Cool Ideas

Cool Ideas
I love
pizza. I love bacon. And I love ice cream. But pizza and
bacon ice cream? Even a voracious eater like me has to draw the line
somewhere.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s
where ice cream makers should be drawing the line when it comes to
innovation. Certainly, some of the most creative innovations come from the
ice cream industry — even though pizza didn’t make the cut in
Ben & Jerry’s annual new-flavor contest.
Pepperoni pizza — with an anchovy swirl —
got the ax from among 35,000 entries to the contest that has given birth to
winners like Chubby Hubby, with its peanut-butter-filled, chocolate-covered
pretzels.
That scrumptious salty-sweet combination is about as
far as most consumers seem willing to go in combining the savory with the
sweet in their ice cream. Of course, that’s not stopping a few
boutique ice cream makers from pushing the envelope — or carton
— much further.
The arrival of National Ice Cream Month has seen a
stream of news reports from across the country telling of wild and wacky
ice cream concepts. Bacon ice cream appears to be a keeper at
Delaware’s Udder Delight Ice Cream House, with chocolate bacon a
possible variation. The jury’s still deliberating over Udder
Delight’s other offerings, which include barbeque and garlic amaretto
chip.
Meanwhile, down the seaboard at Sunni Sky’s in
Angier, N.C., customers are required to sign a waiver before tasting Cold
Sweat, made with three varieties of peppers and two kinds of hot sauce.
And while fish-flavored ice creams have a following in
Asia, a big fish in the frozen pond knows an innovative way to make ice
cream better for you. Unilever is seeking permission in Europe to use
genetic modification technology to develop a protein normally found in the
blood of the pout fish. This eel-like denizen of the North Atlantic
contains an ice-structuring protein that, when applied to ice cream
manufacturing, lowers the temperature at which ice crystals form, requiring
less fat for a creamy texture.
BBC reports the technology has already been approved
in the United States; Unilever owns Good Humor-Breyers, which makes a
“double-churned” light product.
So when it comes to ice cream, innovation apparently
knows no bounds. Let these snippets inspire you during this National Ice
Cream Month to come up with something new and different, perhaps even oddly
so. Who knows — you might just strike gold.
How ’bout ice cream and … Chicago hot
dogs? Remember to leave out the ketchup.
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