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It's a new one on me. We noticed that a small gourmet bakery near us had signs saying that they were going to start selling ice cream they made themselves. It was a hot Sunday afternoon, and our AC is temporarily offline, so we decided to give it a try. Turns out they make it to order in small batches. They put a base, which is relatively healthy for ice cream, with the flavoring which is things like chunks of chocolate or pieces of fruit, into a mixer, whip it up and dump liquid nitrogen in to freeze it. Apparenly since it freezes so fast it doesn't get ice crystals and is incredibly smooth. Plus the fresh ingredients make it very flavorful. My wife thought it was the best ice cream she has ever had. Im not sure I would go that far but certainly right up there. Also, a small serving, a small cup worth, so a responsible treat.

Apparently there are places doing this as a franchise and probably other individual sites as well. Is this really new, other than to us? Have others tried this? Thoughts from those who have? Is it all this good?

Flash-freezing with liquid nitrogen is how "Dippin' Dots" are produced. That chain opened its first store in 1988 and now boasts of having "thousands of locations worldwide."

New to you.

The cooking shows have been showing people doing it for a very long while.

If you have access to liquid nitrogen there's tons of videos and recipes online.

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Heh. I don't watch TV. Maybe I should check some out

So you didn't know about the tableside preparation of Bacon and Egg Ice Cream at The Fat Duck?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcmejm27IAY

Apparently the idea has been around for a while. Heston Blumenthal cites a book from 1884 (Agnes Marshall, The Book of Ices) as being an inspiration.

I had this last month.

To give you an idea as to time, they show you a large egg that has been filled with the bacon and egg ice cream base. It's 'cooked' it in a copper pan for a minute or so to produce a silky smooth ice cream.

if you want liquid nitrogen, stop by a local hospital with an open thermos and a styrofoam cup (very important - you cannot close the thermos; N expands as it evaporates and it could explode!). i used to do this in high school whenever i wanted to demonstrate my superconductor. liquid N is a waste product from making liquid oxygen, so they give it away.

I saw this one featured on the Food Network last night: http://icreamcafe.com/

I have been making ice cream this way for 25 years. I have some good recipes, if anybody wants copies send me a PM.

It helps that my company makes the liquid nitrogen (or LIN as we call it).

It is good for freezing off warts as well. The LIN, not the ice cream.

Hmmmm. Liquid N2 causes the ice cream to freeze very fast. Fast freeze means very small ice crystals. That gives a very smooth mouth feel. So you can make a normal recipe ice cream that tastes as though it was made with pure butterfat.

Liquid nitrogen is hard to come by and dangerous to work with. You want face shield, heavy gloves.

How 'bout the same recipe with dry ice? You can get dry ice in the Safeway. I'd like to try a sorbet with a few grams of dry ice in the blender. The dry ice at Safeway is potable. I checked. So there'd be no residual chemical taste.

It mite even leave some residual carbonation in the sorbet. Has anyone tried this?

I believe the fast freezing also stops damage to fresh fruits. Strawberries, for example, come out 'mushy' if you freeze them in a typical freezer, yet come out almost the same as fresh if frozen quickly in liquid nitrogen.