I had an interesting dish at Movida which was a thin slice of baguette, toasted until crisp, with a rather strong anchovy laid across it (somewhere between the boquerones I'm used to and a salt-cured anchovy), drizzle of olive oil, and a small quenelle of tomato sorbet. Interesting textural, temperature and flavor contrasts all in one bite. Might be worth considering...

As to the textural benefit of sugar in sorbet and ice cream, I remembered reading an entry in On Food and Cooking from Harold McGee which covered this. I managed to find the box (still unpacking) that had my copy and found this:

On Food and Cooking/Harold McGee wrote:The more syrup and plant debris there are, the more the solid crystals are lubricated, the more easily they slide past each other when we press with spoon or tongue, and the softer the ice's texture. Most ices are made with about double the sugar of ice cream (whose substantial fat and protein content helps soften the texture, p. 40), between 25 and 35% by weight.
...
...purees rich in pectins and other plant debris (pineapple, raspberry) require less total sugar for softening. Many cooks replace a quarter to a third of the added table sugar (sucrose) with corn syrup or glucose, which helps soften without adding as much perceptible sweetness.

Based on that, I'd say it would be worth thinking about intentionally including "debris" in your mixes, so purees not infusions. Also, looking at the inclusion of sugars which are less sweet tasting (which - again per McGee - would be ones like Maltose and Lactose). Using emulsifiers to incorporate fats in to the mixes could also work well to smooth things out.

As to d4v3's suggestion of considering stabilizers/hydrocolloids, you might want to check out Texture - A hydrocolloid recipe collection from khymos.org which contains recipes for ice creams and sorbets (including savory ones) using guar gum, lecithin, locust bean gum, etc.

-Dan

Egg yolk functions as the emulsifier in David's recipe. The yolk to saturated fat ratio may need some tweaking (one would assume, less fat, less yolk). As others have mentioned I think a stabilizer of some sort is essential to compensate for the lower concentrations of fat and sugar. Guar gum or locust bean seem the logical place to start. Gelatin would also work. I have seen mastic gum at some middle-eastern groceries. I wonder if that might work? It comes from an evergreen related to pistachio. I really like the piney flavor, and chew mastic chewing gum frequently. It is supposed to have all sorts of curative properties. According to Wikipedia, "Mastic resin is a key ingredient in Dondurma (Turkish ice cream), and Turkish puddings". I think I noticed it in bulk at Arax once, but that was a long time back. Arax is where I buy my Jordanian Mastic chewing gum. I see that I am almost out, so I will check there soon for the powdered stuff. Meanwhile, I think some research into Turkish mastic ice cream is called for.

Hammond,

The Other Dr. Gale and I had din tonight at La Salle Grill in beautiful downtown South Bend (I'm here to give a presentation at a conference at the University of Our Lady : ). One of the apps was Buffalo Skate Wing, with blue cheese ice cream and pickled celery. Very cleverly thought out: the skate was beautifully done, crisp and nice, chewy, as it should be. The blue cheese ice cream was a bit sweet, but most definitely blue-cheesy. It was a marvy match, esp. with the sweet-sour pickled slices of celery. I really rather liked the cold smoothness of the ice cream mingled with the hotness of the buffalo version of the skate wing.

Geo

La Salle Grille
115 West Colfax Ave.
South Bend, IN 46601
(574) 288-1155

Yeah most ices are made with about double the sugar of ice cream so how is it??

Seems to me this has to be called...

wait for it


Sundae Dinner

Very funny, Joel. That's Good Humour.

Please, stop with the puns before I scream.

d4v3 wrote:Please, stop with the puns before I scream.

icy what you did thar.

ah, yes. ice cream is neither ice, nor cream. discuss.


seriously, i like the idea and there's lots of fun potential there. i bought a garage store ice-cream maker and it broke halfway through the first batch, but i'd play along if i had one.

how about beef carpaccio topped with horseradish ice cream?

This guy is more easily frightened than I am. However, the linked article does present quite a number of possibilities for your 7 courses: you could easily do a soup (shark fin, miso, or noodle) salad, beef (or horse,) and fish course (I assume the sorbet palate cleanser and the dessert are easy, but you could do the wasabi and the persimmon)