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I haven't seen any gluten free versions at Norwegian online retailers yet, but I'll definitely check the small local Asian grocery store before I look into the possibility of making it from scratch.

Made a version of this last week after adding 1 liter of apricot puree to an online order of dextrose powder. Based on your comment about the sorbet being a bit sweet (and in case you've used a lower DE atomized glucose), I reduced the amount of sucrose: 500g apricot puree (Les vergers Boiron) 75g sucrose 25g Glucose DE 42 powder 1g Modernist Pantry Perfect Sorbet 1.5g salt malic acid to taste* citric acid to taste* Very good on both flavour and texture. * I didn't write down the recipe when I made it, but I think I ended up with 4+4g of citric/malic acid. I know I started out with 2+2g. The acid really made the apricot shine, so it's worth it to taste and adjust in the blender. I bought 1 liter of mango puree as well, so I'll try that during the Easter holidays. Possibly with slightly reduced sucrose/increased atomized glucose to to see if/how that affects the texture.

I'd wish... I got diagnosed with celiac disease a few years ago, so it's not worth the risk. I've been planning to make the Peaso recipe from The Noma Guide to Fermentation for a while now, so I'll look into the possibility of making homemade gluten free doenjang at the same time. This is the glucose syrup I've been using by the way: https://www.sosa.cat/en-ww/glucosa-liquida-sosa The box I have lists a different PAC value however, so I don't know which is correct: Maybe you can come close to these values with the sugars/starches you have available in Australia?

Thanks for the tip. Both of them seem to contain gluten though, so unfortunately, that won't be an option for me ☹️ We have plenty of frozen blueberries on hand, so I'll plan for a future test to isolate the effect of the coriander seeds, and to dial in the amount used, by hydrating the milk, sugars and LBG sous vide in small batches together with the blueberry juice (and coriander seeds). I should probably do some tests to compare blueberry juice vs blueberry puree and the ratio of milk/blueberries/skim milk powder too, but the quantities above worked really well with a bright and prominent blueberry flavour.

After a couple of ice cream free weeks because of a persistent cold, I made a blueberry ice cream based on the Chefsteps creme fraiche ice cream recipe I've had good results with earlier: Both flavour an texture were fantastic! I hope I've strayed enough from the original that it's OK to share the recipe here: 120g whole milk (3.5% fat) 68g glucose syrup DE40 45g sugar 1.1g locust bean gum 1 drop polysorbate 80 180g blueberry juice pressed from defrosted wild blueberries 7.5g skim milk powder 150g creme fraiche (35% fat) 2g citric acid 1.5g salt Milk and sugars infused with 2.5g dried coriander seeds during hydration of the LBG. This was inspired by Stella Parks' comments on pairing blueberries with coriander seeds in her video about blueberry pie on Serious Eats. Can't say for sure if it had much of an impact on the flavour, and the amount used was just a guess, but it certainly didn't ruin the flavour. Coriander seeds were then strained before mixture was emulsified in the blender with the other ingredients. Processed once on light ice cream + 1 respin in the Ninja Creami. Served with white chocolate namelaka, crystalized/caramelized white chocolate and a few defrosted wild blueberries.

I read a thread about the toasted hay recipe on Reddit (I think) last week. Pet stores were mentioned as a potential source for hay in small quantities, but personally, I would probably worry too much about possible contaminants from the farm equipment (grease/oil, dirt, manure, pesticides) and unwanted species in the mix. At the same time, I eat plenty of other produce coming from commercial farms, so this may not be a problem at all. As far as I know, hay is not produced, stored or transported according to any safety regulations for human consumption though... If you end up buying hay, I would try to do it during late summer or early fall when it is as fresh as possible. If I didn't live on the remnants of an old farm, where I can pick/grow things like this myself, I would probably ask at a farmer's market if you have that available in your area.

Has anyone tried Dana Cree's toasted hay ice cream recipe from HMNIIC, or infused toasted hay to a different base recipe? I'm pretty sure I have a couple of small patches with timothy grass in my "garden", and the flavour of toasted hay sounds like it would be right up my alley. It will require quite a bit of work though, since I have to harvest and dry the hay myself to avoid any possible sources of contamination in commercially available hay, but it's very tempting to try...

