What's With All This Soft-Serve?

Why the recent rash of soft-serve sightings? Is this dish destined to be our next poutine? Anyone think Momofuku might have something to do with it?

In the Belly Shack thread happy_stomach wrote:Anyway, as I had nothing to say, she introduced me to Chef Bill and brought me out an order of huckleberry-lime softserve.

In the Xoco thread G Wiv wrote:Having grown up, and grown larger, on Kopp's frozen custard I found myself somewhat nonplussed by Xoco's. Nothing distinctively 'Mexican' and a bit looser/softer than I prefer, pasilla brownie bits morphing from chewy to mushy in short order. Expensive for a small cup, regardless of pristine provenance.

Xoco, 2.20.10

In the Purple Pig thread GAF wrote:I was disappointed by my Olive Oil Soft Serve in Brioche. The brioche was more of a role, not buttery or layered, and, while the soft serve had oil oil drizzed over it, it tasted like vanilla soft ice cream. A real disappointment.

Scooters re-opens for the season on Friday...

Rene G wrote:Anyone think Momofuku might have something to do with it?

I do.

Soft-serve is refreshing after a spicy meal, which is not unusual at Momofuku (or at Belly Shack or Xoco). It's also a non-committal dessert - a few spoonfuls if you're sharing and you're done. Not to mention the hard-wired nostalgia inherent in eating soft serve. I like it.

David Tamarkin on the soft-serve trend (no mention of Momofuku)

Rene G wrote:Anyone think Momofuku might have something to do with it?

I think it Pinkberry has much more to do with it than Momofuku.

Rene G wrote:
Anyone think Momofuku might have something to do with it?


I think it Pinkberry has much more to do with it than Momofuku.

I think the boom in gelato and Iron Chef have a lot to do with it. I was at the Restaurant Show last year and there were more gelato booths than just about any other item. Batch freezers are so ubiquitous now that any chef with an inclination to do so can run a quick batch of any flavor combo that comes to mind, so it's a way to put their own stamp on a familiar dessert. And viewers of Iron Chef are used to the contestants throwing everything they can find into a batch freezer and possibly wondering "what would that taste like?" so the adventurousness of the "foodie" crowd can now extend to soft serve.

aschie30 wrote:Not to mention the hard-wired nostalgia inherent in eating soft serve. I like it.

As one who grew up bicycle riding distance of Kopp's I'm all for a mini explosion of soft serve, though I've yet to have a Chicagoland option that rivals my home town favorite Kopp's. Even Scooter's, arguably the best soft serve in the area, uses 10% butterfat as opposed to Kopp's 14%.

"Anybody who doesn't think that the best hamburger place in the world is in his home town is a sissy."
Calvin Trillin

HI,

Maybe someone can answer this soft-serve mystery: why is no whipping cream available for their sundaes? It isn't available even if you are willing to pay extra.

Regards,

G Wiv wrote:As one who grew up bicycle riding distance of Kopp's I'm all for a mini explosion of soft serve, though I've yet to have a Chicagoland option that rivals my home town favorite Kopp's. Even Scooter's, arguably the best soft serve in the area, uses 10% butterfat as opposed to Kopp's 14%.

"Anybody who doesn't think that the best hamburger place in the world is in his home town is a sissy."
Calvin Trillin

Kopp's was on Travel Channel's 101 Tastiest Places To Chowdown show last night and it's now on my short list to try out!

boudreaulicious wrote:Scooters re-opens for the season on Friday...

I like Scooter's but I meant to focus on soft-serve as a dessert at trendy restaurants—places like Belly Shack, Xoco and Purple Pig.

aschie30 wrote:Soft-serve is refreshing after a spicy meal, which is not unusual at Momofuku (or at Belly Shack or Xoco). It's also a non-committal dessert - a few spoonfuls if you're sharing and you're done. Not to mention the hard-wired nostalgia inherent in eating soft serve.

Sounds reasonable but isn't that true of ice cream too? And doesn't (good quality) ice cream usually taste better? I haven't tried the soft-serve at any of these restaurants so I really don't know the answer.

happy_stomach wrote:David Tamarkin on the soft-serve trend (no mention of Momofuku)

Thanks for the link. I don't often look at Time Out so I completely missed David Tamarkin's article.

I doubt that Momofuku and Momofuku Milk Bar were the first trendy restaurants to feature soft-serve but I still believe that they were major forces popularizing the stuff as a dessert course. I don't find it surprising that Belly Shack was one of the first Chicago restaurants to sell it. Bill Kim seems to have been somewhat influenced by David Chang's places.

eatchicago wrote:I think it Pinkberry has much more to do with it than Momofuku.

