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Friday, April 07, 2006

Me and the Ice Cream Factory

Les petits soldats de bois [Thousands of small little wooden soldiers]

One of the good points of being an ingeneering student is to visit industrial food factories.
Today, i visited a fabulous ice cream factory in Carcasonne (an old fortified city an hour away from Toulouse): Boncolac [which may mean something like "great milk", but i would be so sure about it].

We discovered how the cream, milk... were processed to make yummy ice creams.
It was very impressive to see all the machines working and the thousands of popsicles going out from them.

First we went outdoors to see how all the ingredients were brought in. Tons of barels containing fruit pulp...

Then we entered the most delicious room ever to be seen: the chocolate stocking room. Imagine 7 meters of chocolate all around you... What would you do? Seriously, i thought i was going to turn mad and steal a 25kg bag of extra bitter chocolate; but obsviously, i didn't for the reasons you all know: i would have made too much chocolate goodies and wouldn't have had any time left to go to school.

Now let me introduce you to the most exciting room: the one where the ice creams are made.
The first assemblage chain we discovered, was the one that makes vanilla and coffee ice cream cones. It was so funny to see how the machines fill the cone waffles. Very impressive too.

After that we were shown the fabrication process of caramel popsicles coated with a delicious shiny chocolate glaze.

We were also taken to the room where the ice cream tubs were filled and sealed. I especially loved the blackcurrant sorbet as it has a bright pink colour (i had prepared a nice animated gif on that stunning sorbet, but sadly you can't upload animations on blogger!!!).

But i remain addicted to the vanilla sort; maybe the most luscious ice cream on earth.

We ended our visit with the vanilla popsicles and this may be my favourite part of all. I adore the small wooden stick holding the posicles and reckon they look like thousands of little soldiers, hence the subtitle.

Just a short note: thanx Sam for mentionning this post in the Food and Drink section of BlogHer. I was happily surprised and very touched.

Labels: ice creams and other iced delights, sweet places

sweet link | posted by *fanny* at 17:40

11 sweets:

Cate said something sweet:: Thanks for all the great photos - I love the behind-the-scenes stuff!; 07 April, 2006 23:23
Anonymous said something sweet:: Merci pour ce reportage, il y a 15 ans j'ai visité les chaines de fabrication de la marque MIKO et à l'époque pas de machine pour mettre les bâtonnets.

Contente de voir que la technologie a conçu des machines pour améliorer les conditions de travail et nous régaler de très bonnes glaces.; 08 April, 2006 10:31
Papilles et Pupilles said something sweet:: Tout à fait passionnant. J'adore visiter les lieux de fabrication de ce type. je trouve qu'on y apprend plein de choses.; 08 April, 2006 14:02
Riana Lagarde said something sweet:: Ohhhh, I want to go! Maybe, I will when we go to the tribunal to get my residency papers! Do they let the general public in to see? Your photos are fabulous.; 09 April, 2006 09:01
Sam said something sweet:: I am like cate - its so great to see posts of the things you can't make at home on such a grand scale. Wonderful pictures too.; 10 April, 2006 01:53
Anonymous said something sweet:: Lovely shots Fanny! Ca semble tout simplement super interessant!; 10 April, 2006 14:05
Anonymous said something sweet:: Not only is your post wonderful, but your shots of the 'ordinary' would be great for framing!; 10 April, 2006 20:13
*fanny* said something sweet:: Cate - i love bhind the scene stuff as well. You can't imagine how excited i was when entering all this surealistic rooms.

Anne - oulala, cela devait fastidieux de mettre les batonnets dans les glaces. Heureusement aujourd'hui des petites machines bien rigolotes le font pour nous.

Papilles - c'est vrai j'y ai appris plein de choses et c'est surtout une bonne vision du metier d'ingenieur agronome.

Riana - i am sorry to say that this factory isn't open to the public. But i am sure others are.

Sam - i completely agree with you. You cant' realize how impressive it is. By the way, thanx for the nice article on BlogHer...

Bea - thanx. En effet c'eatis super interessant.; 10 April, 2006 21:14
Anonymous said something sweet:: I'm fascinated by these shots, Fanny. I'd choose the ice-cream factory rather than the chocolate factory ;); 10 April, 2006 22:16
*fanny* said something sweet:: Keiko - thanx for dropping by and for your nice word.
Thruth to be told i would have to think twice before choosing between the ice cream factory and the chocolate factory - if i had the choice...; 11 April, 2006 08:52
Anonymous said something sweet:: Woua, ça me donne vraiment envie d'aller faire un tour à la cité =D; 08 May, 2006 16:04