This seems a good point to bring up churning. The McGee recipe, obviously, didn’t call for it. Why not? Well, as you can gather from the below posts, ice cream makers and churns are all about motion: freezing a small amount of mix against a cold surface, scraping it off, and freezing some more. The […]
READ ONThe basic technology of ice cream makers — be they high-end commercial machines or low-tech home models — is basically the same. A cold surface is created, usually with the help of some sort of refrigerant (or ice brine). An ice cream mix is exposed to that surface where it freezes, only to be scraped […]
READ ONThough enthusiasts will forever wax poetic about the flavors of their favorite frozen treats — Super Chocolate Orgasmo Death-in-a-Cup or Triple Ripple Vanilla Road Monkey — it’s really texture that defines a great ice cream. That is why Ben & Jerry’s was happy to sell ten dollar “cookbooks” detailing the components of their top flavors […]
READ ONNothing, not really. Even Mrs. Pastry, whose’s got an ice cream palate as discerning as a spectrograph, declared: “I do love the grainy taste of old-fashioned homemade ice cream, it reminds me of hot summer block parties when I was little.” So then the McGee ice cream is a nice exemplar of a certain rustic […]
READ ONWell, freezing, obviously. But what manner of freezing? Which is to say, if it’s so cold in that bowl, why isn’t the mix freezing into a solid block? Milk freezes solid, after all. So does cream, if left in the freezer for an extended period. So what keeps the mixture ice-cream textured? The answer is […]
READ ONI’ll warn you at the outset that some of these photos are a little dark. The remnants of hurricane Fay (mostly clouds unfortunately, no rain for my parched lawn) are still hanging over us. I waited all day yesterday to no avail, so today I decided to go for it. To hell with perfect light, […]
READ ONSorry no pictures on this (yet). This is a good idea for using up old leftover bread starter. Reader Kristin suggests: Thin your starter with a little cold water, salt to taste, and use as batter to coat onion rings (dredge rings in flour first.) Deep-fry until deep golden brown, drain and salt again. Just […]
READ ON…same as the old villain: MSG, only now it’s making you fat. Now me, I’ve been waiting for a new “making me fat” chemical bad guy ever since trans fats became a de-facto controlled substance two years ago. When giant people didn’t suddenly pop back into size 4’s and 32-inch pants, I argued, a new […]
READ ONThe charm of the Harold McGee ice cream recipe as it appeared in the New York Times a few weeks ago is that it takes us right back to the earliest days of ice cream making. That is, when frozen cream enthusiasts in Europe discovered that the combination of ice and salt produced a chilling […]
READ ONOne of the oddities about ice cream is that despite its long history in Europe and Asia, it’s perceived by much of the world as an American thing. Food historians speculate that the reason for this is the regular and frequent contact America had with France after the close of the American Revolution. The French, […]
READ ON