I think you're right to cite Pinkberry. This chain got people used to paying big bucks for a small dish of soft-serve (frozen yogurt in this case). Selling a similar product as dessert in popular restaurants seems like the logical next step. This is the step I'm wondering about—when did this once lowbrow dessert become a hot item as dessert? I'm suggesting Momofuku played a big role but I'm open to other ideas.

spinynorman99 wrote:I think the boom in gelato and Iron Chef have a lot to do with it. I was at the Restaurant Show last year and there were more gelato booths than just about any other item. Batch freezers are so ubiquitous now that any chef with an inclination to do so can run a quick batch of any flavor combo that comes to mind, so it's a way to put their own stamp on a familiar dessert. And viewers of Iron Chef are used to the contestants throwing everything they can find into a batch freezer and possibly wondering "what would that taste like?" so the adventurousness of the "foodie" crowd can now extend to soft serve.

That's interesting gelato was everywhere at the Restaurant Show. Gelato (upscale ice cream) is exactly the type of dessert one might expect to see at places like Belly Shack, Xoco and Purple Pig. Maybe gelato is too common now and good ol' soft-serve has become trendy? The scale of frozen dairy desserts becomes inverted.

Am I correct that gelato and soft-serve are made with quite different equipment? I wonder if anyone knows the ingredient costs for soft-serve versus gelato or high-quality ice cream. I'm guessing soft-serve is significantly cheaper. Maybe this is a case, like poutine, of taking a cheap, plebeian treat, putting a "gourmet" twist on it and selling it at a steep price. More power to the restaurateurs (I mean that sincerely); they can use more high-margin dishes in these tough times.

I find things like this (eg, the poutine phenomenon) fascinating. I'll be curious to see if this mini-trend continues in Chicago.

Rene G wrote:I wonder if anyone knows the ingredient costs for soft-serve versus gelato or high-quality ice cream. I'm guessing soft-serve is significantly cheaper.

I have a hazy recollection from culinary school (which was admittedly several years ago) that the main distinction between soft serve and regular/hard scoop ice cream is method vs recipe. Soft serve is served/consumed directly out of the machine, where hard scoop is put in the freezer for a few hours or longer before serving. Recipes meant for soft serve don't have to worry about whether they'll become too firm after being in the freezer, but the flip side is that any ice cream recipe can be soft serve. I can't really speak to the gelato part of the question.

eli wrote:

Rene G wrote:I wonder if anyone knows the ingredient costs for soft-serve versus gelato or high-quality ice cream. I'm guessing soft-serve is significantly cheaper.

I have a hazy recollection from culinary school (which was admittedly several years ago) that the main distinction between soft serve and regular/hard scoop ice cream is method vs recipe. Soft serve is served/consumed directly out of the machine, where hard scoop is put in the freezer for a few hours or longer before serving. Recipes meant for soft serve don't have to worry about whether they'll become too firm after being in the freezer, but the flip side is that any ice cream recipe can be soft serve. I can't really speak to the gelato part of the question.

No culinary school for me but I can confirm that the same pint of Scooters out of the machine, once deposited in the freezer, is rock solid ice cream versus the airy, creamy cup eaten in the store. But still wonderful

Not necessarily by definition, but traditionally Dairy Queen's soft-serve was 5% butterfat (that's why they never called it "ice cream."). So compared to ice cream (minimum 10% butterfat), most soft serve is cheaper than ice cream.

However, in industrial ice cream production, product (at 10%+ butterfat) comes out of what is essentially a large soft-serve machine and goes into the package, then gets hardened off in a large freezer room, typically at -40• F.

And the guys who run the freezer room love to take unsuspecting people from the head office into the freezer for extended tours, "forgetting" to give them the heavy parkas that they wear on the job all day long.

Kopp's seems to be branching out into even more delicious flavors. On Easter Sunday, they were serving "Drunken Bunny," raspberry custard into which the servers tossed handfuls of dark chocolate flakes and poured generous dollops of real Chambord as it come out of the machines. Mmmm....

Kopp's flavor forecast

nr706 wrote:And the guys who run the freezer room love to take unsuspecting people from the head office into the freezer for extended tours, "forgetting" to give them the heavy parkas that they wear on the job all day long.

My first job was working in an ice cream parlor in Charlottesville called Chaps and it was pretty common practice to lock new employees in to the walk-in where freshly made ice cream was left to harden.

As far as soft-serve is concerned, I always assumed it was pretty cheap and easy for restaurants to do. Buy mix from the local dairy supplier, add whatever flavoring you want, and let it whir. You don't have to worry about letting it churning it just right before putting in to buckets harden (which affects crystal formation) freezer burn, etc. Making great, consistent, stable ice cream is definitely a skill* and not one that I can see most places wanting to invest perfecting. Turning on the soft-serve machine and letting it rip seems pretty easy.

