Penn State Tradition
Getting ice cream at the Creamery has been a tradition since 1896. On football weekends salespeople dip several thousands of cones, and on a summer day, lines extend out the doors as people await their turn at the tubs of ice cream. Visitors are advised not to miss this important stop. Creamery ice cream is so fresh that only four days, on the average, elapse between the cow and your newly dipped cone. This rich ice cream, with a butterfat content of 14.1 percent, contains only the very best ingredients: fresh milk and cream, of course, and pure vanilla from Madagascar. An imported extract flavors the peach ice cream, and fruit and nuts are brought in from the Pacific Northwest.
The basic ingredients are blended and pasteurized in equipment that heats the mixture to destroy harmful bacteria. Then the mixture is homogenized under high pressure to break up fat globules and impart a smoother texture. Once cooled, the mixture is pumped into storage vats, cooled further, and held until it is ready to freeze. Two continuous freezers that each produce 250 gallons of ice cream per hour, yields a semifrozen product that is ready to receive fruits or nuts. Workers then package the ice cream and cool it at -28 degrees Fahrenheit in the hardening room. A three-gallon container of ice cream reaches this temperature in about 10 hours.
