Sriracha Ice Cream

For the past year or so, I have had the idea of savory or savory-inspired ice cream churning in the back of my mind. Pun Intended. Although I don't think I'll go as far as "clam raisin," mentioned in David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, I do have a list of flavors building up:

• Curry, perhaps mixed with rice like a rice pudding ice cream
• Guacamole
• Avocado-Bacon
• Corn/Corn-Bacon
• Pepper
• Goat Cheese (perhaps with honey)
• Pho sorbet
• Lemongrass
• Tomato-Basil soup
• Butternut squash
• Sriracha

As you can probably tell from the title of this post, I started with the bottom of the list. This sriracha ice cream is more "savory-inspired" than actually savory; it contains sugar and vanilla.

The ice cream is sweet, hot, and salty. The first bite is very weird, but I found that I liked it more as I continued to eat it. The spiciness doesn't build up until the third or fourth spoonful, and it never gets unbearable because of the sugar and cream. This flavor is definitely worth trying if your are a Sriracha fan.

When I brought this to the dorm lounge, I got mixed reactions. My roommates actually liked it, but one of my friends literally spat out the ice cream, drank some soda, spat that out too, and then had a cookie to make sure all traces of the ice cream were gone. It was quite a show. I recommend offering this ice cream to people under the name "Mango Ice cream" and taking pictures of their faces as they dig in enthusiastically.

You may be wondering, how does one make this strange ice cream? Since I don't have a kitchen this year, I opted for a "philadelphia-style" cream. That means that instead of making a custard by cooking egg yolks in milk, I just added some flavor to cream and froze it. I went off of the recipe I found here.

Sriracha Ice Cream

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk (fat percentage is not very important)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2tbsp to 1/4 cup sriracha (rooster sauce), to taste
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Make sure the frozen part of your ice cream maker is frozen.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, sriracha, and vanilla. 



It looks like blood-spattered snow...

3. Stir well.






4. Add the cream and milk, stir until the sugar is dissolved






5. Add more hot sauce or sugar to taste.
6. Put in the ice cream machine and churn for 20 minutes.
7. Transfer soft serve ice cream to a container and freeze for at least 3 hours.

The freshly churned cream is much lighter in color than the frozen ice cream (top)

The churned ice cream will have a strange sticky texture, but it will feel fine when eaten. Enjoy! (Or psych out your friends.)