315–321. The classic paper on the relationship between processing conditions and crystal size in ice cream. Includes the math for nucleation vs. growth rates.

  • Cook, K. L. K., & Hartel, R. W. (2010). "Mechanisms of ice crystallization in ice cream production." Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 9(2), 213–222. A more recent comprehensive review covering crystal nucleation, growth, recrystallization, and the role of stabilizers. The most current (as of 2026) thorough treatment.

  • Donhowe, D. P., & Hartel, R. W. (1996). "Recrystallization of ice in ice cream during controlled accelerated storage." International Dairy Journal, 6(11–12), 1191–1208. The empirical study of Ostwald ripening in real ice cream under realistic storage conditions. Validates the WLF-equation predictions referenced in Chapter 28's advanced sidebar.

  • Roos, Y. H., & Drusch, S. (2015), Phase Transitions in Foods (2nd ed.). The reference textbook on glass transitions in food systems. Chapter 28's discussion of T_g and recrystallization rate sits on top of decades of work by Roos and others. Graduate-level but readable.

On Liquid Nitrogen Cooking

  • Blumenthal, H. (2008), The Big Fat Duck Cookbook. Blumenthal's restaurant cookbook, with detailed protocols for the LN₂ ice cream and other cryogenic preparations he pioneered. Expensive but unique as a primary source.

  • Modernist Cuisine, Volume 5, "Plated Desserts," the section on cryogenic dessert. The detailed safety and technique guide for kitchen LN₂ work. Required reading before any home or restaurant LN₂ use.

  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "Liquid Nitrogen and Liquid Nitrogen-Infused Beverages and Foods" (FDA Constituent Update, 2018). The FDA advisory after several injuries. Direct, brief, with the safety rules that any LN₂ cook should know.

On Cocktail Ice (Callback to Chapter 21)

  • Camper English, Doc of the Bay blog and the article series "Index of Ice Experiments" (2009–present). Bartender and writer Camper English popularized directional freezing for clear cocktail ice. His articles document the technique with photographs, and explain the physics in cocktail-bar-friendly terms.

  • Dave Arnold, Liquid Intelligence (2014). The cocktail science book. Chapter on ice covers shapes, surfaces, dilution rates, and the Japanese single-ice-ball tradition with experimental rigor. Pairs well with Chapter 21 of this book.

For Educators

  • AP Chemistry Lab Manual (College Board), Lab on "Colligative Properties." The salt-and-ice freezing-point-depression demonstration described as Kitchen Lab 28.1 maps directly to AP Chemistry curriculum standards on colligative properties. Pat Hammond uses a worksheet built around this lab; she is willing to share it on request.

  • NSTA (National Science Teaching Association) "Picture-Perfect Science Lessons" series, vol. 3, "States of Matter" lesson. Elementary-school-level demonstration of phase changes; uses an ice-and-salt component that prefigures the colligative-properties argument the students will encounter in high school chemistry.

  • Pat Hammond's personal recommendation: For middle and high school classrooms with budget constraints, the Kitchen Lab 28.1 ($4 demo) is one of the highest engagement-per-dollar demonstrations available. Pair it with the supercooling-bottle demo from this chapter's hook for a full class period of "the freezer doesn't work the way you think it does." Students remember it ten years later.