Strawberry Ice Cream : Seasonal Flavors & How They Work
Folks often ask why we don’t have Strawberry ice cream all year around and we wanted to explain why!
Ok, let’s talk about conventional strawberry ice cream. There’s a book called “Ice Cream'' that has been in publication (with updates) since 1932. It’s a textbook that is essential reading for everyone in the field of ice cream production. It costs $80-$100, is of a modest size, and is not anything that anyone should ever purchase unless they have senselessly committed themselves to a career in the manufacture of ice cream. On page 346 of the 6th edition, the book has a recipe for Strawberry Ice Cream which is as follows:
To 8 gal mix add 2 gal berries, aseptically processed. A mixture of puree and “solid fruit'' is recommended. Add red color to adjust color to desired intensity of pink.
Not exactly inspiring, but we get it. Elsewhere in the book they recommend that “strawberry flavoring” may be preferred to boost the flavor. Many also opt for a simpler solution of “Strawberry Flavored Puree”. Which begs the question, where are the strawberries?
Why can’t you just make strawberry ice cream with strawberries? The answer is, you can, but it takes a lot of time and a lot of strawberries.
Strawberries like most fruits are mostly water. Water is the enemy of good ice cream, as it creates undesirable ice crystals. If you want to make strawberry ice cream with just strawberries, you need to do two things: get some of that water out of the strawberries, and adjust the rest of the mix to offset the water introduced by the fruit.
We start by roasting the strawberries for hours. The cooking causes the water in the fruit to evaporate and the sugars to caramelize. This process concentrates all the best elements of the strawberries! We then account for the water still present in our roasted strawberries. Our goal is to be around 41-43% total solids in fruit ice creams, so the quantities of milk, cream, eggs, sugar, and organic dry milk are adjusted to complement the strawberries. If you even bothered to get to the end of this paragraph, it may make sense why most folks opt for a commercial strawberry puree and some food coloring.
Ok, so it takes a lot of time to make Strawberry Ice Cream, but does that really explain why we don’t make it year round? Why the heck are we so dedicated to only making strawberry ice cream during our region’s strawberry season?
90% of the strawberries grown in the US are grown in California, and China grows over three times that amount. Let’s stick with California though. That’s 3000 miles from here. Those strawberries have to be picked before they are fully ripe so that they can be trucked across the country and warehoused on the east coast. Sure, they look and taste like strawberries by the time we get them, but are they the best strawberries that they can be?
If instead we wait for the fleeting but glorious Mid-Atlantic strawberry season, we get fruit that is picked at its ideal ripeness and lands at our creamery a day later. It really does make a difference, and waiting just makes the heart grow fonder.
