When you freeze the ice cream after it melts from store bought and becomes completely liquid, it doesn’t stay the same way. It just isn’t ice cream anymore, there’s no cream, it becomes like frozen ice lolly kinda texture; completely different from the texture it comes in ie. Soft, fluffy, milky, creamy.
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The same difference between ice and snow. If you melt some snow and then you freeze it again, you are now expecting to get snow back, are you?
What matters is the fine crystal structure of the iced water: many little crystals in one case, a single big one in the other case.
It don’t make a bit of difference whether the ice cream is frozen or not, all of the molecules are the same whether it’s frozen or not. Freeze it back up and it tastes the same. The reason the stores get rid of it when it melts , they just don’t want to deal with re freezing it.
Ice cream also has air injected into the mix before it is put into the container. When it melts the resulting refreeze doesn’t get the air injection so it sets hard.
The texture of icecream is largely based on the size of the ice crystals in it. Small crystals wrapped in sugar and fat is glorious
The reason you churn and mix icecream constantly as you make it is specifically to break up those crystals as they form; Make em all small, and uniform.
But when it melts, and you try to freeze that custard again, you don’t stir it. The ice crystals form massive, crusty shards that don’t feel silky snothy
Because I’ve cream is whipped with small amounts of air to give it the texture that we love.
When it melts, all of the air bubbles are lost and we lose the part that we love the most!
The ELI5 version is that ice cream contains a lot of air between the ice crystal and thus softer than a normal ice.
When they become liquid and refreeze, it’s now just an ice cube which is dense and hard.
I don’t know exactly why, but I do know texture matters. There was this place where I used to live that sold extra fluffy ice cream. It was good, but just had the regular flavors. I think they told me they made it and used helium or something. It has been a while. There is a special Pepsi that uses something similar to make the bubbles smoother, haven’t tried it yet.
The ice cream is ruined because it has lost its structure. When ice cream melts and becomes liquid, the air bubbles that give it a light and fluffy texture are released. When you freeze it back again, those air bubbles are gone and the ice cream is dense and heavy.
Air. You are basically freezing a foam. Creating an emulsion of air within the liquid as it freezes. The cream is helpful in this part. Or the oils in dairy free ice creams. It stabilize this air emulsion. The size of the crystals will be smaller as well because of the air interface. The sugar used also helps in making the crystals smaller. So this means that the ice cream will be soft although it is frozen. Because the tiny crystals are not completely attached to each other.
So if you have a pint of ice cream and you leave it over the counter, when it’s liquid, the volume will be less than the full pint. Depending on the type of ice cream, it could be between 25%-50% lol ess than the proper ice cream
Just to add: when ice cream freezes as it’s being made, any bacteria in there go into a state of suspended animation. When ice cream thaws, the bacteria comes out of that state and goes absolutely ape shit multiplying, far far quicker than before they went into that state. When you freeze it again, you’ve got a hive of suspended bacteria. So never eat refrozen ice cream, it will get you.
Edit: spelling
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