Ingredient Dialog

This is the ingredient editor with all the properties of an ingredient. Remember that standard database ingredients are read only so you can only modify your local ingredients. The dialog has all the data for an ingredient in the list to the left and to the right are tools to create and modify the ingredient. When adding a new ingredient the easiest way is to use the Nutrition label or the USDA database methods or to copy a similar ingredient and modify it. You can of course also manually edit all the values in the list if you have a clear understanding of all the data.

Category

Select the category for the ingredient or type in a new category

Nutrition label

Set the ingredient data using the nutrition label. Opens the Nutrition label dialog.

USDA database

Import an ingredient from the USDA Food Data Central database. Opens the USDA dialog.

Notes

Here you can add information about the ingredient.

Files

Attach and connect files to an ingredient. This could for example be technical data sheets or other relevant documentation. Opens the Files dialog.

Tools

Nutrient info

Opens the Nutrients dialog.

Formula

This is a special field in the ingredient where you can type in a simple formula using the other data and constants etc…This value can also be shown in the main dialog table. You can use it to display for example a percentage of one of the other data or a relation between two data items in the ingredient.

Alcohol

Opens the Alcohol dialog. When you add an alcoholic ingredient the amount of alcohol is usually given in Vol% or Proof. So, the calculator needs the amount of alcohol by weight, so we need to convert volume % to weight %. Use this tool to calculate the correct weight% of the alcohol and you can also add how much sugar there is to set the PAC and POD.

MSNF

Just sets the MSNF to TotalSolids-Butter fat.

PAC and POD

Opens the PAC/POD dialog where you can calculate the PAC and/or POD by supplying the amount of different sugars or the molecular weight.

Hardening factor

Calculates the hardening factor using cocoa solids, cocoa fat and other fat. You should only use this for chocolate or nut ingredients. The hardening factor is used to adjust the serving temp calculations to account for the hardening effects of chocolate and nuts. I use the same method as Corvitto but has moved this to a separate variable instead of using negative PAC values.

Energy

Calculates the Energy. I use an EU based method to calculate the Energy. The formula is KCAL=CarbsEU*4 + Protein*4 + TotalFat*9 + Alcohol*7 + Fiber*2 + Polyols*2.4
The rules for calculating the energy is slightly different in different countries so this is the method used in the calculator. You should of course always type in the Energy manually if you know what it is instead.

Dairy

This is a simple way to add a generic dairy ingredient. You just enter the fat% and the other data is calculated. Don’t use this method if you plan to use the ingredient for nutrition calculations.

Advanced chocolate reverse engineering

Opens the Chocolate calculator. It is used to reverse engineer especially milk chocolate to calculate the percentages of the sub ingredients.

List connected products

This will show all products in the Inventory that is linked to this ingredient.

Ingredients/Allergens

Handles the sub-ingredients and allergens of this ingredient. You only have to use this if you plan to create correct ingredient lists for your recipes. Opens the Ingredients/Allergens dialog.

Nutrition information

Just lists the nutrient info, easier to read compared to finding the data in the list.

Verified for label creation

Ok, this is important. If you plan to create accurate nutrition labels you have to make sure each ingredient is correct. If you know all the nutrient data is entered correctly you check this box to verify this. Later when the nutrition data is calculated for a recipe you will be notified if any of the ingredients is not verified telling you that the nutrition data might not be accurate.

Information labels

At the bottom of the dialog there is some information about the ingredient.
Last modified date
Database and databse id
The unique ingredient GUID.

Ingredient data

Below is a list and explanation of all the data saved for one ingredient. Many of the values are simple and self explanatory but some need a bit more explanation. It is also important to understand how some of the values are connected. Some values are just for information purpose and used in for example nutrient labels but some are connected so changing one will change the other like Water and Total solids.

