Forget Fabs, 99s and wafers, ice cream these days is all about interesting flavours. Andrew Webb samples local options
Summers in Britain are more often a triumph of hope over experience. The days on which our windows are pelted with rain always seem to outnumber those occasions when you can exclaim ‘phew, what a scorcher’. Yet growing up, when those long hot summers did arrive (seemingly every July), games would stop and temporary truces were declared as the ice cream van heralded its arrival by belting out a speeded up, tinkly version of Lili Marleen. A childhood memory of ice cream lives deep within us all.
Fast-forward to today, and although our love for ice cream is undiminished, our tastes have evolved. Ice cream has been joined in the freezer by the likes of gelato (Italian style ice cream), sorbet (fruit based and dairy free) and semifreddo (mousse and desert style dishes).
“Although our love for ice cream is undiminished, our tastes have evolved”
It’s even being used by some chefs in a savoury context. A few years ago on one of those rare blisteringly hot days, I was served a parmesan ice cream, which went brilliantly with tissue-paper-thin slices of Parma ham and cool pieces of cantaloupe melon. I’ve also enjoyed a fiery chilli-flavoured ice cream with large, meaty barbecued tiger prawns.
So whereas Neapolitan was once the high-water mark of classy glacé, today, producers in our region are doing much more interesting flavours of ice cream.
Saffron Ice Cream
Based on a family farm near Saffron Walden just over the Essex border, ice cream maker Dominic Parry likes to keep things as local as possible. That means everything from his raw ingredients to back office services to the website design coming from firms in the region.
His flavours at this time of year include the sublime honey and lavender, with the honey coming from bees on a family farm in the Essex village of Henham. Another classic is his strawberries and cream with a dash of balsamic vinegar. New flavours for 2016 include lemon meringue in scooping tubs.
A strong 2015 has led to investment in new production machinery and the taking on of additional staff. As well as supplying the Saffron Screen cinema and Audley End Estate cafés, Dominic also sells his ice cream at the Jesus Green Lido. “We’re the sole supplier of ice cream to Lee Valley White Water Centre as well,” says Dominic.
“And we’re catering for more and more events in London, for big names such as British Gas, BMW and the Houses of Parliament.”
On Saturdays you’ll find his wares at the market in Saffron Walden. And if you’re planning a wedding, corporate event or any private get-together, Dom’s more than happy to lay on the ice cream.
Jack’s Gelato
Jack van Praag toured the world as a pastry chef and head chef, prior to establishing Jack’s Gelato here in Cambridge. New for this summer he’s put down roots in a bespoke counter at Cambridge Wine Merchants on King’s Parade. “It’s going great,” Jack says. “We have a choice of ten flavours, with new flavours weekly.”
Those flavours include a range of sorbets including Bronte pistachio, lemon and basil, watermelon, violet stracciatella and the intriguing-sounding roasted banana. “Burnt sugar and salt is still the bestseller for ice creams, while elderflower is for sorbet, closely followed by Earl Grey and plum and also chocolate sorbet,” Jack tells me.
So are we getting more adventurous as customers? “Yes, as each year passes people are moving more away from the traditional flavours and becoming more open-minded,” he says.
Finally, if you’re in the capital, Jack is now supplying Dover Street Market in central London, his first foray outside Cambridge.
The first ice cream queen
Today, the work of Victorian cookery writer Agnes Bertha Marshall (1855- 1905) is all but forgotten, but she was the Mary Berry of her day, owning a cookery school in London and writing cookery books.
She earned the nickname ‘Queen of Ices’ for her work on frozen desserts, and her 1888 book includes what is perhaps the first recipe for a baked ‘cone’ to hold ice cream.
In recent years food historians and chefs have begun to rediscover her work. The great Heston Blumenthal is one such chef who has studied her recipes and techniques, as it was Mrs Marshall who was first suggested using liquid nitrogen to freeze ice cream.
Aromi
With three branches around town – Bene’t Street, Peas Hill around the corner and Fitzroy Street – Aromi has got Cambridge covered for tasty Italian cooking with a Sicilian emphasis, and gelato is a big part of that. Their home-made recipes use traditional Italian ingredients such as Sicilian pistachio, Sicilian lemon and a classic hazelnut. For example, the exotic sounding nero fondente and Sicilian mandorlato consists of one scoop of dark chocolate ice cream and one of almond nougat.
As well as taking your ice cream away in a cone, Aromi also offers a tub or, if you really want to go all in, a brioche bun.
6 ice cream
Sheila Bremner quit her role as chief executive of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk Primary Care Trust to open 6 Ice Cream with friend Suzanna Arschavir. The pair share a love of proper gelato, and now “we make it every day in the shop from fresh ingredients, churned right there in front of our customers,” Sheila tells me. “It’s made and sold on the same day, so it doesn’t get fresher.”
Ingredients are locally sourced where possible, with fruit, vegetables and herbs sometimes direct from the farm or even the individual grower. “We like to keep our flavours seasonal, from gooseberry in the summer to pumpkin and sage in the autumn,” Sheila adds. The current 6 Strawberry, for example, is made from strawberries grown in Milton, while the pear sorbet uses fruit grown in Over.
“We want people to taste ice cream like they’ve never tasted it before, and because we make it in small batches we can change our flavours daily and give our regulars something new and interesting each time they visit.”
This time of year flavours include cucumber and mint, strawberry and basil, white chocolate and caraway, and the astounding sounding (and tasting) pink grapefruit and tarragon. Customers have even suggested new flavour combinations, such as turmeric and ginger. Their signature ice cream, however, is Cambridge cream, topped with crisp burnt sugar. When summer finally arrives, there’ll be more fruit-led ices, as well as punting and picnic packs which contain your favourite ice creams.
Conclusion
So what’s driving this growth in artisanal ice cream in our region, which, let’s remember, isn’t exactly one of the great dairy hotspots of Britain? I put it down to a broad customer base of interested, switched-on people genuinely seeking something new and different. Ice cream it seems, like so many other foods and ingredients, has become a key part of Cambridge’s booming food scene. So this summer, don’t follow the van for something boring and mass-produced, instead, queue up for something that’s really worth licking.
