French toast with bacon ice cream, maple syrup and cinnamon tuile |
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| Origin | |
|---|---|
| Alternative name(s) | Bacon and egg ice cream |
| Dish details | |
| Course served | Dessert |
| Serving temperature | Cold |
Bacon ice cream (or bacon-and-egg ice cream) is a modern invention in experimental cookery, generally created by adding bacon to egg custard and freezing the mixture. Although it was a joke in a Two Ronnies sketch, it was eventually created for April Fools' Day. Heston Blumenthal experimented with the creation of ice cream, making a custard similar to scrambled eggs then adding bacon to create one of his signature dishes. It now appears on dessert menus in other high-end restaurants.
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As bacon ice cream was first created in 1992 and only came to the forefront in the 2000s, there is no traditional recipe. Recipes generally involve adding bacon to a standard sweet ice cream recipe, often vanilla but other suggestions include coffee, rum or pecan. The saltiness of the bacon will then highlight the sweet flavour of the rest of the ice cream.[1] According to one Wired.com article, the bacon should be candied prior to addition, a process which involves baking the bacon in a sugar syrup. This has the benefit of sweetening the bacon, in a similar manner to pancakes in some parts of the United States.[2][3]
Heston Blumenthal's recipe uses ice cream without flavouring, but that tastes of egg. In his book, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, his recipe is broken down into 5 constituent parts including the ice cream, caramelised French toast, a tomato compote, a thin slice of pancetta hardened with maple syrup and a tea jelly. Considerable time is taken for the creation of the ice cream: the bacon is lightly roasted with the fat on, then infused in milk for 10 hours. This infused mix is precisely heated with egg and sugar to over-cook the eggs - increasing the eggy flavour. The resulting mixture is sieved, put through a food processor, churned and frozen.[4] Blumenthal has since updated his recipe, to include an addition ten-hour period of soaking the bacon in a vacuum-packed bag prior to baking. He has also changed the presentation so that the unfrozen ice cream is injected into empty egg shells, and then dramatically scrambled at the customer's table in liquid nitrogen, giving the impression of cooking.[5]
Ice cream is generally expected to be a sweet food, eaten at dessert, even though there is evidence of savoury ice creams being created in Victorian times.[6] Bacon ice cream originated as a joke, a flavour that no one would willingly eat. It was referenced as such in the 1973 "Ice Cream Parlour Sketch" by The Two Ronnies, where a customer requests cheese and onion flavoured ice cream followed by smokey bacon.[7] This sketch went on to be included in the "Best of The Two Ronnies" DVD.
Bacon and egg ice cream was eventually created as an April Fools' Day experiment at Aldrich's Beef and Ice Cream Parlor in Fredonia, New York.[8] In 1982, co-owner Scott Aldrich was challenged by a gravy salesman to make gravy ice cream, which he did for April Fools' Day that year. Although it was reportedly "their most disgusting" creation, The Aldrich's went on to release other shocking flavours on April Fools' Day, such as "chocolate spaghetti ice cream", "ketchup and mustard swirl", "Pork and beans" or "saurkraut and vanilla" in 1991. In 1992, they made 15 US gallons (57 l; 12 imp gal) of bacon and egg ice cream which he gave away free to anyone who would try it. Despite their names, the ice creams generally received positive reviews.[9][10]
In 2003 an ice cream parlour, "Udder Delight", opened in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, specialising in "outlandish" ice cream flavours. Amongst other flavours, such as their award-winning peanut butter and jelly ice cream, they have created a bacon ice cream which tastes like butter pecan - implying that the ice cream was a butter pecan with candied bacon. The owner had included the flavour along with 17 others in an invitation-only focus group, where the tasters were allowed to suggest changes and give opinions on the flavour.[11]
Heston Blumenthal is a celebrity chef who applies scientific method to food. His restaurant, The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, is famous for unusual dishes created following the principles of molecular gastronomy. Using these principles the restaurant has won three Michelin stars among other achievements. As early as 2001, he was using the principle of "flavour encapsulation" to create savoury ice cream flavours such as mustard grain and crab.[12][13]
"[Blumenthal's] bacon and egg ice cream came about through his interest in 'flavour encapsulation': the principle of which means a single coffee bean crushed in your teeth while drinking hot water will taste much more of coffee than the same crushed bean dissolved in the water. One day, using that principle, he over-cooked the egg custard for an ice cream, so that it practically became scrambled. He puréed that and made an ice cream from it, that had an immense eggy flavour... [which] was not particularly pleasant. Which was when he decided to see if he could incorporate the sweet tones of smoked bacon into an egg ice cream. Boy, did it work."
