Pacojet Competitor? The Ninja Creami

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

It's in my cart, just waiting for some extended reviews. And freezer space.

Perfectly level freezer space!!

[Anna N]

9 hours ago, mgaretz said:

 

Actually it will.  The manual actually says that if you eat some of the ice cream and freeze the leftovers, you can just rerun the original cycle if it froze too hard.  I did exactly that tonight.  Came out fine.

Just curious as to what then happens to the  admonition  that product must be level

[pastrygirl]

3 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Just curious as to what then happens to the  admonition  that product must be level

 

You'd want to let the base thaw/melt enough to smooth it back to level before re-freezing. 

 

Fruit sorbets should withstand multiple freeze/process/melt cycles, but ice cream with high butterfat may not.

[rotuts]

Ive been thinking about the 

 

PJ // NCi    .  the patent must have expired 

 

at some point.  recently , perhaps

 

or some time ago.

 

'Ninja-Brand '  I think is the fist  p patent

 

there might be others at some point 

 

or not.

 

interesting to see what Brevelle ,  others think about this

 

CubbyHole.

 

the CSO is still going strong here , and has two grandchildren

 

although it was Xx'ds  it brought on the next generation.

 

and I don't need WiFi or bluetooth 

 

to Create.

[Yiannos]

Have been watching a few videos, @mgaretz is this thing as loud as it seems? The couple of demos I've sat through sounded like it was screaming loud, not a huge deal but was curious.

[mgaretz]

20 minutes ago, Yiannos said:

Have been watching a few videos, @mgaretz is this thing as loud as it seems? The couple of demos I've sat through sounded like it was screaming loud, not a huge deal but was curious.

Yes, quite loud, but then so is my Blendtec. I think I mentioned the noise above. 

[Yiannos]

Ah yeah sorry I missed your comment, funny you mention the Blendtec, I have one too and that's exactly what it reminds me of.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

41 minutes ago, Yiannos said:

Ah yeah sorry I missed your comment, funny you mention the Blendtec, I have one too and that's exactly what it reminds me of.

 

The Blendtec doesn't bother me.  I have a KitchenAid ICE-100 and it's not exactly quiet either.

 

[weinoo]

Almost everything (small appliance wise) is noisy in the kitchen, no?  Coffee grinder, blender, food processor, etc. etc.

 

The thing with ice cream machines (including my Whynter and previous Lello) is that they tend to run for a longer period of time than say the 30 seconds it takes to grind my coffee or make a smoothie in the Blendtec. And high-pitched whines are definitely more annoying than the Kitchen Aid mixer noise.

 

Does Ninja ever do version 2.0s?  Maybe they could insulate the motors a bit more?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

7 hours ago, weinoo said:

Almost everything (small appliance wise) is noisy in the kitchen, no?  Coffee grinder, blender, food processor, etc. etc.

 

The thing with ice cream machines (including my Whynter and previous Lello) is that they tend to run for a longer period of time than say the 30 seconds it takes to grind my coffee or make a smoothie in the Blendtec. And high-pitched whines are definitely more annoying than the Kitchen Aid mixer noise.

 

Does Ninja ever do version 2.0s?  Maybe they could insulate the motors a bit more?

 

But unlike a more traditional electric ice cream machine, the Ninja should not be running more than a few moments.  Could @mgaretz (or anyone) report how long it takes the Ninja to process a pint?

 

[rotuts]

this info is in several

 

vids

 

if tau can get past the ads

 

once was all i can stand

[mgaretz]

4 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

But unlike a more traditional electric ice cream machine, the Ninja should not be running more than a few moments.  Could @mgaretz (or anyone) report how long it takes the Ninja to process a pint?

 

 

The cycle is about 2.5 minutes.  The re-spin is shorter and I imagine there are some differences between cycle types, but it hasn't been obvious.

[mgaretz]

Haven't tried anything new yet, but I am happy to report that the peanut butter salted caramel ice cream and cherry pie sorbet are still scoopable after being frozen for many days, with no sign of iciness returning.

[andrewk512]

My Ninja Creami finally arrived, after being sent to the wrong location twice!

 

 

First thoughts: larger than expected, but not too heavy. The blade is oddly loose, although the packing says this is standard. I am actually going to set it up in my basement, where I run my auxiliary cooking equipment, after this first round of testing. It is just a little taller than a standard vitamix container I believe.

 

 

Bases freezing in the Vesta Frysta blast chiller cause I'm impatient. Left: Dana Cree's phildelphia ice cream base, with vanilla, using cremodan 30 to stabilize; Middle: a tin of lychee, pureed and added a bit of rose water and cremodan 64; Right: the peach sorbet recipe I described in my earlier posts

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by andrewk512 (log)

[andrewk512]

Wow, I am super impressed with this machine!

 

I processed the lychee and peach base this evening. I was targeting a frozen temp of around -15C in my blast chiller but because I wasn't paying attention I ended up pulling the peach at -26C and the lychee at -19C (temp difference cause the lychee was started at room temp)

 

The machine is extremely loud, louder than a vitamix on max. It has two steps to the processing, first, for what felt like 2 minutes, the blade shaves each layer of the frozen product. After completion it more slowly climbs back to the top, I suspect to aid in emulsifying everything and helping it cream up.