Some of the values here are the normal data you will find in a nutrition label like Protein and Carbohydrates etc… but in ice cream science we need to keep track of other data as well that is normally not available from a nutrition label like Butter fat, MSNF, PAC, POD, Lactose and the exact sugar composition. When adding a new ingredient we usually only have the nutrition label and these ice cream specific data is unknown. Therefore the calculator will do some guesswork when you add an ingredient using the Nutrition label and the USDA methods. This is the reason you can set what type of ingredient you are adding (the General, Dairy, Chocolate etc). However if you add a more complex ingredient like some brand of cookies or anything else with a long list of ingredients it can be difficult to calculate all these ice cream specific data correctly. You can in these cases make educated guesses or even try to reverse engineer the ingredient as a recipe and convert it to an ingredient.

Water

The amount of water in the ingredient. If you change this the TotalSolids will also change

Total solids

Total solids is everything in an ingredient that is not water or alcohol.
So, if you change the total solids the water will change accordingly.
You can enter any value as TotalSolids. When you enter a value the Water will change as Water=100-TotalSolids-Alcohol.
TotalSolids is calculated as
TotalSolids=OtherSolids+TotalFat+TotalSugars+Stablizers+Salt+Protein
This means that if you manually change the TotalSolids some of the other values must change to match this. I use OtherSolids to balance out the equation.
So, if you increase TotalSolids by 10 then OtherSolids will increase by 10.
If you change any of the other values, TotalSolids is recalculated using the above formula.
If you for example increase TotalFat by 5 then TotalSolids will increase by 5 and Water will decrease by 5.
Water and TotalSolids are important when balancing your ice cream.

Other solids

Other solids are solids that can not be put in any of the other values in the TotalSolids formula. It’s kind of a catch all variable to balance out the Water and TotalSolids. It’s also useful if you don’t want to specify Protein for example, then OtherSolids is used for any missing data. So, for example in the calculator fiber and all carbohydrates that is not sugar is part of other solids.

Cocoa solids

Cocoa solids are the dry solids from cocoa beans.
Cocoa solids together with cocoa fat is used to calculate the Hardening Factor (more info below)

MSNF

MSNF stands for Milk-Solids-Not-Fat also called serum solids. It is the lactose, caseins, whey proteins and ash content (minerals, salt) of milk or cream. It is an important property when balancing ice cream and you will see this in most (all) calculators for ice cream. Nowadays some people don’t use this and instead balance the ice cream using lactose and proteins separately for more control.
In the dialog there is a MSNF button under the Tools that will calculate the MSNF as TotalSolids-ButterFat and set this as the MSNF value. This is of course only correct if you have a pure milk or cream and not a combined ingredient. You can also use the Dairy button to add a generalized dairy product. In this case the MSNF is calculated like this.
MSNF = (100-Milk fat)*0.09, So, in the non-fat part of the dairy 9% is assumed to be MSNF
then Lactose and Protein is calculated from the MSNF as.
Lactose=0.545*MSNF, 54.5% of the MSNF is lactose
Protein=0.36*MSNF, 36% of the MSNF is protein
Other solids=0.095*MSNF, 9.5% of the MSNF is other solids

Protein

Protein. When changing this the TotalSolids will change.

Total fat

Total fat. This is the fat you can see on the nutrient label of an ingredient. When changing this the TotalSolids will change.

Butter fat

The fat from dairy.

Cocoa fat

Cocoa fat.

Total sugars

Total sugars. When changing this the TotalSolids will change.
To total sugars we count all mono- and disaccharides like glucose, fructose, galactose, sucrose, lactose and maltose.

Lactose

Lactose is the sugar found in dairy. This is the only specific sugar the calculator keeps track of. The maximum recommended amount is approximately 9% of the water weight.
If the lactose is too high it can cause sandiness in the ice cream due to lactose crystallization.

Salt

Salt. Salt has high freezing depression properties due to its low molar mass of 58,443 g/mol.
This gives salt a PAC of 585 almost 6 time that of sucrose.
Important! You should not modify the PAC for any salt in the ingredient. The PACsalt is calculated automatically by the program. When changing this the TotalSolids will change.

Alcohol

Alcohol (Ethanol). Alcohol in the calculator should be given in weight as all the other data. Normally though alcohol is measured by volume % so you need to convert vol% to weight% to get an accurate value. You can use the Alcohol tool to do this. Alcohol has a very high freezing point depression of 740. Unlike salt you should add the PAC from alcohol to the ingredients PAC value. When changing this the TotalSolids will change.

