Description
Ice cream calculator is a free Windows software for ice cream, gelato, sorbet balancing and recipe creation. It calculates useful data for ice cream making and recipe development. The database currently have 138 ingredients. This is purely a hobby project! If you use it I’d love to hear what you think and also any suggestions for improvements, new features, bugs etc. For more science background I refer you to the references in the documentation.
For a progress report and latest news please check the History page!
Calculate
Calculates ratios and information for ice cream mixes
Calculate
Calculates all the important ratios and metrics for ice cream mixes. Calculates freezing point, serving temperature and freezing curves.
Ingredients
Online and local ingredient database
Database
Online standard database and a local user database with ingredients. Full access to the USDA food database.
Recipes
Create and manage all your ice cream recipes
Recipes
Local recipe database. Ingredients are automatically updated. Add instructions and add-ins. Print your recipe and recipe data.
Recipe Generator
Automatic recipe generator for 20+ flavors.
Ice Cream Wizard
Automatic recipe generator for 20+ flavors. Generates Gelato, Ice Cream or Custard ice cream recipes.
Balance
Perform ice cream balancing
Balance
Flexible tool to balance your ice cream recipe against target ratios.
Production planning
Calendar based production planning.
Planning
Calendar based production planning with summary of ingredient weights and costs.
Inventory
Full inventory management and stocktaking.
Inventory and Stocktaking
Manage products and inventory. Create stocktakings with barcode scanner support.
Nutrition Labels
Create nutrition labels and ingredient lists.
Nutrition Labels
Create nutrition labels and ingredient lists. Allergy information. Use local editor or MSWord.
Reports
Create advanced reports.
Reports
Create reports using DOCX templates or built in editor.
Cost
Calculate cost.
Cost
Calculate the ingredient cost for recipes.
Customize
Customize tables, charts and data.
Customize
Customize tables, charts and data to meet your specific needs. Use scrips to calculate custom data.
Free
Ice Cream Calculator is free.
Free
Ice Cream Calculator is totally free. No advertisements, No hidden costs.
Support
Free email support
Support
Just send and email with your questions. Manual and tutorials are also available.
Import
Import ingredients from Excel.
Import
Bulk import of ingredients from Excel or other spreadsheets.
Translation
Can be translated to any language
Translation
Can be translated to any language
In fact, Corvitto initially recommends has a 1,8x HF for ‘pure cocoa’ and a 0,9x HF for cocoa fats which may have some sort of value. Then he moves towards a general 1,4x factor which is where science starts to recoil. It’s a shame I cannot look at your software, I am sure it is really good!
Hey, usually you can run Windows OS on a Mac and then you can use the software.
With Boot Camp, you can install and use Windows. Boot Camp Assistant helps you set up a Windows partition on your Mac computer’s hard disk and then start the installation of your Windows software.
I’m running David Lebovitz’s Peanut Butter recipe through your calc and notice that the PAC for 180 g of peanut butter is -128.07. Is that right, can you have a negative PAC?
The software handles the hardening effects of fats from nuts and chocolate by modifying the PAC.
This is not strictly correct but it gives a way to handle the hardening of these fats.
I use the same method as the book “il gelato senza segreti” by Angelo Corvitto
Yes, Corvitto . . . he knows what he’s talking about!
Thanks.
Hello,
first of all thank you for great program.
I am also using a book from Angelo Corvito but “The secrets of ice cream”.
With last update you change a calculation of PAC. (vegtable fat)
But now, when I make calculation for hardening, with hazelnut paste there is no difference with or without a paste.
Former version, I think work much better even it was not fully correct.
Hello,
I understand your concern.
The idea is to develop a specific hardening value instead that takes these fats into account.
And as a step towards this and to clean up the system I decided to remove the negative PAC values.
The thing is that the freezing curve is mainly based on PACse so using modified PAC values will not actually show you the correct freezing points.
It makes more scientific sense not to manipulate the PAC value.
You can however, at the moment until this hardening value is developed, continue to use negative or modified PAC values.
Just make copies of the ingredients and modify the PAC values.
The PAC for Hazelnut paste was -91.
Here is a list of the old value
Name PAC POD
Nutella 7 55
Pine nut paste -87 0
Hazelnut paste -91 0
Almond paste -91 0
Walnut paste -84 0
Pistachio paste -70 0
Nougat paste 0 40
Peanut paste -70 0
Cacao powder 21 -42 -50
Cacao powder 11 -20 0
Chocolate 70% -50 30
Chocolate 65% -46 35
Chocolate 60% -34 40
Chocolate 55% -23 45
Milk chocolate 40 4 35
Hi Patrick,
I cannot use your software as I have a Mac, but from what I get it’s really well thought out.
I have a comment about vegetable fats, Corvitto’s negative PAC approach (some people recoil in horror at the thought) and the consequent ‘corrections’ which may be implemented in various ways.
I know that what people care is a balancing sheet and that the end results may not differ, but I find it difficult to justify, from a scientific point of view, that vegetable fats are the cause of hardening. If you think that most vegetable fats are mono- or polyunsaturated, you’ll realise that this does not make any sense, as those oils have low or very low melting points.
I know that a fat with low melting point will have a deleterious impact on partial coalescence, and the ice cream structure will generally be worse at stabilising air, but the problem with nut butters is in my opinion not the fats, but their starches and fibres (take cocoa for example, one of the worst case scenarios as it comes with saturated fats AND insoluble fibers). And those solids are way more difficult to account for, as each will have its own behaviour.
This is the beauty of perfecting vegan ice cream, one of the reasons why I love studying and working on it.
Hi,
Yes negative PAC is not the best way in my opinion.
I used negative PAC before because this is a work in progress and you have to start somewhere.
Corvitto works heavily on PAC and suggests different ranges of PAC for different temperatures
This is based on his long experience and experimentation.
What he doesn’t do in his book is calculate freezing curves and when you start doing this you realize that negative PAC to adjust for hardness is not the most elegant solution.
What we need is a freezing point calculation and a hardness calculation.
Calculating hardness in ice cream is difficult and there are not a lot of research on this.
So, what you say about nut ingredients is interesting and in that regard it makes more sense to use a general hardening factor instead of manipulating PAC.
So, using a general hardening factor as I do today makes more sense and the HF does not have to be related to the fats at all.
But since the numbers Corvitto has experimentally calculated are the only ones available I use those numbers until I can find a better way.
You’ve done a great job with this calculator. I have a feature request and that’s having the ability to have a column for a 1000 gram recipe derived from the W%.
I own quite a few ice cream books and find the ones that list their recipes in 1000 g quantities work well with the size of my ice cream makers.
Again, great job. Much appreciated.
Dave
Glad you like it!
You can totally do this already.
Just enter the W% in the normal Weight column and resize the recipe after to whatever total weight you like.
See this movie:
Recipe Weight
Excellent! You’ve really thought of everything.
Very good work. Simple but rigorous. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
what will it take to convert to apple mac os? or to ios?
what language is it in?
I’m not sure what it would take. I’m not an expert on mac or ios.
It is a .NET Windows Forms application in C#.
So I suspect a total rewrite of the user interface.
I use linux, and the program works almost flawlessly using wine. I have some issues in printing, but the quick print feature works fine. I`m not sure if sharing and database updateing via internet works though…
Now, wine can be installed on according to this site. But in Catalina only 64bit apps work… Is the icecreamcalc 64bit?
Yes the calculator is 64-bit just for this reason.
But, the installation is 32-bit so you have to use the download from this page to bypass the installer.
https://icecreamcalc.com/mac-support/