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Oklahoma Agriculture in the Classroom

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Food & Fun Recipes

Snow Ice Cream

Can snow ice cream make you sick? Snow does contain bacteria. In fact, bacteria form the foundation of some snowflakes. But life is full of bacteria, and not all bacteria is harmful. There are no studies showing children becoming ill from snow, but there is no real consensus on the matter. Be aware of the risks, and make sure your snow is clean and fresh.

Ingredients
  • fresh, clean snow
  • 2 t vanilla
  • 2 T sugar
  • ½ c milk
  • small styrofoam cups
Instruction
  1. Put sugar and vanilla in cups.
  2. Pack snow in on top of the sugar and vanilla, leaving enough room for the milk.
  3. Pour in milk, and mix it all together.
What does freezing do to foods?

Most foods are made from living or once-living material and all such material is made of cells. Water is one of the few substances that expands on freezing, so if you put something made of cells into a freezer, the water inside them turns to ice and expands, rupturing the cells and damaging other structures. Slow freezing gives large ice crystals time to form. For ice cream, commercial freezing is done rapidly to prevent large ice crystals from forming. Constant churning is also used, as in homemade ice cream and the ice cream made in this activity. This breaks up larger ice crystals as they form. When melted ice cream is put in the freezer, it freezes slowly, allowing large ice crystals to grow and making the ice cream unpleasantly crunchy.