[pretty thing]

Rocket ice cream

Ice cream is easy to make. Essentially you make a creamy gloop, add flavourings and then freeze the mixture. Making good ice cream is a little more difficult however, but science (or more precisely liquid nitrogen) can help. One of the key stages in ice cream production is the freezing; here it's important to prevent large ice crystals from forming. Some people stir the ice-cream as it cools, others buy a machine to do the same; both methods arrest crystal growth by keeping the mixture moving, but are quite slow and labour intensive. We're not very patient and so freeze our ice-cream by stirring liquid nitrogen into the mix. This is fast, so fast in fact that crystals just don't have time to form.

The recipe

Basic ingredients Flavourings
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 5oz caster sugar
  • 1pt double cream
  • Liquid nitrogen
  • Strawberries, pulped
  • Creme de menthe, to taste
  • Chocolate chips
  1. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together to a smooth paste.
  2. Slowly add the cream, mixing all the while.
  3. Heat the mixture until it boils and thickens.
  4. Remove from the heat, leave to cool.
  5. Slowly pour the liquid nitrogen into the mixture, stirring continuously with a non-metallic spoon.
If you add too much nitrogen, the mixture freezes solid and becomes very brittle. Should this happen, simply leave the ice-cream to thaw.
[ The Rocket page ]
Martin Oldfield / m@mail.tc 
This is http://rocket.tc
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