Wayyyyy OT: Flavorings

You are making it? I always thought it came out of some kind of plastic boxes :-). Too bad I am at the other side of the planet, I would gladly help with some of the calories of your experimental batches. No such thing as bad ice cream, to quote you :-).

Dimiter

Pineapple. Think Pina Colada.

George

Coconut-banana is a natural. I suspect you are using too much coconut, which is generally not possible unless you're using some horrible extract or artificial flavour. Get a can of coconut milk or (gasp!) a real coconut!

There are lots of south-east Asian foods that use coconut, for example coconut-pumpkin, coconut mango.

-- Joe

Yeah, coconut is typically a subdued flavor.

If you are just collecting ideas to try, how about toffee? maybe the texture would hold up, plus nice buttery/caramel flavor.

A wild idea - cinnamon!

That's not wild. Wild would be fish sauce, though if you do that I'd simmer the coconut milk and fish sauce for a while to even out the taste, then use it to make the ice cream. Hopfully the simmering won't destroy the fat solids too much.

I'd use some red curry paste in the ice cream if it were me, but then again, I'm insane.

Hrm, possibly coconut-basil ice cream? Could be awesome.

-pete

I was told by someone way back in the mists of time (and in South Africa) that sardines and condensed milk made for delicious eating. I could never bring myself to try, but maybe substituting coconut milk for condensed milk, and the sugar of the ice cream- who knows?

--------------------------------------- Posted through

If you didn't use so many sardines as to create a too powerful fish taste, I could see that being pretty awesome.

Sardines have a chemical in them that increases savoryness of "umami" which is the 5th flavor the tounge can sense and represents the savory sense, MSG is the raw chemical which can exhibit it. If you ever want to punch up a stew--or anything with meat in it, to get that thick meaty taste, add some sardine paste or fish sauce. I've successfully used fish sauce and cinnimon on pan-fried pork chops and it was ridiculously awesome.

I think coconut, fish sauce, and red curry paste would make for a wicked good vanilla based ice cream.

-pete

Hi,

Rather than reply to > I'm looking for ideas on good "complementary"

Single flavors (e.g., toffee) are easy to come up with. Just put a LOT (more generally *is* better!) of "whatever" in the cream mixture, freeze and eat. Increase amount, repeat. :>

The more interesting flavors (IMO) are combinations of two (or more) flavors (e.g., my personal favorite is almond chocolate chip with almonds). Here, you get to play with *two* flavors *and* (often) textures.

Maple walnut Butter pecan Almond chocolate chip (with almonds, of course) etc.

It seems that most of these work best if the flavors are rich and subtle (e.g., orange+whatever would probably be a real loser as the orange is too dominant).

I see coconut as "rich and subtle" (think about coconut vs. other flavorings like raspberry, orange, lemon, etc.). Likewise, banana is "rich and subtle" -- making it a poor companion for the coconut (IMO).

Here, a big part of the appeal is the textural differences -- the "crunch" that comes from the almond/chip. And, the fact that the taste of those "companion flavors" is confined *to* those items (i.e., the chocolate flavor doesn't leech into the rest of the ice cream but stays confined *in* the chip).

George's pineapple suggestion was an *immediate* win! But, it will be hard to get the proportions right (without the pineapple becoming too dominant).

And, figuring out how to incorporate the pineapple will be an issue, as well -- any raw fruit is bad (IMO) as the concentration of water *in* the fruit ends up leaving you an "ice chunk" in the midst of what should be a nice, *smooth* confection. I suspect I will use crushed pineapple and reduce it (stovetop) to remove most of the water and intensify the flavor & texture.

Using "real" (raw) coconut is a bad idea. First, much "shredded" coconut is (heavily) sweetened. And, even using the raw *meat* of the coconut results in lots of fibrous tissue in the ice cream (ice cream should be smooth!).

I'll use coconut cream (not coconut milk) for the coconut flavor (though *real* coconut cream -- not the Coco Lopez type stuff that is mostly sugar!). This will give me better control over the individual flavors *and* sweetness.

Finally, George's comment re: Pina Colada is an even *better* idea -- add rum to the mix! (no, not a lot). This would be a good way to help replace the sugar and keep the same overall consistency of a "non rum" variety.

[making sugar free ice cream for friends is a challenge: most sugar substitutes are sweeter than sugar so you lose *bulk*. Plus, the loss of the sugar itself means the ice cream freezes "firmer"/harder which makes it harder to store for anything longer than overnight. And, ice cream that is frozen *that* firm results in increased consumption -- as you end up "chipping" little bits of it out of the container and *eating* them while you are chipping the *next* little bit out of the container!! :< ]

Probably not until next week. I want to get started on the coconut - almond this weekend (I suspect I can get that Rx "pretty close" on the first attempt; the pineapple variation will require a lot more planning).

And, Dimiter, *no*, it won't survive shipment across the pond (and then some). It barely survives a 15 minute drive to a dinner party! :-/

Thanks!

--don

This is what you need:

That way you can pretest the flavours without wasting ingredients!

Transport of fluids both ways can be a problem with ice cream I think. I've had some with almonds in which the nuts were not crisp. Some other brands had a candy coating on the almonds and they remained crunchy.

So, for fruit flavors, why not try some jellybeans or 'gummy' fruits? Or try some dried fruits?

Since nobody had suggested it: How about rum?

--
SCNR, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

I think I'm going to go and do a study of some pure rum ingredients. You know, just to understand hpoe oi ned to cook w ith i.

-peettee

Coconut was a bad idea. :< Too "musky". I've now discovered there *is* such a thing as "bad ice cream"

I'll wait until the egg scare dies down before resuming my experiments...

Now that you mention eggs... Perhaps the next ice hit will be made with cloned dinosaur eggs? "Tyrex or diplo?" "Just plain ptero-vanilla, please..." "Sorry, this sold out" "I'll take this archaeopteryx with strawberry jam then" :-)

Dimiter

Remind me never to have the tiramisu at *your* place! :>

--don