Since 1946, Brigham Young University has been making and selling signature ice cream in a process that spans from a Utah dairy farm to freezers across the state.
Every scoop of BYU’s ice cream starts with milk from a dairy farm in Elberta, Utah. The farm is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Brian Stauffer, the Creamery's culinary support manager, joked about the milk's origins.
“We get our milk from holy cows because it’s the Church's cows,” he said.
While most ice creams contain 8% to 12% milk fat, BYU's ice cream is made to be extra creamy.
“The secret is (that) it has 14% milk fat," Stauffer said.
Ice creams start as vanilla or chocolate-base ice cream mix. Specific flavorings are added separately.
“Every batch we make, someone tastes it and makes sure we don’t have anything wrong with it,” Ben Boone, the Dairy Products Lab manager, said.
Air is churned in as the ice cream freezes, allowing the frozen treat to be scooped.
The ice cream can be packaged manually, allowing workers to add mix-ins and fill both cartons and 5-gallon buckets. Simpler recipes are sent through a series of pipes into cartons by an automated machine pump.
On average, the BYU Creamery produces between 5,000 and 7,000 gallons of ice cream each week.