What Stellar Scoops is
Stellar Scoops publishes practical tools, reference data and plain guides about ice cream. We write for three groups of people:
- People who make ice cream at home.
- People who serve it to a group, such as parties, school and church events, office treats, weddings, and small shops and trucks.
- Curious eaters who want the facts.
The site carries no advertising and sells nothing. There are no sponsored picks and no affiliate links. The tools and guides are the whole point.
One note on our web address. It once belonged to Stellar Scoops, an ice cream shop in Robbins, North Carolina, which no longer appears to operate under that name; this site is an independent publication with no connection to that shop or to the one now listed at its address, and our Sandhills page lists the scoop stops we could confirm in the area.
What is on the site today
As of October 28, 2026, all of the following is live:
- Five calculators: the Scoop Planner, the Base Builder and Batch Scaler, the Recipe Scaler and Converter, the Dry Ice and Cooler Calculator, and Cost per Scoop.
- Two chart pages, one for ice cream scoop sizes and one for container sizes.
- Ten guides to making ice cream at home and seven serving guides.
- The ice cream price tracker, with its full history.
- A calendar of ice cream days, with a page for each day.
- Three facts pages: U.S. ice cream statistics, the history of ice cream, and a glossary.
- The flavor library, with 66 flavors in nine sections.
- The frozen dessert types pages: a comparison table and eight pages.
- One local page on scoop stops in the North Carolina Sandhills.
We add new pages over time.
The four parts of the site
We sort everything into four parts: Serve, Make, Know and Place.
Serve: hosting and buying math
This part is for anyone feeding a crowd. The Scoop Planner tells you how much ice cream to buy for a group, in pints, quarts, gallons and 48-ounce “half gallon” tubs, with an estimated cost. Next to it sit the Dry Ice and Cooler Calculator, Cost per Scoop, and the scoop size and container size charts.
The seven serving guides cover how long ice cream lasts, keeping it cold at a party, calories and nutrition, cone sizes, party and sundae bar planning, a toppings list, and hiring an ice cream truck or trailer.
Make: ice cream at home
The Base Builder and Batch Scaler works across styles from Philadelphia and French custard to gelato, sorbet, sherbet, no-churn, Ninja CREAMi and protein, sized to your machine. The Recipe Scaler and Converter handles resizing and unit changes.
The ten guides cover making ice cream step by step, custard vs Philadelphia-style, dairy-free and vegan bases, stabilizers and emulsifiers, ice cream without a machine, no-churn, why homemade ice cream turns icy, and the Cuisinart, KitchenAid and Ninja CREAMi machines.
Our recipes are base formulas built on standard food-science ranges:
| Component | Range |
|---|---|
| Fat | 10 to 16 percent |
| Sugar | 14 to 18 percent |
| Milk solids | 9 to 12 percent |
| Total solids | 36 to 42 percent |
We do not claim to have test-churned them. They are starting points that sit inside those ranges.
Know: data and reference
The price tracker runs monthly from 1980. The flavor library holds 66 flavors, and each one has a moon-phase badge for how easy it is to find. The frozen dessert types pages cover gelato, sorbet and sherbet, frozen custard, soft serve, frozen yogurt, kulfi, dondurma and mochi ice cream. The calendar of ice cream days and the facts pages on U.S. statistics, history and the glossary round it out.
Place: scoop stops in the Sandhills
Our one local page lists nine shops and stands in four towns in the North Carolina Sandhills. We started from OpenStreetMap and checked each place against its own page on October 27, 2026. The page lists only places we could confirm.
Where our numbers come from
Every page that uses a number names its source, and our Sources page lists them all. Here is the short version.
- Prices: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average price of a half gallon of prepackaged ice cream (series APU0000710411) and the Consumer Price Index for ice cream and related products (series CUUR0000SEFJ01). We refresh them monthly after each CPI release. We do not quote a price here because it changes every month. The price tracker shows the latest.
- Production and consumption: USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and Economic Research Service. Industry figures and survey results come from IDFA, the dairy industry’s trade group.
- Ice cream days: the 1984 joint resolution and Proclamation 5219 for the two official days, and day-calendar sites for the informal ones.
- Ingredients and nutrition: USDA FoodData Central, for fat, milk solids, sugars and cup weights in the Base Builder and Recipe Scaler, and for nutrition figures on flavor pages and in the nutrition guide.
- Machine numbers: the makers’ own manuals, for bowl freezing times, fill limits and churn times.
- Storage and food safety: FoodSafety.gov, the FDA and university extension services.
- Places: OpenStreetMap, used under the Open Database License with credit to OpenStreetMap contributors, then each place’s own page, the area visitor bureau’s directory and local news.
- Flavor popularity: cited industry surveys, named on each page that uses them.
- Base formulas: standard food-science ranges, stated on each recipe page.
How to reach us
Email us at contact@updates.stellarscoops.com. There is no contact form and no phone number. We read every message.
Corrections are welcome. Send the page address and what you think is wrong, and we will look into it.
FAQ
Who runs Stellar Scoops?
Stellar Scoops is an independent publication. It carries no advertising, sells nothing and has no sponsors, so no brand shapes what we write.
Are the recipes tested?
They are base formulas built on standard food-science ranges for fat, sugar, milk solids and total solids. We do not claim to have test-churned them.
How current is the price data?
We refresh the price tracker monthly, after each Consumer Price Index release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The tracker always shows the latest figure.
How do I report a wrong number?
Email contact@updates.stellarscoops.com with the page address and what you think is wrong. Corrections to any number or fact are welcome.
Where can I see every source in one place?
The Sources page lists them all. Each page that uses a number also names its source on the page itself.