{"id":1726,"date":"2005-08-20T19:48:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-20T19:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2005\/08\/20\/on-experimentation-and-an-unexpected-ice-cream-float"},"modified":"2015-09-24T03:54:19","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T03:54:19","slug":"on-experimentation-and-an-unexpected-ice-cream-float","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/08\/on-experimentation-and-an-unexpected-ice-cream-float\/","title":{"rendered":"On experimentation, and an unexpected ice cream float"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experimentation is not my strong suit.<\/strong> On the one hand, this means that I\u2019m every D.A.R.E.<\/a> mom\u2019s dream child, but when it comes to the kitchen, it means that I\u2019m, well, often not so daring.<\/p>\n

In my defense, I come by it naturally. Not only was I an oddly fearful kid\u2014you wouldn\u2019t find me within a 10-foot radius of a worm, much less eating one\u2014but I\u2019m also a baker by nature, precise, obedient, and fiercely devoted to my digital scale<\/strong>. Nurture plays in too: my mother taught me from an early age that a recipe should always be followed faithfully the first time through.* You give it an honest try once, and then you can tinker to your heart\u2019s content\u2014if, of course, you\u2019re into that kind of thing. I\u2019ve been known to throw in an extra handful of candied ginger, yes, or substitute blackberries for blue, but generally, I find a deep and dependable satisfaction in following directions.<\/p>\n

This concept is a source of perpetual amusement for Brandon<\/strong>, who may have never\u2014had I not come along\u2014completed a recipe without at least a tweaking or two. I\u2019m the one hunched over the cookbook; he\u2019s got his fingers in the pot. I\u2019m reaching for the calculator; he\u2019s sniffing at spice jars. I make a pretty souffl\u00e9<\/a>, damn it, but he can spin tamarind, roasted garlic, and Parmigiano Reggiano into a brilliant Italy-meets-India chutney. If I get a gold star for reading comprehension, he gets detention\u2014and then a MacArthur \u201cGenius\u201d Grant<\/a>. It\u2019s all well and good, dear reader: we\u2019re a perfect pair and so on and so forth, blah blah blah. But let\u2019s not fool ourselves: deep down, no one really <\/em>likes a teacher\u2019s pet, including the pet herself, and slavishly following directions only feels sexy if you\u2019re <\/strong>cooking in your underwear<\/strong><\/a>.
<\/strong>
So I\u2019ve been working on it. With Brandon back in New York<\/a>, I have plenty of room\u2014roughly three thousand miles\u2019 worth\u2014for honing my experimentation skills. And with less than two weeks to go before my next visit east, I\u2019m happy to report that I\u2019ve made quite a bit of progress. You can well imagine my delight when I called him to report that I\u2019d tried a new cookie recipe<\/a>\u2014and that I\u2019d tweaked it on the very first go.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally?<\/em> What did you change?\u201d he asked incredulously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the recipe called for two cups of rolled oats, but instead, I used 1 \u00bd cups rolled oats and \u00bd cup quick-cook!\u201d I announced triumphantly. \u201cAnd<\/em> I used muscovado sugar instead of regular light brown!\u201d<\/p>\n

Needless to say, he\u2019s still chuckling to himself.<\/p>\n

But last night, dear reader, I gave the genius reason to be jealous.
It was simple, really. A few weeks ago, we\u2019d picked up a bottle of Black Boss Porter<\/a>, which had since been languishing in my fridge. A big, dark, roasty beer that coats the tongue with a wash of coffee, caramel, malt, molasses, and maple syrup, it\u2019s delicious\u2014but not exactly a prime dinner companion. So it waited, and I wondered. And then I got thirsty, as I\u2019ve been known to do\u2014for dessert.<\/strong> Running with a vague recollection of something strange I\u2019d once read in a restaurant review, I took down a drinking glass and my trusty spring-loaded ice cream scoop. I stacked three golf-ball-size scoops of vanilla bean ice cream in the glass, popped open the porter, and poured. It fizzed; it foamed; it had all the trappings of a real experiment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The first spoonful was luscious, like an alcoholic affogato<\/a>. It was an ice cream float gone guileful, a schoolmarm with a swagger. <\/strong>I dug the spoon in deeper: it was complex, sophisticated, even sultry\u2014but also strangely bitter, peppery, unpleasantly zingy with carbonation. Scooping out the last melting bites of beer-slicked ice cream, I called Brandon to confer\u2014and, of course, to gloat. It was nobody\u2019s unmitigated success, but with a little experimentation, it has potential.<\/p>\n

And if I may be so daring, I think the same can be said of this teacher\u2019s pet.<\/p>\n

(Not Root-) Beer Float<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fittingly enough, this recipe\u2014or rather, rough formula\u2014needs no real directions. Begin by considering your pairings: you\u2019ll need a dark or amber beer with a full, toasty-sweet flavor, and good-quality ice cream. For this first go, I used a bottle of Black Boss Porter, a Baltic porter<\/a> from Poland, and Ben and Jerry\u2019s basic organic vanilla\u2014compelling enough, but a little unbalanced. Next time I think I\u2019ll opt for a coffee or espresso ice cream to better complement the beer\u2019s deep coffee flavors. If we\u2019re tinkering and tweaking on the beer end of the equation, I\u2019d recommend trying ice cream floats with any variety of porter or stout\u2014maybe even a toasty amber or Belgian ale\u2014or, for more tender palates, a fruit lambic, such as Lindemans<\/a>. When it comes to proportions, I found that I liked a high ratio of ice cream to beer\u2014think hot-fudge sundae with beer instead of fudge.<\/p>\n

Whatever you do, scoop, pour, and eat. And tweak accordingly.<\/p>\n

*Bless you, Mom. Next weekend, wanna get crazy and put the measuring cups down the garbage disposal? Don\u2019t worry; we can buy new ones afterwards.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experimentation is not my strong suit. On the one hand, this means that I\u2019m every D.A.R.E. mom\u2019s dream child, but when it comes to the kitchen, it means that I\u2019m, well, often not so daring. In my defense, I come by it naturally. Not only was I an oddly fearful kid\u2014you wouldn\u2019t find me within a 10-foot radius of a worm, much less eating one\u2014but I\u2019m also a baker by nature, precise, obedient, and fiercely devoted to my digital scale. Nurture plays in too: my mother taught me from an early age that a recipe should always be followed faithfully the first time through.* You give it an honest try once, and then you can tinker to your heart\u2019s content\u2014if,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOn experimentation, and an unexpected ice cream float | Orangette<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/08\/on-experimentation-and-an-unexpected-ice-cream-float\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On experimentation, and an unexpected ice cream float | Orangette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Experimentation is not my strong suit. On the one hand, this means that I\u2019m every D.A.R.E. mom\u2019s dream child, but when it comes to the kitchen, it means that I\u2019m, well, often not so daring. In my defense, I come by it naturally. Not only was I an oddly fearful kid\u2014you wouldn\u2019t find me within a 10-foot radius of a worm, much less eating one\u2014but I\u2019m also a baker by nature, precise, obedient, and fiercely devoted to my digital scale. 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