This sounds revolting and intriguing all at once! It sounds better clarified. :) Would you use egg whites? Do you think it needs a little black pepper? You could use red onion skins to color it.

It was basically a salty gelato with a hint of meaty tinge, which isn't that weird when you think about it. Much weirder ice creams are being sold in Portland. Like the goat cheese & ginger.

http://saltandstraw.com/flavors/#portland

I want to get more porky flavor, which may involve starting with more stock and reducing it further.

I don't think I need egg whites. I could try some white pepper, but black might be visually unattractive.

You're right, I could use some red onion skins for color; also a tiny bit of beet juice goes a long way, and there is always the option of a dash of Worchestershire or soy sauce or something equally dark.

I make a cocktail that is rich meat broth & vodka. I believe this is called a "Bull Shot". Apparently glasses of broth are now being popularized in the trendier sort of NYC restaurant.

So the idea is a very meaty, vegetarians not invited, dinner. With Bull Shots and Pork Gelato as the overture and coda.

Oh! I though some little black pepper flecks floating around would make it look interesting. Beware of coloring with beets! It's very intensely almost fuchsia, but would work if used very judiciously. :) The dark and umami of the sauce sounds like a nice addition too, and would take down the day glo properties of beet juice.

Interesting about the drinks, but I'd rather savor good alcohol than muddy up the meh with broth. I could definitely see a shooter with a broth chaser. Serving broth as an alternative to sugary and fruity is a great idea.

But...I think I'd like goat cheese and ginger ice cream, especially if there's a little sugar or honey in it to make it a little less sharp. I'm not usually a fan of honey in ice cream, but I think it would work really well with goat cheese and ginger. OTOH, I don't like herb ices and ice creams, and I really don't like tea. Ginger ice cream is good though. Not so sure when they put lumps of candied ginger in it--you can't taste the ice cream after chewing one--but ginger is by far and away the best of the "hot" ice creams I've had. (Garlic is just bad! Sweet red pepper isn't really hot (but good). Tabasco is a waste of cream and sauce.)

Eww....just eww. Pork juice, cream and sugar don't make it for me......maybe I could take a taste if it were hot....but not cold!

I've not tried the goat cheese and ginger ice cream at Salt & Straw. The lines there are so long, and I don't crave ice cream that much, ever.

On the beet coloring, no, fuchsia would not do. I was thinking of making the pork gelato that red-brown color that we associate with roast pork char-sui sold in Chinese shops. Which is, I suspect, red due to artificial food coloring. Maybe I'm just distrustful, but justifiably so I feel. I used to buy thousand year eggs in the Chinese market. Then I noticed that the packaging often proclaims "NO LEAD". Rather than reassure me, this was alarming. So thousand year egg is made with lead often enough that this brand and others feel the need to tell their product is lead-free? No thanks. I have stopped buying thousand year eggs.

Oh, I made blueberry gelato too. I learned a lesson there. I liquified two cups of blueberries in the food processor, which made a deep purple thick liquid, and used that to flavor the gelato. The gelato base, thus flavored, tasted great. The gelato, fresh out of the machine, tasted great. But after sitting in the freezer for an hour, the flavor had dulled. Makes sense I guess, cold suppresses flavors. So I need to over-flavor the base next time. I'll reduce the liquified blueberry.

Related question: after you've made the ice cream or gelato, how do you store it for serving later in the evening? I find that putting it in the freezer causes the gelato to get hard and lose some of its creamy texture. Eating it fresh from the machine is great, but if I want to serve two different ice creams, one batch needs to be stored for an hour or so.

One of the interesting thing about seasonings and flavorings, they all taste bad by themselves. (except sugar). But when they are used in combination with other food, they are delicious.

Pork gelato? why not? Bacon ice cream is enjoyed by many.

dcarch

I had the same problem you had with the blueberry with the charoset sorbet I made for Passover. It was whiz-pow at the slushy phase and just tasted like frozen applesauce at the frozen stage. Another thing you can do to intensify the blueberriness is reduce it. Of course, you have to chill it then, but it should work

The storage issue is one I've yet to solve. I have some insulated ice cream containers, including a long narrow one that's good for scooping, which work fairly well defending ice cream from the freeze for an hour or two so you can get through dinner. Sorbet, having no fat impediment, lasts at the good spot for less than an hour. The problem is food storage and dessert storage are meant to be at different temperatures.

I've been considering getting a portable cooler. They make them that do all the freeze/cool temperatures you could want. I figure it could chill wines, hold frozen desserts at the correct temperature, and also serve as a cheese cave. The issue is I'm not about to get four of them, and that's four different temperatures (only segregating wine into white and red), so I'd have to manage the cheese making so it didn't run into entertaining, chill whites in the fridge and bring down reds to sufficiently below ambient that they'll still be a nice temperature during dinner, without shocking them, and get it cooled and the dessert in before company! Argh!! More likely, company will get something baked the previous day, and the reds will get to be happy, and we'll do the ice cream thing when it's just us.

If you have a few hundred dollars you're willing to throw at it, however, you can certainly get an electric cooler and get your ice cream and sorbet to the correct temperature(s).

Hmm. Well that is a thought. I could also decant the freshly churned gelato into a pre chilled, insulated container, and put that container in the refrigerator instead of the freezer. Hopefully that would maintain the gelato at tolerable temperature for an hour.

What do you think is the ideal temperature for brief storage of gelato?. I have never put a thermometer in the gelato when it is just made, but I'm reading that gelato is served at 10 to 20 F (ice cream at 0 to 5 F).

0-5 F is too cold for serving ice cream. It's just that it holds at that temperature (regular freezer) and warms up pretty fast. Homemade from cream is a brick at 0° F. Much better closer to 10°. True gelato has less air and less fat. I haven't made any for a year and don't remember an optimum. I'm guessing high teens? There are so many variables, though. Are you serving in a chilled bowl? An insulated chilled bowl? Cool room temperature? Ambient? I hate it when the scoop hits the bowl and is melting before it even gets to the recipient. I think the number I figured for sorbets was 25°, but I don't remember for sure.

I've done the insulated container in the fridge trick, and, for me, it works better to put it in the freezer first, and then transfer to the fridge an hour before serving. It's a bit melty otherwise. But that would depend on what your stuff is made of and how cold your ice cream maker makes it, how much air is in it, and a bunch of other factors. It's definitely worth trying. Test it on the kids and get a feel for it. :)

I will chill some ramekins and spoons for service. I usually make the gelato or ice cream during dinner, so it is served immediately when churning is done. But when I serve two different gelatos or ice creams, I have to make one first, clean the ice cream maker, and make the second. So the first one has to be stored for a while - a couple hours would be ideal. Okay, the kids will be pressed into service as testers. They might not resist.

I think the red in chinese pork is red rice yeast.

Now there is sentence one does not see every day...

"The dark and umami of the sauce sounds like a nice addition too, and would take down the day glo properties of beet juice."

In what circles do I navigate?! Great smile for me today.

Happy to serve. :)

The authentic color of the rice yeast sounds like a winner!