Ice Cream

[mycroft.livejournal.com]

There are a few things I would humbly suggest about the ice cream making process:

1) Use a different labeling mechanism. The clipped on index cards were too prone to falling off. It's also not clear to me that some of the containers were ever labeled in the first place. It's a little more expensive, but Sharpie on colored gaff tape would be a lot more robust. [See addendum.]

2) Have a full ingredient list. One idea I had for this is to use a rolodex. When the ice cream is mixed, it gets numbered, and a rolodex cards gets filled out with the ingredient list. [See addendum.] People can flip through this at their leisure. When the ice cream is served, the card is pulled out and affixed to it at the serving table (or perhaps affixed to the table). Anything without a number doesn't get frozen.

3) What ever happened to the ethereals? Have they been tried with LN2? ISTR they were popular back in the day.

4) Pack some dry ice in the freezer(s) to get things cold. This will require some careful planning so the ice cream isn't too hard at serving time, but it should be workable.

I'm willing to implement any or all or the above.


Addendum:

1) There have been various suggestions of how to affix labels better. Phil's idea (the billboard covering material), in particular, is worth following up on.

2) After some discussion, I think I'm leaning toward putting the ingredient lists in a binder instead. The pages can be taken out and pasted to the tables before serving begins. Again, anything without a number/list doesn't get frozen or served.

3) If someone sends me the recipe(s), I'll try out ethereals and consider reviving them next year.

Also, a point I mentioned in a comment: I suggest doing away with the large buckets, and instead splitting the popular flavors and serving them at multiple tables. I think this would reduce congestion at least a little.

Comments

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, gaff was tried. It kinda works, but not really. The bucket needs to be clean and dry before the tape goes on, and when it gets wet, it's prone to coming off... but it's not an unmanagable failure mode, maybe.

At least the fact that it comes off easy makes clean-up better than if it stuck and wouldn't release. :/

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Yeah, gaff was tried. It kinda works, but not really. The bucket needs to be clean and dry before the tape goes on, and when it gets wet, it's prone to coming off... but it's not an unmanagable failure mode, maybe.

How about putting tape on the buckets before Baitcon starts (or at least before they're used)?

Also, instead of using rolodex, how about a loose leaf binder with 8.5x11" plastic sleeves? Then the folks who prepare ice creams at home, can print out (or write) their ingredient lists (or recipes) at home. Also larger pages are easier to read, and allow for more information to be included (story of why the flavor was inspired?).

[totient]

I have a roll end (that is, a 4 inch wide by ~1000 foot long roll trimmed off a much wider roll) of the plasticized sticker material they use for billboards. It stands up to water, takes ink well, and doesn't disintegrate upon removal (though on many surfaces, it does leave a residue). Will experiment with applying to wet/sweating surfaces and let you know how it goes. The manufacturer (whose name escapes me at the moment, but I'll look it up tonight) is local to Boston and generally willing to give out roll ends for free if you ask.

flexcon busmark

[totient]

The sites I've seen advertising it seem to think it comes in 50-yard rolls, though the roll end I have must be longer than that -- I've used 20 yards of it, and it seems hardly smaller than when I started.

[gingicat]

I know where I can get heavy-duty rubber bands that will fit around the buckets, maybe those could be used to hold the cards on? I could also take the time beforehand to put a stripe down the middle of each one so the rubber band could go over the stripe and not obscure the text.

[totient]

Or you could get some wide rubber band material (or vetwrap!) and write on that.