Soft Serve, Ice Cream or Frozen Custard?

What are the differences you may ask.  There are two main differences.

1. Overrun or the amount of air pushed into the product
2. Milk fat content = taste and calories!

I will explain what varying levels of these will produce.  

The more overrun and less milk fat, the lighter the product and less calories.  Soft serve or ice milk has the most air and least amount of milk fat at 5%.  If you are looking strictly at calories, this has the least. You can often find soft serve at fast food chains such as Dairy Queen, Hardees and McDonald's.

You will see the twist that is characteristic of soft serve.  This is from the machine that it is pumped out of.

It is easy to add flavor and color to soft serve.  I don't know if I could eat purple soft serve!

Less overrun (air) and higher milk fat means the product will be more creamy.  Ice cream is regulated by the FDA to have at least 10% milk fat and be frozen at a lower temperature.  This may be of interest to the state health inspector but to me, it simply means a creamier and harder frozen treat.  Ice cream is harder and thus hand scooped.  When you see those signs that they hand scoop, it's not to impress upon you that they work harder.  It simply means it is ice cream not soft serve.

Frozen custard has the highest amount of milk fat.  It also has more than 1.4% egg yolk solids.  This gives it the smooth dense consistency.  Frozen custard is my favorite!

Notice how creamy and smooth the custard looks, yes chocolate!

I'll sum this up for you.  

Soft serve: less milk fat = less cost = less flavor

Ice cream: higher milk fat = higher cost = better flavor

Frozen custard: higher milk fat + egg yolk = highest cost = best flavor and smoothest consistency

You are already sacrificing your calorie count for the day because you are succumbing to the desire for dessert.  Why not get the highest quality?  Enjoy your ice cream or frozen custard!

FDA information taken from
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=135.110

Milk fat levels taken from interviews with Mike Schraa, owner of Leon's in Oshkosh, WI and Rick, owner of the former South Side Dairy Queen in Oshkosh, WI.