Bacon ice cream facts for kids
French toast with bacon ice cream, maple syrup and cinnamon tuile
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| Alternative names | Bacon and egg ice cream |
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| Course | Dessert |
| Serving temperature | Cold |
Bacon ice cream is a unique ice cream flavor. It is usually made by adding bacon to a creamy egg custard. Then, the mixture is frozen.
The idea of bacon ice cream first appeared as a joke. It was in a 1973 comedy sketch on the British TV show The Two Ronnies. Later, in 1982, an ice cream shop in New York actually made it for April Fools' Day. In the 2000s, a famous English chef named Heston Blumenthal started making it. He made a special custard that tasted like scrambled eggs. Then he added bacon. Now, you can find bacon ice cream on dessert menus in many restaurants.
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How Bacon Ice Cream Started
Most people think of ice cream as a sweet treat. It's usually eaten after a meal. But long ago, in Victorian times, some people ate savory ice creams.
Bacon ice cream began as a funny idea. It was meant to be a flavor no one would ever want to eat. This joke was part of a 1973 sketch called "Ice Cream Parlour Sketch." In the sketch, a customer asks for strange flavors like cheese and onion, then smokey bacon.
In 1992, a shop called Aldrich's Beef and Ice Cream Parlor in Fredonia, New York, made bacon-and-egg ice cream. They did it as an April Fools' Day experiment. Ten years earlier, the owner, Scott Aldrich, was dared to make beef gravy ice cream. He made it for April Fools' Day in 1982.
Even though the gravy ice cream was "their most disgusting" creation, Aldrich's kept making unusual flavors for April Fools' Day. Some of these included "chocolate spaghetti ice cream" and "ketchup and mustard swirl." They also made "pork and beans" and "sauerkraut and vanilla" ice cream.
In 1992, they made 15 US gallons (57 L; 12 imp gal) of bacon-and-egg ice cream. They gave it away for free to anyone who would try it. People generally liked it! In 1992, a newspaper called The Victoria Advocate wrote about it. They said that despite the weird names, most of Aldrich's prank flavors tasted good. They described bacon and egg ice cream as tasting like a slightly nutty vanilla. Sometimes, you could even taste a bit of egg yolk.
In 2003, an ice cream shop called "Udder Delight" opened in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. This shop specialized in "outlandish" ice cream flavors. Besides their award-winning peanut butter and jelly ice cream, they also created a bacon ice cream. It tasted like butter pecan. The owner, Chip Hearn, even held a special taste test. He invited people to try 18 flavors, including bacon. They could suggest changes and share their thoughts.
Heston Blumenthal's Special Ice Cream
The English chef Heston Blumenthal is famous for making unusual dishes. He uses a method called molecular gastronomy. His restaurant, the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, has earned three Michelin stars.
Blumenthal started making savory ice cream flavors as early as 2001. Some of his early creations included mustard grain and crab ice cream. He learned that flavors are stronger when they are in small, hidden pockets. This is called "flavor encapsulation." For example, if eggs are cooked more, their proteins stick together. This creates tiny pockets of egg flavor in the ice cream. When the ice cream melts in your mouth, these pockets release a burst of flavor.
[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.
Regular ice cream is made from frozen egg custard with flavors added. Blumenthal whips egg yolks with sugar. The sugar mixes with the proteins in the yolk, forming a network. The mixture turns white. At this point, he adds flavors and cooks them in. While stirring, Blumenthal cools the mixture very quickly using liquid nitrogen.
Blumenthal's bacon-and-egg ice cream is now one of his most famous dishes. His unique flavors have given him the nickname "The Wizard of Odd." His restaurant is a popular spot for people who love food. Blumenthal hopes to create an ice cream where flavors are released in stages. For example, you might taste bacon and egg first, then orange juice or tea. If he perfects this, he might try mussels followed by chocolate.
In 2006, Blumenthal received an award called Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE). This is a high honor in the United Kingdom. He received it for his great contributions to food.
Making Bacon Ice Cream
Bacon ice cream became popular in the 2000s, so there isn't one old, traditional recipe. Most recipes involve adding bacon to a sweet ice cream. Often, vanilla is used, but some suggest coffee, rum, or pecan flavors. The saltiness of the bacon helps bring out the sweetness of the ice cream.
One article from Wired.com suggests making the bacon "candied" first. This means baking the bacon in a sugar syrup. Candying the bacon makes it sweet. It's similar to how bacon is sometimes served with pancakes in parts of the United States.
Heston Blumenthal's Recipe
Blumenthal's recipe uses ice cream that tastes strongly of egg, without other added flavors. In his cookbook, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, he describes his method. First, the bacon is lightly roasted with its fat. Then, it soaks in milk for 10 hours. This infused milk mixture is carefully heated with egg and sugar. The eggs are slightly overcooked to make the "eggy" flavor stronger.
Next, the mixture is strained and put into a food processor. Finally, it is churned and frozen. Blumenthal serves this ice cream with caramelized French toast, a tomato compote, a slice of pancetta hardened with maple syrup, and tea jelly.
Blumenthal has updated his recipe since then. Now, he soaks the bacon in a vacuum-packed bag for ten hours before baking it. He also changed how he serves it. The unfrozen ice cream is put into empty egg shells. Then, it's dramatically "scrambled" at the customer's table using liquid nitrogen. This makes it look like it's being cooked right there!
Other Uses of Bacon Ice Cream
Many other chefs have made bacon ice cream in recent years. For example, it's on the menu at Espai Sucre in Barcelona, Spain. This restaurant specializes in desserts. They describe their bacon ice cream as "innovative" and "spectacular."
In the United States, bacon was a popular theme for desserts at the Fancy food show. In 2006, two contestants on the reality TV show Top Chef created their own versions of bacon ice cream. Celebrity chef Bob Blumer won an ice cream making contest in Texas with his bacon ice cream. He had planned to use candied bacon, but at the last minute, he made a bacon brittle ice cream instead.
Chef Michael Symon also made bacon ice cream in the first season of the Food Network's The Next Iron Chef competition. One judge, Andrew Knowlton, thought it wasn't very original. But Symon still moved forward in the competition and eventually won.
In the summer of 2012, Burger King introduced a "bacon sundae" in the US. It had vanilla ice cream with caramel, chocolate, bacon bits, and a strip of bacon. They first tested it in Nashville, Tennessee in April.
See also
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In Spanish: Helado de panceta para niños
