History repeats itself...

[Tri2Cook]

I've become recently obsessed with food history for some reason. I've been interested in the subject for a long time but recently have become completely immersed in reading everything I can find on the subject (and there is a lot out there).

One thing that has become apparent is that cooks have been doing a lot of really cool things for a really long time. I've found many examples in my reading but something that jumped out at me during one of my almost daily pilgrimages to The Old Foodie site was the concept of savory-based ice cream. That's new-ish, cool-ish and generally only found at higher end places right? That's what I thought anyway... until I saw that 180 year old recipe for parmesan cheese ice cream.

[Peter the eater]

Not much is truly new in the food world. There will always be new cooks with new voices, occasionally there are new ingredients or maybe a new leap in technology but the fundamental questions and answers are constant.

I'm with you Tri2cook, it's a blast to read about our foodie counterparts from a century or two (or more) ago.

[Darienne]

I am dipping into two food history books right now. One is A Medieval Home Companion: Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century. Interesting life if you were the mistress of the manor...not so good for the servants.

One thing which has always intrigued me is the fact that a number of confections seem to have been the result of accidents.

However, about savory ice creams. I have yet to try one and am working up to it. Barring 180 year-old recipes, can you recommend one?

[Tri2Cook]

I am dipping into two food history books right now.  One is A Medieval Home Companion: Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century.  Interesting life if you were the mistress of the manor...not so good for the servants.

One thing which has always intrigued me is the fact that a number of confections seem to have been the result of accidents. 

However, about savory ice creams.  I have yet to try one and am working up to it.  Barring 180 year-old recipes, can you recommend one?

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I've experimented pretty extensively with savory-style frozen items. Some successful, some shameful. It's something I'll continue to work on whether it remains "cool" or not because I enjoy it. As far as recipes go, there are several that are good starting points in Migoya's Frozen Desserts. I visit his blog frequently and bother him with questions all of the time so I'll ask if he minds if I share a recipe or three from the book just to get you started. Maybe it will spark some more interest in the book for him as well. I've already done many of the recipes from the book and none have disappointed.

There's a fun (and tasty) savory recipe here. The agave can be replaced with honey or dark corn syrup (or glucose or light corn syrup for that matter) if necessary without harming the result.

As far as my own experiments (which are not all entirely original, some are others ideas that I don't have a recipe for so I just worked it out for myself), some are going to seem strange (and some were strange) but a few I've done are...

dill pickle sorbet

sweet pickle sorbet

caramelized onion ice cream (actually not as terrible as it sounds)

green pea ice cream

carrot ice cream

carrot sorbet

tomato ice cream (for a play on cream of tomato soup)

baked bean ice cream (not one of my better ideas)

mole negro ice cream (see above)

chipotle ice cream

Edited August 27, 2009 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Darienne]

I've experimented pretty extensively with savory-style frozen items. Some successful, some shameful. It's something I'll continue to work on whether it remains "cool" or not because I enjoy it. As far as recipes go, there are several that are good starting points in Migoya's Frozen Desserts. I visit his blog frequently and bother him with questions all of the time so I'll ask if he minds if I share a recipe or three from the book just to get you started. Maybe it will spark some more interest in the book for him as well. I've already done many of the recipes from the book and none have disappointed.

There's a fun (and tasty) savory recipe here. The agave can be replaced with honey or dark corn syrup (or glucose or light corn syrup for that matter) if necessary without harming the result.

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Thanks for the help. Potato ice cream...fair to boggles the mind.

Do you have some kind of reading list for the history of various foods? I have read the history of chocolate by the Coes, and some histories of coffee and sugar...as much as I could bear...their histories are so grim, but do you have some titles of interest?

[Kouign Aman]

Tri2Cook,

do the savory icecreams require sweetening just to maintain texture?

Or have you managed a savory flavor without the underlying sweetness?

On another note - I want to make tomato icecream next year, treating the tomato as the fruit it is, rather than referencing its savory uses. Early Girls are so sugary-sweet already, much sweeter than raspberries for example, they ought to fit in very well. I will be interested to see how people react to it, if not told in advance what the flavor is.

[Tri2Cook]

Tri2Cook,

do the savory icecreams require sweetening just to maintain texture?

Or have you managed a savory flavor without the underlying sweetness?

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Unless you have access to a paco jet or liquid nitrogen, yes to question 1 and no to question 2. I don't have a paco jet and liquid nitrogen is too difficult to get where I live to rely on it so I work to find ways to minimize the sweet aspect of it as much as possible by working with low DE glucose and atomized glucose, isomalt and maltodextrins.