I suspect a large (possibly not dominant) part of the ice cream effect is required preptime triggering myopic discounting. If eating ice cream at home, you need to take it out of the freezer at least a few minutes before eating it; this means that if your comfort food of choice is ice cream, you’ll only eat it if it seems like a legitimately good idea (‘a moment of weakness’ becomes ‘like 10min of weakness’, a higher bar for cravings to clear).
If eating ice cream at home, you need to take it out of the freezer at least a few minutes before eating it
I’m curious whether this is true for most people. (I don’t eat ice cream any more, but back when I occasionally did, I don’t think I ever made a point of taking it out early and letting it sit. Is the point that it’s initially too hard to scoop?)
What I actually usually do is move it from the freezer to the refrigerator like 15min before I eat it, so the change in temperature is more predictable and evenly distributed (instead of some parts being melted while others stay too cold).
Is the point that it’s initially too hard to scoop?
That and it being too cold to properly enjoy the taste.
(The votes on my original comment make me think most people are less concerned about their dessert-that’s-supposed-to-be-cold being too cold. Typical-mind strikes again, I guess.)
Got it, thanks! For what it’s worth, doing it your way would probably have improved my experience, but impatience always won. (I didn’t mind the coldness, but it was a bit annoying having to effortfully hack out chunks of hard ice cream rather than smoothly scooping it, and I imagine the texture would have been nicer after a little bit of thawing. On the other hand, softer ice cream is probably easier to unwittingly overeat, if only because you can serve up larger amounts more quickly.)
I think two-axis voting is a huge improvement over one-axis voting, but in this case it’s hard to know whether people are mostly disagreeing with you on the necessary prep time, or the conclusions you drew from it.
I disagreed on prep time. Neither I nor anyone I know personally deliberately waits minutes between taking ice cream out of the freezer and serving it.
I could see hardness and lack of taste being an issue for commercial freezers that chill things to −25 C, but not a typical home kitchen freezer at more like −10 to −15 C.
Anecdata: I have in my freezer deep-frozen cake which has been there fore months. If it was in the fridge (and thus ready to eat) I would eat a piece every time I open the fridge. But I have no compulsion to further the unhealthy eating habits of future me, let that schmuck eat a proper meal instead!
Ice cream I eat directly from the freezer, so that effect is not there for me.
Hmm. My family and I always let the ice cream sit for about 10 to 15 minutes to let it soften first. Interesting to see the wide range of opinions, wasn’t even aware that wasn’t a thing.
I suspect a large (possibly not dominant) part of the ice cream effect is required preptime triggering myopic discounting. If eating ice cream at home, you need to take it out of the freezer at least a few minutes before eating it; this means that if your comfort food of choice is ice cream, you’ll only eat it if it seems like a legitimately good idea (‘a moment of weakness’ becomes ‘like 10min of weakness’, a higher bar for cravings to clear).
I’m curious whether this is true for most people. (I don’t eat ice cream any more, but back when I occasionally did, I don’t think I ever made a point of taking it out early and letting it sit. Is the point that it’s initially too hard to scoop?)
What I actually usually do is move it from the freezer to the refrigerator like 15min before I eat it, so the change in temperature is more predictable and evenly distributed (instead of some parts being melted while others stay too cold).
That and it being too cold to properly enjoy the taste.
(The votes on my original comment make me think most people are less concerned about their dessert-that’s-supposed-to-be-cold being too cold. Typical-mind strikes again, I guess.)
Got it, thanks! For what it’s worth, doing it your way would probably have improved my experience, but impatience always won. (I didn’t mind the coldness, but it was a bit annoying having to effortfully hack out chunks of hard ice cream rather than smoothly scooping it, and I imagine the texture would have been nicer after a little bit of thawing. On the other hand, softer ice cream is probably easier to unwittingly overeat, if only because you can serve up larger amounts more quickly.)
I think two-axis voting is a huge improvement over one-axis voting, but in this case it’s hard to know whether people are mostly disagreeing with you on the necessary prep time, or the conclusions you drew from it.
I disagreed on prep time. Neither I nor anyone I know personally deliberately waits minutes between taking ice cream out of the freezer and serving it.
I could see hardness and lack of taste being an issue for commercial freezers that chill things to −25 C, but not a typical home kitchen freezer at more like −10 to −15 C.
Anecdata: I have in my freezer deep-frozen cake which has been there fore months. If it was in the fridge (and thus ready to eat) I would eat a piece every time I open the fridge. But I have no compulsion to further the unhealthy eating habits of future me, let that schmuck eat a proper meal instead!
Ice cream I eat directly from the freezer, so that effect is not there for me.
Hmm. My family and I always let the ice cream sit for about 10 to 15 minutes to let it soften first. Interesting to see the wide range of opinions, wasn’t even aware that wasn’t a thing.