post-baitcon feedback

[quietann.livejournal.com]

My personal issues with baitcon are in my personal journal; however, there are a few things that IMHO need to change:

• Separate dishes/mixing equipment/etc. for any ice cream product containing meat. There are a lot of people involved who nominally keep kosher, and it's discomfiting to know that one's ice cream might have been prepared using the same equipment as, say, the chicken liver ice cream. (for that matter, I'd just ban meat-containing flavors entirely, but that's not my decision to make.)
  
• More whole wheat (not just wheat, whole wheat) bread, less white bread. We ran out of whole wheat by lunch on Saturday. (this suggestion passed on from Gregorian, who was amazingly polite about it, but still really would have preferred whole wheat bread for his peanut butter sandwich...)
  
• More tarpage for shade protection (may not be an issue if baitcon isn't at Mink Hollow anymore, but...)
  
• Re-reinforcement of the "modest dress" (ahem) requirement in and around the main area. There was one person in particular who seriously violated this. (insert serious snarkage here; I am trying to be polite.) Dancing naked in the rain, as usual, should be granted leniency.
  

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

:half smile: Perhaps the most disturbing thing for me about the Gorgonzola Prosciutto Balsamic Fig ice cream was that the balsamic figs disturbed me more than did the prosciutto.

I ended up giving my Baitcon cookbook to my friend who I visited down the road. 70 years old, running a farm by herself, and way totally chuffed by the recipes in the book. She commented that a goat cheese/prosciutto (perhaps ice cream) mix stuffed into figs might be a really good thing.

And yes, I liked the chicken liver ice cream and agree with [I forget who] that it tastes like it wants to be on bagels. Maybe a little more pureeing, somehow.

I completely agree that nothing should be banned. I can see it being worthwhile to separate non-milk from milk from meat flavours, such that one doesn't get the one in the other.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

Well, to second Scott, I've never made a flavor at Baitcon as a gross-out or practical joke, and the Gorgonzola/Prosciutto/Fig wasn't intended in that way either. I love that combination of flavors and I wanted to prove that a savory ice cream could work. In hindsight, given the limited flavor boost added by the prosciutto, I would skip it in future versions and thus make it safe for non-meat and non-pork eaters. On the other hand, the flavor that didn't make it to this Baitcon was "Bacon", so the problem may crop up again in the future.

As far as the combo itself, it's not mine; Todd English used to serve a pizza with those components at Figs and included it in the restaurant cookbook. For me, it's the fig jam that makes the whole thing work, the acid cuts the fat of the cheese and meat and adds sweet/sour to the salt. I'm curious, what didn't you like about the figs in particular?

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

I really couldn't taste the prosciutto either.

I didn't hate the figs or anything, but the big chunks of balsamic soaked figs were very strong compared to the rest of the ice cream, to the point where I found them overpowering. Smaller pieces might have worked better.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I tried the balsamic figs by themselves and thought they were fabulous. :) If the ice cream hadn't had prosciutto in it, I would have tried it. Chevre and fig ice cream might be interesting, too.

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

And yes, I liked the chicken liver ice cream and agree with [I forget who] that it tastes like it wants to be on bagels.

that might have been me. also for the record, i didn't think the Chicken Liver was *bad* per se, just contextually wrong. I mentioned that it would be interesting to try as a spread on bagels or toast or something.