 

My peach sorbet went from -26C to -20C after processing. It is designed to be served around -18C so this worked well

 

It was incredibly smooth after just one process. There was actually no perceptible ice crystals. This far surpasses my cheap cuisinart ice-30. I am incredibly happy with the final product. I have no doubt it will be fine in my -18C freezer considering the texture at -20C.

 

Now, for the tinned lychees. The lychees had 15.7 brix. I preblended but did not pass through a fine mesh strainer. They were processed at -19C and came out at -12C after a single process, which was a good serving temp considering the composition.

 

 

The texture was very smooth but there was a few small perceptible ice crystals, comparable to what I get when I make sorbets in Cuisinart Ice 30. I suspect it might harden up a bit once it chills in my home freezer to -18C. Overall, it is very passable, I would serve this to anyone anywhere.

 

The only downsides of the machine are: 1) Very loud, I might have to put it in the garage 2) The walls and base of the pint containers are not processed, you have to avoid them when scooping out so that you do not get ice. There is about a 2mm wall of ice around the whole thing. Considering the price of this machine compared to a pacojet I have 0 complaints. 3) There is a good bit of air incorporated into the base, probably about 20%, some may like this, some may not. There are a few pockets of air so depending on how refined you want your serving presentation to be you may want to push everything down a bit first so there's no holes in your scoops

 

I think this machine has serious potential to take over the home ice cream market

 

Finally, I have no idea what the difference between the ice cream, sorbet, and gelato buttons is. Can anyone help me with this? I processed the peach on ice cream and lychee on sorbet, sorbet might have been a bit faster blade spinning? I would have to do a side by side of the same flavor to actually figure it out

Edited September 9, 2021 by andrewk512 (log)

[pastrygirl]

2 hours ago, andrewk512 said:

Finally, I have no idea what the difference between the ice cream, sorbet, and gelato buttons is.

I would expect 'gelato' to incorporate less air than the others.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On 9/7/2021 at 4:19 PM, mgaretz said:

Haven't tried anything new yet, but I am happy to report that the peanut butter salted caramel ice cream and cherry pie sorbet are still scoopable after being frozen for many days, with no sign of iciness returning.

 

I probably mentioned this before in some ice cream thread or another, but consider Modernist Gelato:

https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/pistachio-gelato/

 

It is vegan, non-dairy, and was developed for making in the PacoJet.

 

 

[mgaretz]

47 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

I probably mentioned this before in some ice cream thread or another, but consider Modernist Gelato:

https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/pistachio-gelato/

 

It is vegan, non-dairy, and was developed for making in the PacoJet.

 

 

 

Yes I remember (and I have that tome), thanks.  I have seen similar recipes that use homemade cashew "cream" instead of pistachios and oil and I may try that in the future.

[rotuts]

@andrewk512 

 

any idea if the amount on the sides and bottom

 

get's incorporated after 1 or 2 ' re-processing ? '

 

mine arrived , and its resting

 

comfortably in the shipping box

 

for now

 

 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by rotuts (log)

[rotuts]

Ho Ho Ho :

 

APPL   ( Apple )  

 

will announce ( couple of days or so )

 

iPho-304573047-ne  

 

but 

 

it will also announce :

 

the Apple-Cream-i  noise canceling 

 

'' buds "

 

I almost got a previous version 

 

but didn't want to run inferno of a bus :

 

now I Ask    Cream-i  users :

 

if you have ' buds c canceling '

 

APPL  of course 

 

but jest aside :

 

woud a top-of\ the line

 

NC-Buds

 

help w  Cream-i , and et.al's 

[Yiannos]

44 minutes ago, rotuts said:

woud a top-of\ the line

 

NC-Buds

 

help w  Cream-i , and et.al's 

 

If I'm working with anything really loud for anything outside of a few seconds, air compressors, power tools, that damn Blendtec, I just pop in a couple of foam ear plugs and they work great. If you are listening to music, I wonder if the extra cost of the noise cancelling technology would be worth it, unless you are listening to some really quiet music.

 

Edit to say I have some nice wired ear buds with dense foam pads that block almost everything out besides whatever I am listening to.

Edited September 9, 2021 by Yiannos (log)

[weinoo]

2 minutes ago, Yiannos said:

 

If I'm working with anything really loud for anything outside of a few seconds, air compressors, power tools, that damn Blendtec, I just pop in a couple of foam ear plugs and they work great. If you are listening to music, I wonder if the extra cost of the noise cancelling technology would be worth it, unless you are listening to some really quiet music.

 

Edit to say I have some nice wired ear buds with dense foam pads that block almost everything out besides whatever I am listening to.

 

Same here and I like those dense, blue foam ones.  They work well. I do have a nice pair of noise cancelling headphones, Jabra, which are great but I just don't want to be wearing them in the kitchen!  I only wish I'd started earplugs a long time ago, as my hearing isn't what it once was - and this noisy city is certainly no great help!

[Yiannos]

3 minutes ago, weinoo said:

I only wish I'd started earplugs a long time ago

 

For real, though for me it's more specific, "I only wish I'd started earplugs before that Stone Temple Pilots concert back in 1992"

[rotuts]

yep

 

thanks

 

i have those

 

ill use them

[mgaretz]

You guys are way over-thinking this.  It's not THAT loud.  About the same as my Blendtec or coffee grinder.  Just walk into the next room.