Blumenthal explains that traditional ice cream is frozen egg custard with flavours added. Using his scientific method to create ice cream, he whisks egg yolks with sugar until the sugar interacts with the proteins in the yolk, creating a network of proteins. The entire substance turns white, at which point any flavouring can be added and cooked in. Once the mixture is cooked, it should be cooled as fast as possible (Blumenthal regularly uses liquid nitrogen in cooking) while being stirred.[12] In an article explaining the concept of "flavour encapsulation", Blumenthal points out that flavour is much more intense in encapsulated bursts, rather than being dispersed in a solution. He goes on to state that the more that the eggs are cooked, the more that the proteins stick together, creating pockets of egg flavour in the ice cream, which release as it melts in customers' mouths.[15]
Blumenthal's bacon and egg ice cream, now one of his signature dishes,[16] along with his other unique flavours, has given him a reputation as 'The Wizard of Odd' and has made his restaurant a magnet for food enthusiasts. In the 2006 New Years Honours List, Blumenthal was awarded an OBE for his services to food.[17] Blumenthal has stated that one ambition is to create an ice cream with flavours released in time-separated stages, for example bacon and egg followed by orange juice or tea. Once he perfects the technique of separating the flavours, he would attempt mussels followed by chocolate.[12]
"Someone who makes egg-and-bacon ice-cream is immediately hailed as a genius when I don't think he is. If you vomit and make an ice-cream out of the vomit, is that original enough for a star? The Michelin system does a great disservice to the industry."
Bacon ice cream has received a mixed reception, as a combination of sweet and savoury flavours it was designed to be controversial. So while Blumenthal's combinations have won him awards such as "Best restaurant in the world" and three Michelin stars, in 2004, rival chef Nico Ladenis showed his disapproval for the Michelin Star system by suggesting that bacon ice cream shows such a desperate need for originality in very graphic language. Blumenthal pointed out that Ladenis had never actually tried the aforementioned ice cream.[18]
Trevor White has suggested that the Heston Blumenthal has latched onto a culture where we cannot get enough of the new and are spoiled by choice, comparing the food to a "freak-show".[19] Janet Street-Porter is highly critical of Blumenthal's cooking philosophy, explaining that it was pretentious. She attempted to make his egg-and-bacon ice cream from the recipe published in his book, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, altering the recipe slightly due to her hectic workload and guessing when she did not have the right tools. The end result she described as nauseating and "too sickly for words".[20]
The ice cream also sparked debate within the Los Angeles Times, where the food writer Noelle Carter described bacon ice cream as perfection but the health section put up a photograph of a heart bypass and the headline "Bacon ice cream. No good can come of it".[21] The Delaware "Udder Delight" ice cream maker, Chip Hearn, who made bacon ice cream appears to have done so partly as a gimmick to get people into his shop, since he allows customers to taste any flavour in the store. He explains that his flavours differentiate him from the many other parlours on the shore and many people come in to try bacon ice cream only to buy something else.[22]
Bacon ice cream has been re-created by other chefs in recent years. For example, it appears on the menu at Espai Sucre in Barcelona, a restaurant that specialises in desserts, with descriptions such as "innovative" and "spectacular".[23] In the United States, bacon was one of the themes for dessert at the Fancy food show. In 2006, two separate contestants created versions of bacon ice cream in the reality series Top Chef.[24] Celebrity chef Bob Blumer won a Texas ice cream making competition with a bacon ice cream. Originally planning to use candied bacon, he changed at the last moment to do a bacon brittle ice cream.[25]Chef Michael Symon made bacon ice cream in the first season of the "Next Iron Chef" competition. Andrew Knowlton, a judge, dismissed it as not original. But Symon managed to progress in the competition and eventually win.