Bumping a REALLY old topic, but I just wanted to share a few thoughts on scales which might be useful for people shopping for new kitchen scales... 3 years ago, I decided to replace two of my kitchen scales - one generic 3kg/1 gram scale and a Jennings CJ-300 300g/0.1g scale (originally bought to weigh fly fishing lines ) - with a larger capacity 0.1 gram scale. Initially, I looked for scales/balances with dust proof IP-rating, but that turned out to be difficult to pair with 0.1g readability. At least within my budget. After months of research and communication with different companies/sellers, I ended up with a fantastic deal on a Radwag WLC 6/F1/K with 6000g capacity and 0.1g readability, because someone had ordered the wrong scale and had returned the "special order" unopened in the box to the seller. https://radwag.com/en/wlc-6-f1-k-precision-balance,w1,U5F,101-102-127-100 The capacity was a little lower than I thought I needed, but the deal was just too good to pass up on, and so far, 6kg has been perfectly fine. Over the last couple of years, the scale has performed very well, with little or no long-term drift between calibrations. Functions such as tare memory (with AC adapter plugged in) or the ability to enter tare value manually has become indispensable for me in a kitchen scale, but the biggest plus besides stable and reliable performance, is the form factor. If you have counter space to dedicate to a small benchtop platform scale like this, I can't recommend it enough. It's absolutely fantastic to work with. The stainless steel platform is easy to clean, can be used with hot pans directly from the stove (great to verify/control degree of reduction and for calculating salt percentage at the end of a cook), and thanks to the cabled display/input interface, access to the display/interface is never blocked by big pans, bowls or gastronorm containers. For gums/carrageenans (and fly fishing lines), I use a MyWeigh iBalance 601 at a dedicated "weighing station" outside the kitchen.

Thanks. That's great news. I already have powdered fructose in my pantry, and dextrose seems to be much easier to source here in Norway than trimoline 🙂

I'm not much of a coffee drinker myself, but my sister requested that I try to make a coffee ice cream soon. My sister will supply the coffee beans, but I need to find a reasonable source for dextrose and trimoline/invert sugar syrup before I can attempt to make your recipe, @paulraphael. Are there big differences between different brands of trimoline/invert sugar syrup?

Another week, and another wacky ice cream flavour experiment... Rutabaga (swede) is one of my favourite vegetables, so naturally, I had to try it in the Creami 😀 Rutabaga three ways: CS creme fraiche base flavoured with lightly pan roasted rutabaga, pickled rutabaga and a "fruit glass" made of rutabaga juice. I liked it a lot, and once the rutabaga is back in season, I'll definitely make more and test different ways to add the rutabaga flavour. The texture/consistency was absolutely perfect. That could be a result of the rutabaga in the mix, controlled sous vide hydration of LBG or the addition of 1 drop of Polysorbate 80 as an additional emulsifier... If anyone wants to try this, or something similar with turnips, dark chocolate crumbs was a better pairing than caramelized white chocolate in my opinion.

This week's Creami project was Modernist Pantry's dairy free pistachio gelato https://blog.modernistpantry.com/recipes/dairy-free-pistachio-gelato/ My first homemade gelato, and also the first time I've tried the gelato program on the Creami. Served with crystallized dark chocolate crumb ans some store bought preserved cherries. The gelato was great! Perfectly smooth and a wonderful pistachio flavour. For those interested, I used Saracino pistachio paste. Unfortunately, the cherries didn't taste much, so this summer I'll have to try to vacuum ferment some cherries from the trees which have popped up like weeds in my garden... Also tried a portion with roasted white chocolate and dried apricots: This time I also recorded the pre and post spin temperatures. Should have documented it with pictures too, but forgot about that untill the last respin: Pre spin: -20.7°C After 1 gelato cycle: -12.2°C After 1 respin: -8.7°C (probably ok at this stage, but it still looked a bit granular Afrer second respin: -6.6°C This is the first time I've seen something close to the flat surface the Pacojet seems to create, so I'll definitely try a second respin with other recipes as well. As you can see in the first picture, there are some tiny air bubbles incorporated however. This was the first scoop, made without doing anything to the mixture other than a few minutes rest in the freezer to lower/stabilize the temperature a bit. As I've mentioned before, this is my main gripe with the Creami so far. For a hobby cook/amateur like myself, it's not really a problem if the quenelles are a bit inconsistent (they usually are anyway 😋), but I'm curious to know if it's caused by insufficient blade speed, different post spin temperature, if it's over pressure related, or if Ninja has messed up the blade design or spin cycle parameters? I've thought about moving it to a different pint too, but I've been worried about incorporating some of the unprocessed ice crystals around the edges, and it's also somewhat inconvenient to always have empty pre chilled beakers taking up freezer real estate 🤔

@Mars, that would be much appreciated 🙂

They are my favorite produce/wild harvest, but unfortunately, I don't know how to describe the flavour. There are a few posts about them in the foraging thread though: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/38682-foraging-for-favorites/?do=findComment&comment=2358087 They are an acquired taste which is known to divide families, including my own, but since thyme ice cream is one of your favorite ice cream flavors, you're probably less likely to hate them than the vast majority of people... 😅

Made a new thyme infused batch for Mother's Day, which was celebrated today here in Norway. This time, I tried to infused 5.7 grams of thyme (1% of total weight) for 15 minutes. Flavour was good, but not as bright, vibrant and distinct as the previous batch of 8 grams for 10 minutes. Next time I'll try sous vide vacuum infusion. We had a horrible strawberry harvest last year, so this small package of green/blushing berries picked in September/October was the only strawberries I had left in the freezer: In hindsight, I should probably have just sliced them and used them as a garnish, but I decided to make a fluid gel similar to the cloudberry fluid gel I made last week. Flavour wasn't bad, but the colour could definitely have been more appealing... 😋 Flavour pairing was OK, but nothing like the magic which happened between thyme and cloudberries. Ripe berries would probably be an improvement in that regard. Also on the plate, under the white chocolate, is a roasted pumpkin seed paste/praline. Originally intended to compliment the strawberries, but at least in my opinion, it worked quite well with the thyme ice cream too.

