Discussion #2 - Serving...

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Last year, we only put out a handful of flavors at a time. IMO this was a bad idea.

I'm an observer, I watch people, and with fewer tubs of ice cream on the table, I noticed that people were more likely to take two scoops of a single flavor rather than a small scoop of a couple of flavors.
If the ice cream was in one of the yogurt tubs having one person take half the tub was resulting in people (who weren't pushy enough to get in and get some,) not getting any or getting the melted dredges after it was pretty much gone.

The more tubs of ice cream we put out on the tables at once the more likely everyone will get some of the flavors they want to try as people will take smaller servings of multiple flavors so they can,
1. still have a full bowl and 2. get a taste of lots of flavors.

I think the thought in a few people's heads was, "Well, my favorite flavors aren't out, but I like this one flavor that is out so I'll just have a full bowl of this one flavor." Some people like to have full bowls, and if we don't have enough flavors out, they will fill them with what we do put out.

This also begs the question of serving utensils, do we need smaller scoops? tablespoon size, rather than ice cream scoop size?

I personally am in favor of putting out some of the smaller servings mid day/afternoon on Saturday, then putting out whatever is sufficiently frozen, all of it, on Saturday night and again, whatever is left on Sunday.

When we have 80 flavors, and two yogurt size tubs of many of them, putting out 30 or 40 yogurt size tubs for 120 people just doesn't make sense. Also, I got none of the flavors I wanted to really try on Saturday night last year. I had something like a single scoop of one of my own flavors, the rest of the ones I would even consider trying were gone before I got to them. A single yogurt tub is not a lot of ice cream when people take large scoops.

Yeah, this got talked about a bit last year, right after BC. But it's worth bringing it up again, and seeing if we can come up with some ideas so people don't end up feeling gyped.

Hope I'm not out of line in bringing these things up here in this community, but I think we do need to think about how things are done and strive to make them easier and more efficient in an effort to make more people happy.

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

I'd say this is exactly the place to post about this, though I don't have any answers for you. Smaller scoops does sound like a good idea.

(off topic, some day I /still/ need to post my pics from last year)

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

Last year, we only put out a handful of flavors at a time.

they did? It seemed like many many dozens went out at about the same time. Well, maybe I missed that. I love ice cream, but am lactose intollerant and not a fan of weird flavors. Or crowds - so the whole feeding frenzy thing tends to cause me to step back and take pics from a distance. I don't go to Baitcon for the ice cream. (blasphamy? maybe.)

[keith-m043.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall someone floating the idea of maybe getting some large tubs of commercial ice cream to put out with all the homemade flavours to make it less likely that the latter will be overgrazed. Two drawbacks with that idea are 1) some people are very picky about brands of commercial ice cream, 2) that it costs extra money esp. if a more prestigious brand is picked to appease ppl involved in drawback 1.

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

Or we could make a few bigger batches of regular flavors. The burning need to have weird, inedeble, or otherwise surreal flavors seems to miss the idea of being able to actually eat the stuff. I don't really get how the weirder and weirder competition got started.

[naiad.livejournal.com]

How about if everyone who brings ice cream also brings a melon ball scooper for serving?

[larksdream]

Seconded. :P

[quietann.livejournal.com]

agreed.

I think the weirder and weirder competition is a form of dick-waving (from what I have seen, most of the folks who are amking those flavors are guys, guys who dick-wave over all kinds of stuff, so why not ice cream?)

[donnad.livejournal.com]

I agree, simple flavors like vanilla and not-spicy chocolate, maybe Strawberry should get larger batches or maybe a couple batches of similar flavors, (an example would be chocolate and orange chocolate and chocolate mint or vanilla, honey vanilla and vanilla chocolate chip.) Simple flavors that everyone will like in larger quantities.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Nah... A large Part of BC is the homemade ice cream.

another part is the social of curse, but it all started with the ice cream.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

Huh, so that's what I'm doing.

Interesting analysis there. Thanks for sharing it.

[keith-m043.livejournal.com]

I think it's just a matter of home making ice cream giving one the power to make ice cream that one can't get in stores, and that when given that power, one wants to make something that no one has done before. After many years, that's getting kinda hard without using something that either no one has ever heard of, or using stuff that most people wouldn't countenance in ice cream. Anyone remember the cheddar cheese or raw onion ice creams?

[donnad.livejournal.com]

I does appear to be a case of one-upmanship, but not just with the guys, I know some of the women have been trending toward odder flavors as well.

