So I'm wondering what's the best way to store ice cream such that it retains the taste and texture it would normally have if eaten immediately after being removed from the supermarket freezer? What about long term (3+ months)? Does it even make a difference?
The context:
My mom has this tendency to keep our fridges and freezer fully stocked 99% of the time. So she buys a bunch of ice cream, thinking the family will eat it eventually. Eventually, for us, is typically a few months. Anyway, the ice cream I've found is definitely more than a month old, and I'm determined to finish it off so that the next batch doesn't taste weird. Since I need the extra calories anyway, I'm doing this over the next week or two.
The weird taste
The weird taste is like the parts of ice cream that you can scrape off the edges or tops of thier containers after it's begun to/already melt/ed and freezes again. But the ice cream is textured like there are bits of ice in it. And there is definitely a lot of ice crystallized on the surface of the carton. I just scrape it away, but even scoops from the middle of the carton taste like they were beginning to crystallize.
My hunch is that someone put all these cartons in the freezer unit for a while. (We have two fridges/freezers and one separate freezer unit, my guess is that the freezer unit is set to a lower temperature...) But if the ice cream is moved from a really cold to a normally set freezer, shouldn't its texture revert to that of normal ice cream?
Any ideas? I'm thoroughly confused.
The context:
My mom has this tendency to keep our fridges and freezer fully stocked 99% of the time. So she buys a bunch of ice cream, thinking the family will eat it eventually. Eventually, for us, is typically a few months. Anyway, the ice cream I've found is definitely more than a month old, and I'm determined to finish it off so that the next batch doesn't taste weird. Since I need the extra calories anyway, I'm doing this over the next week or two.
The weird taste
The weird taste is like the parts of ice cream that you can scrape off the edges or tops of thier containers after it's begun to/already melt/ed and freezes again. But the ice cream is textured like there are bits of ice in it. And there is definitely a lot of ice crystallized on the surface of the carton. I just scrape it away, but even scoops from the middle of the carton taste like they were beginning to crystallize.
My hunch is that someone put all these cartons in the freezer unit for a while. (We have two fridges/freezers and one separate freezer unit, my guess is that the freezer unit is set to a lower temperature...) But if the ice cream is moved from a really cold to a normally set freezer, shouldn't its texture revert to that of normal ice cream?
Any ideas? I'm thoroughly confused.
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