Low Carb Prosciutto Ice Cream

Humphry Slocombe is another in a long line of trendy ice cream shops that have cropped up in the last few years. They offer unique and exotic flavors and have their own recipe book for the home enthusiast. One ice cream flavor stood out to me among the rest: Boccalone Prosciutto Ice Cream.

Yeah, you heard that right. Prosciutto. This flavor is economical for them since the pork they use is from scraps. Those bones with unsellable meat chunks are probably procured for pennies compared to the price you’ll pay at the deli for the regular stuff. The prosciutto I bought wasn’t very fatty. I suspect it would be very difficult to get prosciutto as fatty as theirs since a lot of fat isn’t desirable to most people. (The fools!) Their recipe calls for 4 ounces, but I used an entire 6 ounce package in an attempt to extract as much fat from the meat as possible. Therefore, buy the cheap stuff since it ought to be fattier. Do not add any salt to the ice cream mix as the prosciutto will provide more than enough.

I thought for sure this recipe would involve “brewing” the prosciutto for an hour in a hot cream and milk solution. Instead, the pork and spices are left to sit in a cold ice cream base for days. I used an empty pickle jar to store the mix in my refrigerator for a week. I figured the airtight seal of a jar would prevent a skin to form on the high fat cream mix.

Even though I should have had more than enough mix to make a quart of ice cream, I only ended up with about a pint and a half of ice cream. I suspect there was a lot of loss in the transfer between the containers and in the straining of the solids.

Side note: The recipes in the Humphry Slocombe book use a sweet cream base containing 1 cup of sugar instead of the ¾ cup most others use in their ice cream base. I’m not suggesting to add more sweetener to the Low Carb Sweet Cream Base. It’s just an observation.

The ice cream isn’t bad. It’s definitively tasty. I just don’t know if I’d make it again.

Ingredients

Low Carb Sweet Cream Base without salt
4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, as fatty as possible
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon black peppercorn

Directions

1. Put the container for the ice cream including its cover upright in the freezer now. This serves two purposes: it keeps the container cold and it forces you to make sure that there’s space in the freezer.
2. Follow the instructions for the Low Carb Sweet Cream Base except leave out the salt.
3. Fry the prosciutto in a pan over medium heat. Break the slices apart as you sauté them until the fat is cooked out of the pork.
4. Add the fried prosciutto to the ice cream mix, making sure to scrape in all the crunchy bits that may have stuck to the bottom of the pan and, yes, all of the rendered fat goes in there, too. (This is where all of the flavor is, people. Fat is flavor.) Add the fennel seed and peppercorns and stir a little to distribute everything evenly. Cover the bowl tightly and steep in the refrigerator for at least 2 days, stirring once or twice each day. You can let this go on for up to 7 days.
5. When you’re ready to make the ice cream, use a fine-mesh strainer to filter out all the solids.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Press all the liquid out using a silicone spatula into a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup. Pour into your ice cream maker and spin according to the manufacturers instructions. Eat immediately, or transfer to an airtight container, cover, and freeze for up to 1 week.