Stabilizers

Stabilizers are functional ingredients to stabilize and thicken the ice cream mix. In order to keep track of the amount of stabilizers you need to fill in this value for any stabilizers or stabilizer blends. When changing this the TotalSolids will change.

Emulsifiers

Emulsifiers are functional ingredients that help with the partial coalescence of the ice cream mix and improves overrun and melting.

POD

This is the relative sweetness of the ingredient. If unknown you can use the PAC/POD tool and specify the sugar composition to calculate the POD. Sucrose (normal sugar) has a POD of 100 and is used as a reference.

PAC

PAC is the freezing point depression factor of an ingredient.
PAC is one of the most important properties you have to fill in.
It is used when balancing, in freezing point calculations and to calculate the hardness of the ice cream. It can be tricky to know the correct value to enter.
If you have a technical data sheet of the ingredient you should use that value.
If you don’t now the PAC it can be estimated using the PAC/POD tool.
In the PAC/POD tool you can specify the sugar composition or molecular weight of the ingredient.
Important to note is that the PAC is specified to the “full” ingredient and not just against the dry matter in the ingredient. So, for example. If you have sucrose the PAC is 100. But if you create an ingredient with 50% sucrose and 50% water the PAC should be 50.

Hardening factor

The hardening factor can be viewed as a negative PAC value.
Some ingredients like chocolate and nuts makes your ice cream harder.
To account for this in the hardness calculations you can set this HF parameter.
The HF is calculated as HF=CocoaFat*0.9 + CocoaSolids * 1.8 + OtherFat * 1.4
This is taken from the Corvitto book but instead of changing the PAC we put this in a dedicated parameter.
IF you would like to use the Corvitto method with negative PAC values just go ahead and do that. The system can work with both methods. But, in case you use that method you have to add your own ingredients as all the standard database ingredients use the HF method.
Also, if using the Corvitto method there is a special data tag called “Serving temp Corvitto” that uses the PAC tables from the Corvitto book to calculate the serving temperature.

Cost/Kg

If you need to keep track of costs you should enter this value. There is also a button to the right of this edit to help calculating the cost.

Gram per mL

This is the density of the ingredient in g/mL. It is a nice value to input as it makes volume to weight calculations more accurate in the volume to weight converter. To the right there is a button to help with calculations.

Minimum amount

This value can be used when balancing a recipe. This is the minimum percentage normally recommended for this ingredient.

Maximum amount

This value can be used when balancing a recipe. This is the maximum percentage normally recommended for this ingredient.

Energy

The energy of the ingredient in the unit kcal. kcal is the same as calories. Nowadays in EU you also have the unit kJ (kilo Joule) 1kJ=4.184kcal.
This value is optional and you can set it if you would like to keep track of the energy and you should of course set it if you create nutrient labels.
If the value is unknown you can use the Energy button to calculate it from the other parameters.
Energy is calculated as CarbsEU*4 + Protein*4 + Fat*9 + Alcohol*7 + Fiber*2 + Polyols*2.4.

Saturated fat

Saturated fat.

Trans fat

Trans fat.

Carbohydrates

In the US carbohydrates includes fiber and in the EU it does not.
This is the US definition so the value you enter should include dietary fiber. When changing this the TotalSolids will change.

CarbsEU

This is the EU carbohydrates and it does not include fiber.

Fiber

Dietary fiber.

Added sugars

In the US added sugars needs to be presented in nutrition labels.

Sugar alcohol

Sugar alcohols or Polyols like Xylitol, Sorbitol or Erytritol.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is needed for US nutrient labels

Sodium

Sodium is needed for US nutrient labels.
If Sodium is unknown it can be approximated as 1000*Salt/2.54 (the 1000 is to get a mg unit)

VitaminD

Vitamin D is needed for US nutrient labels.

Calcium

Calcium is needed for US nutrient labels.

Iron

Iron is needed for US nutrient labels.

Potassium

Potassium is needed for US nutrient labels.

User 1-6

These are the user defined extra data you can define. The names can be set in the Settings dialog.

Clear all data

Clears all data.