-Dan

* At Chaps, using the same equipment, same base ingredients, etc., there was noticeable differences in batches made by different people

Unfortuately, even something cheap and easy can be screwed up. Missing our RIP DQ, we tried the soft-serve at Baskin-Robbins. Ugh.

Rene, I wonder if the explosion has to do with the decline and closure of so many DQs and places of their ilk recently. Nothing like a shortage to create a commensurate boom.

Poutine, well, if you don't get it, I can't help you.

I would love to hear about some of the places where you can get soft-serve. I love soft serve and the only soft serve I've seen lately has been in yogurt places and I crave real soft serve ice cream -- especially a nice old-fashioned vanilla/chocolate twist.

I'm not really talking about the higher end places which are dabbling in soft serve for desserts -- but a place where you can get good soft serve ice cream and walk up the block to a nice bench and enjoy.

Scooter's -- i got. Any others that people want to share? Especially any city locations.

Thanks!

Shannon

I don't know if Xoco is "high-end" to you (or just dabbling in soft serve), but I had some fantastic vanilla bean soft serve there during last week's heat wave. There was noticeable vanilla bean in the ice cream, and the maple bacon praline topping was nice balanced; the bacon was restrained in it's porkiness and contributed a sweet-saltiness to the ice cream.

The granddaddy of soft serve as a final course in Chicago is Lou Mitchell's. They've been bringing you a little cole slaw cup's worth to fininsh your meal for decades.

Lou Mitchell's
565 W Jackson Blvd
Chicago, IL 60661
(312) 939-3111

Scooters isn't soft-serve. But the DQ on Southport and Shelly's on Lincoln are. Also, available at the hamburger chain McDonald's.

earthlydesire wrote:I would love to hear about some of the places where you can get soft-serve. I love soft serve and the only soft serve I've seen lately has been in yogurt places and I crave real soft serve ice cream -- especially a nice old-fashioned vanilla/chocolate twist.

I'm not really talking about the higher end places which are dabbling in soft serve for desserts -- but a place where you can get good soft serve ice cream and walk up the block to a nice bench and enjoy.

Scooter's -- i got. Any others that people want to share? Especially any city locations.

Thanks!

Shannon

Not in the city, but the Polar Bear in North Riverside is my go-to for soft-serve.



7901 West Cermak Road
North Riverside, IL 60546-1316
(708) 442-8048

I go to the Polar Bear every now and then, but the goods taste a little artificial to me. My preference in the area is the Tasty Freeze on 26th in Berwyn.

JeffB wrote:Scooters isn't soft-serve. But the DQ on Southport and Shelly's on Lincoln are. Also, available at the hamburger chain McDonald's.

I was just going to ask...does the custard at Scooter's come out of machines? I seem to recall that it doesn't - this is an important point because apparently soft-serve has been added to the no-no list for pregnant women. Something about bacteria and spouts, I don't know.

The frozen custard at Scooters (like all frozen custard, AFAIK) comes out of a machine and is then scooped/troweled into containers or cones afterwards. It isn't soft enough to squirt into a cone as is the case with "soft serve" -- a much different product with a lot more air and a lot less milkfat. Don't know about the pregnant women thing. Might have to do with the fact that custard also has egg yolks, another big difference.

Pregnant women aren't supposed to eat soft serve because of higher risk of coliform bacteria.

I ate it when I was pregnant and lived to tell the tale, and Gracie only has twelve toes. Well, for now...

sweetsalty wrote:Pregnant women aren't supposed to eat soft serve because of higher risk of coliform bacteria.

I ate it when I was pregnant and lived to tell the tale, and Gracie only has twelve toes. Well, for now...

The advisory is due to listeria concerns, not coliforms.

Why Might Soft-Serve Ice Cream Contain Listeria?

The machines used to dispense soft-serve ice cream might be cleaned every day but this cleaning does not necessarily sterilize the equipment. Ice cream is coming out of this machine through small tubes and might get stuck within tiny crevices in the machine itself that are not easily reached for cleaning. As this happens over and over and the old ice cream sits for long periods of time bacteria such as Listeria can begin to grow, contaminating the food product as it is dispensed and then eaten.

http://prenatal-health.suite101.com/art ... _pregnancy

Yeah, I knew that about the listeria - I'm just trying to figure out if I can eat custard or not We're in STL right now and I'd love to go to Ted Drewe's! If, you know, it would be prudent to do so.

Call me a David Chang groupie but that red velvet cake soft serve I had last week was awesome. It made me want to try the crack pie (and a few more pork buns). It would be nice if his influence rubbed off on a place or two here.

The crack pie is truly wonderful - although Hoosier Mama's sugar pie can match it bite for bite. I liked the Red Velvet soft serve, but found it a little heavy. The idea is wonderful, but the delivery only very good.