14 November 2023

I need to break up the monotony of my writing. My wife and I were talking about making ice cream for Thanksgiving, we have an ice cream machine and last year we attempted cranberry ice cream. The cranberry was a success but the main ingredient, cranberry, may have been too bitter to create a good ice cream. Oddly enough we both thought sweet corn would be a good flavor to try, my wife even had the idea to put corn flakes in the end product. We’ve probably had a store bought ice cream like that before and there are recipes for all the wildest flavors online. We’ve also got a nice collection of flavor extracts like bubble gum, peppermint, and cotton candy. We’ve tried the popular extracts before and the danger with an ice cream machine is when we make a successful flavor then we’re going to eat a lot of ice cream. After corn I was thinking what other Thanksgiving flavors could be turned into ice cream. Gravy flavored comes to mind, but I don’t even know how to make gravy. Flour and potatoes are interesting foods that I’m sure could be turned into ice cream because like corn they are high in carbohydrates. Similarly I’ve thought of these foods in the past when I’ve done some home brewing. A corn mash for whiskey is very popular, as are wheat beers, and I’m sure everyone has heard of potato vodka. The “mash” basically boils these high carbohydrate foods so yeast can easily digest more of the sugar. The waste product of the yeast feast is alcohol and CO2, this gives beer and champagne their bubbles. More care and speed go into packaging to preserve the bubbles. On a brewery tour once I remember learning that bottles are often green and brown colored to prevent light from reaching the sugary drink inside.