Last time I used eGullet to rationalize a kitchen tool buying decision, I ended up with a Henkelman chamber vacuum sealer more than 3 times my original budget. A $20,000 homogenizer will most definitely not happen though... 😬

Does the BioSpec sound like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf-0JBx_uoY The main appeal of the Dynamic MiniPro for me, besides the price, is that it can perform other tasks than just homogenizing, but the motor sound in the above video makes me quite concerned about the build quality. Or maybe this is perfectly normal for rotor-stators at low rpm? There are a few concerning reviews on Amazon citing problems related to lack of power and overheating as well though, and I haven't found a definitive answer to the maximum continous runtime the motor can handle.

I've been looking at the DMX 160 lately, but I haven't found a Norwegian source for the homogenizer attachment yet. I'd also like to see some user reviews, because there's not a lot of info to be found, and with a couple of extra accessories, it's not exactly cheap either.

I've eaten a bit too much ice cream lately, but I'll make a few extra thyme batches so I can compare the effect of different amounts of thyme and infusion times. I used 8 grams for 10 minutes in a 565.5 gram recipe by the way. Your infusion recipe scales to 2.83 grams of thyme with the Chefsteps recipe I've been using, so that should establish a useful baseline for dialing in the thyme flavour. Do you have any recommendations regarding other good flavour pairings with thyme ice cream by the way? My stock of frozen cloudberries is too precious to use for this type of trial and error 😋

The thyme ice cream surpassed my wildest expectations. Great on its own, but paired with the cloudberry/rieslaner fluid gel I made, it was absolutely sublime! The alternative LBG hydration method fixed the texture issue of my last batch as well. Now I need to find a way to consistently replicate the thyme flavour. Maybe the Isi gourmet whip can be used to make a thyme syrup with more consistent and controllable infusion parameters? I think I have an unused rapid infusion set in a storage box somewhere in the basement... With a few tweaks (incorporating a Panna Cotta element), I think this is probably our new Christmas Eve dessert 😃

LBG is a new ingredient in my repertoire, so I can't say for sure what happened. It's most likely a result of insufficient temperature for hydration though. I was uncertain about adding LBG and the other dry ingredients during the blending stage the first time I used the CS creme fraiche recipe, especially since I have opted not to boil the elderflower infusion together with the whole milk. Therefore, I added the dry ingredients to the milk to make sure the LBG was hydrated >90 degrees Celsius in my second batch (spruce tips flavour) as a comparison test. With little or no noticable difference, I went back to the more convenient way of adding the dry ingredients during blending. Now, I have a new batch in the freezer, testing the alternative method of hydrating the LBG. This time it's flavoured with thyme. Milk, water and glucose infused by 8 grams of thyme for 10 minutes at 85-75 Celsius. After straining out the thyme, sugar, salt and LBG was added before bringing the mixture to 92 degrees Celsius. It tasted very promising before freezing, so I can hardly wait to test it together with a cloudberry coulis/sauce tomorrow

Last week's batch of elderflower ice cream. Flavour was fantastic once again, but texture was slightly icy even after two spins in the Creami. I think I might have fucked up the locust bean gum hydration in this batch, because the milk/creme fraiche fat separated in the Creami beaker. Or maybe that was a result of the warm milk curdling when I added the elderflower infusion (I picked one with added lemon from the freezer by mistake). The mix was perfectly smooth after the blending step however...

Leftovers from last week's 60 hours, 60 degrees Celsius pork belly. Reheated 1.5 hours at 60 C and finished in the oven at 230 C for 15 minutes.

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/163060-pacojet-competitor-the-ninja-creami/?do=findComment&comment=2373949 I have no idea, sice Ninja doesn't seem to have published specs on the Creami's rpms. Judging by visual comparisons I've seen, the Creami is probably slower though, but in most cases, that can be fixed by a respin or two.

Thanks for sharing your insight, @paulraphael. Sorrel has always been a favourite of mine, but I've never actually tasted it as a prepared element in a dish, just as a snack in the wild, as a garnish or as an element in a salad, so I'm really excited to try it in an ice cream this spring. Hopefully, the creami is powerful enough to make a smooth texture using the Eldridge method. If not, could melting, straining and refreezing after the initial frozen processing be a viable option? Thyme will be my next project, and your guidelines will be of great help. Do you recommend using sous vide to keep the temperature constant during infusion? But first I have to make a double batch of the Creme Fraiche and elderflower ice cream I've been raving about in the Ninja Creami topic for a family dinner on Saturday. Reading this topic, I realize that I've used the wrong terminology though. The flavouring agent I have used is definitely an elderflower/water infusion, not an elderflower extract...