It Use To Be So Simple

by Chewy

Remember the days when your go to flavors of ice cream revolved around strawberry or chocolate ripple? Then Baskin Robbins came along with their 31 flavors and the villagers went insane over the idea. Not satisfied with the original 31, some were retired or replaced with ever surprising infusions of flavor. Even with all this diversity, flavors still followed a traditional trail. Sweet things go with sweet things, savory with savory and never the twain shall meet. Even Ben and Jerry usually followed this scenario.

That whole idea has been kicked to the curb and it’s no longer cool to use the mundane in your frozen treats. While bacon didn’t start it, it certainly has helped to perpetuate and inspire ever more challenging combination, although, even this ingredient is bordering on the blasé at this point. Yet, I’m positively piggish about pork still!

There’s no doubt that around the world there are some pretty scary traditional ice cream flavors that fall along cultural divides (this will be dealt with in a future blog), but today I will keep this relatively indigenous.

Ruth and Phils, lauding from Chicago, take advantage of fresh summer fruits and vegetables to concoct Summer Sweet Corn ice cream, Cantaloupe Avocado Jalapeno sorbet (you know how I feel about avocados!) and Cucumber Blueberry Lime sorbet. Presently only available in limited locales, it may soon be coming to your local Whole Foods store.

© Sax | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

New York is no new comer to food fads and il laboratorio del gelato is no exception. For the adventurous palate they provide Fresh Brown Turkey, Sweet Potato and Tarragon Pink Pepper.  They are proud to hand make all the flavors in small batches and I think I grasp the reasoning behind limited production. I don’t imagine a huge rush for Turkey, even seasonally. Sweet Potato is igniting my curiosity.

Another New York establishment, Max and Mina’s Ice Cream has heated things up with sweet and spicy combos. Sugar tempers the fire in their Spicy Peanut Butter which culminates in a warm glow due to the added red peppers and chilies. Following in the same genre are Black  Pepper and Corn Horseradish.  Traditional Italian flavors in an egg yolk base make up their Pizza ice cream and  what goes best with that? A cup of their Beer ice cream!

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, Columbus, OH, follows the “It’s cold! It’s hot!” theme with Queen City Cheyenne and Bangkok Peanut (secret ingredient, Cheyenne pepper, of course). Apparently, pepper has become the new “salt” in savory/sweet pairings. While I have often seen people salt fruits to bring out the sweet, my roommate in college was the only person I knew who peppered hers. She was obviously decades ahead of her time!

© Sloth92 | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

One last nod to the porcine premise goes to Humphry Slocombe of San Francisco and their Boccalone Prosciutto. And not sure which way to go, they covered all the bases by adding both salt and pepper.

The following flavors are honorable mentions, only because they come from Europe and can not be obtained locally. Cigar Smoked Caramel, combining two after dinner pastimes and perhaps an age limit and required ID, has increased sales by 60% for one establishment. Others have followed a theme with grass, strawberry and hay for Wimbledon. Another nod of creativity goes to parsnip and wasabi, and smoked olive oil and black pepper.

These examples have definitely had their effect on my creative senses and with my little  Cuisinart ice cream maker ever ready to serve, the sky’s  the limit on ingredients. If I ever come up with anything palatable, you can be assured you’ll read about it here first!

The Ice Cream Cometh

photo by pietrgiord

by Chewy

Well, my thoughts of ice cream arrived in March and then quickly retracted in April to all things warm and comfy. Drat this mercurial weather pattern! It has my dessert lineups completely disheveled. However, just today I heard reported that we will have above average temps in May and June, so NOW is the time to contemplate our frozen confections.

I know there are people who enjoy ice cream all year round, but I just can’t wrap myself around a cold dessert while I’m wearing a coat, earmuffs and mittens. This may have to do with my northern Minnesota up-bringing. During the winter, the Dairy Queen closed until the “great thaw“. Every year we looked forward with anticipation to once again seeing the lawn, temps above freezing, the return of the birds, longer sunny days and a crème de menthe sundae at the reopening of DQ. Opening day at DQ was not unlike that of the Cardinals with traffic jams, crowded parking, and joyous faces standing in LONG lines (walk up out door windows only in those days). I’m not sure if parades and fireworks accompanied this event, but they could have.

Today, we have many more options to choose from when it comes to ice cream. Besides the frozen dessert aisle in the grocery store, specialty establishments have sprung up all over town. From Oberweis to the renowned Ted Drewes, from gelato to shaved ice, our choices break down into two groups, those that have a dairy base and those that don’t. So that you are prepared to make an informed decision, we’ll discuss a  short synopsis of each variety. While this is not a comprehensive listing, it does cover the basics.

Starting with the dairy based we have the following:

Ice cream: (Properly ice-cream, derived from iced cream or cream ice) . This is a dairy based product, usually made from milk or cream and often combined with fruits, nuts and additional flavors (artificial and natural). The mixture of desired ingredients is stirred slowly while cooling, in order to incorporate air and to prevent large ice crystals from forming. The result is a smoothly textured, semi solid, foam that can be scooped. Interestingly, the higher the fat content, the harder the product and of course, bigger yum factor.

Ice Milk: Similar in production and ingredients to ice cream, it differs in that it contains less than 10 percent milk fat. This results in typically lower pricing. In 1994, the  U.S. FDA rules allowed ice milk to be labeled as low-fat ice cream.

 

Frozen Yogurt:  A frozen dessert containing yogurt, it is slightly tarter than ice cream, not to mention, lower in fat. It differs from ice milk in that it includes yogurt as an ingredient. Consists of milk solids, some kind of sweetener, milk fat, yogurt culture, coloring and flavoring.

Frozen Custard: Similar to ice cream, it is made with eggs in addition to cream and sugar. U.S. FDA standards require frozen custard to contain at least 10 percent milk fat and 1.4 percent egg yolk solids (any less and it is considered ice cream) True frozen custard is very dense. The soft serve variety is composed of 50 percent air allowing for easy mixture of additional ingredients (custom fruits, nuts and syrups) and facile dispensing.

photo by raatcc36

Gelato: Italian for ice cream, it differs in the butterfat content (4-8% , gelato vs. 14%, ice cream)  and sugar content (16-24%, gelato vs. 12-16%, ice cream). On a personal note, I have never found a gelato here in the states that equals what I experienced in Italy. It has totally ruined me for any other frozen dessert. With airfare the way it, awfully expensive to obtain.

Sherbet: A fruity flavored frozen dessert product with a butter fat content between 1-2 percent. In the United States it must contain  dairy, either milk or cream.

Now on to our non-dairy based items:

Sorbet: A frozen dessert made from sweetened water with fruit, wine or liqueur flavoring. Sometimes served between meal courses as a way to cleanse the palate before the main course. The addition of alcohol lowers the freezing temperature resulting in a softer texture. The lack of dairy and no whipped in air makes for a dense and extremely flavorful product.

Italian Ice: Also known as water ice, it is often confused with sorbet. Sweetened and  made with fruit, it is not shaved ice, but rather processed in the same way that ice cream is without dairy or egg ingredients.

Snow Cone: Shaved ice dessert, served in a paper cone or Styrofoam container, then topped with a flavored sugar syrup. May also be referred to as a snowball.