Gritty texture that's sometimes in ice cream?!
Answers: I've noticed over the years that I will sometimes buy ice cream at the supermarket, and it unfortunately will have this kind of gritty texture to it, almost like it has sand in it. Do you know what causes ice cream to get gritty? And what ingredient is it in the ice cream that mimics sand?
Ice!
If you could look at ice cream under a very high-powered microscope, you would see tiny ice crystals, each them surrounded by globby chains of fat - that is, the ice cream is 'emulsified'. When the ice cream melts slightly and refreezes, that nice arrangement of ice and fat gets disturbed - the crystals melt, run together as liquid water, and refreeze into crystals large enough to feel in your mouth.
So why does this happen? If you get ice cream like that in a grocery store, somewhere along the line, it wasn't stored properly. If you make the ice cream at home, it likely was a combo of not being frozen fast enough (at home freezers aren't really up to the task) and not being stirred enough - again, the water managed to run together a bit before it was frozen completely.
it's the sugar that does this ? you will notice it even with Italian ice and it's made purely with water.
If it is old it will do that. Most likely the sugar. But the best brand I think is Edy's or godiva.
Ice crystals....been in the freezer too long. Ice cream should have a smooth texture ( unless it has nuts, chocolate bits, strawberries etc in it).