[cutieperson]

right, because it couldn't possibly be about having different tastes, or wanting to flex ones own culinary muscles for the joy of that.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

well.

i see a difference between "a tasting" and "a feeding"...

common flavors made in quanity are fine for a feeding. a lot of people seem to be thinking that. this is good. there's a lot of lactose to go around

for tastings, perhaps a more generous approach of having everyone bring their OWN icecube tray - they don't have to but it keeps the flavors nicer.

having everyone bringing their own scoops is nice, but will involve double-dipping and cross flavor and allergen contamination. not to mention other issues.

portion control: as much as it PAINS me to say it, it would be better to have someone ISSUE the flavors from a container with a single spoon from that container. it controls size, and avoids all the priorly heated issues on contamination (of whatever kind)... yah, it requires someone to dole it out, assembly line style. speaking of which, a couple stations, one single line, just like in school or the army cafeteria. if you want, you point and grab. some will point out that they'll miss out on flavors if they can't willy nilly dive in and out of different tables and assert how aggressive they are. well, that's true. there's not going to be any good way to guarantee you get every last thing you want, in the quantity you want it.

the only other solution would be to have sample (icecube) trays be made in advance, that you can pick up and go. in those cases, you'll get waste, but there won't be mob scenes were the less aggressive or smaller are physically shoved aside.

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[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

in fact, some of the weirder flavors involved greater skill and research than simply waving about a dick, be it bio or silicone.

geeks are weird. go figure.

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[cutieperson]

you're preaching to the choir ;)

dick and nuts

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

mmm, they make little chocolate penisesesae don't they?

perhaps a chocolate dick and nuts sweet cream icecream with a caramel wave.

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Re: dick and nuts

[cutieperson]

i would break my rule about not eating crunchy things in ice cream for that :)

Re: dick and nuts

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

well, they don't have to be hard. in fact, i'd imagine that after vigorous stirring, they'd probably be more ... relaxed :)

i think it's in the nature of chocoate chips in general, that if they are baked first, they'll not be tooth crunchy deadly. this might of course lose form, but would allow the use of regular chips, and one could just SAY they used to be more pronounced before all the action. heh.

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Re: dick and nuts

[cutieperson]

oh, i definitely think the appeal of this flavor would be in seeing the defined bits.

perhaps serve it after midnight, when the younger kids are in bed...?

Re: dick and nuts

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

woo hoo, hey some of them come in a poly bag! ;)

http://www.chocolatefantasies.com/eroticmen.htm

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[ceo]

I think the problem can be at least ameliorated by a combination of more flavors out at once, smaller scoops and some degree of customer education: as in, "please don't take huge amounts of any one flavor!".

Of course, the other part of the problem is overcrowding at the tables. Having someone dole out ice cream strikes me as not really workable: it's inefficient and it's basically treating people like first-graders. It might work, however, to introduce the concept of lining up at each table, like we do for meals. A line on each side of each table would move pretty fast and avoid the pushing and shoving endemic to the current system.

I wonder if there's a better way to announce what flavors are at each table. Calling out the flavors as they're brought out strikes me as kind of useless, as it exceeds most people's short-term memory quite quickly.

And bring on the weird flavors. I love that people are inspired to make prosciutto gorgonzola basalmic fig, even if I had to throw my bowl away after sampling it (in fairness, I'd forgotten that gorgonzola is a cheese I can't stand).

[larksdream]

Some of them have even been trending towards... udder flavors, so to speak. *ducking & running*

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

not to get into whether it's dick waving or not, but some stuff clearly isn't being made with different tastes in mind, but "who can I weird out more". Which is fine, but a bummer if you just wanted some yummy IC.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

Sure, but I don't think that's a problem, except to a select few who need something to gripe about. We made something like 100 flavors last year; the truly weird was an exceedingly small percentage and mostly in small batches. The weird flavors have nothing to do with why you can't get vanilla.

I think it's probably reached a point where Baitcon would benefit by separating out the "extreme" flavors for a separate tasting. That way the squeamish, the food-averse, the intolerant of whatever ingredient, and the people who just plain like to bitch could avoid it, and those interested could try what they liked in a less gangbang-like atmosphere. In more controlled conditions there'd be less chance of cross-contamination as well; I'm psyched someone is going for ceviche sorbet but since it's fatal to several people in the crowd, cleanliness suddenly becomes a much greater issue.