Those of you familiar with old-style cocktails may have heard of one called a "Horse's Neck". This is nothing more than bourbon or rye, topped off with ginger beer and a twist of lemon, maybe a dash or two of bitters. I love these, particularly when made with Cock and Bull ginger beer (but ginger beer will have to wait for another thread) and I got to wondering how the whiskey/ginger flavor combination would work in ice cream. Wouldn't be the same as the drink, of course, given that custard and cream aren't part of the ingredient list, but it still seemed worth a try. I first found a ginger ice cream recipe in my ice cream bible, Ices, by Liddell and Weir. This involves making a ginger simple syrup, adding it to milk, making the custard from that, then straining and adding cream. I found a recipe for whiskey ice cream on Epicurious that recommended flaming the alcohol off of a couple of ounces of whiskey before throwing that into the mix, and then adding a little more unflamed whiskey right before freezing. I put the two recipes together and the results are quite good. The whiskey flavor is subtle, with no booziness. The ginger shows up as a good dose of spiciness in the mid-palate and finish, and it lingers after you finish each bite. If I make it again, I may try to get a little more whiskey in to make that flavor more overt, but I'm very happy with this as it stands.
Horse's Neck Ice Cream
4 tbsp Fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup sugar syrup (5:4 sugar:water ratio)
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 1/4 tbsp (total) rye whiskey (I used Wild Turkey and Vintage Rye)
Place ginger in a small saucepan and add the sugar syrup. Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat. While this is cooking, heat the milk to just below the boil in a separate pan. Remove the milk from the heat, pour it into the ginger syrup, cover, and let infuse for at least 1/2 hour (I did closer to 1 hour).
While this infuses, measure 2 3/4 oz. of rye into a small, shallow pan. Heat to a little above room temp and then touch a match to it to get it flaming. Turn the stove off and let it burn until it stops on its own. Wild Turkey rye is 100 proof, so if you use this prepare for a pretty good flame. Take care that your eyebrows, arm hairs, etc. remain intact.
In a medium-sized heatproof bowl, beat the egg yolks to break them up. Reheat the milk/syrup to just below the boil and then add it slowly to the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Put the pan on very low heat and very carefully cook, stirring constantly, to 185° F or until the custard coats the back of a wooden spoon. (Don't overheat it or you'll curdle the eggs!!!) Once you get the custard heated properly, immediately take the pan off the heat and put the base of it in cold water (I just partly filled my sink from the cold tap). Let cool and then strain through a fine sieve. Add the cream, the flamed whiskey, and the remaining 1/2 oz of unflamed rye. (This is where the Vintage Rye went in.) Chill in the fridge and then freeze in an ice cream maker as per manufacturer's instruction.
I think this would be delicious served with pecan pie and maybe a little diced candied lemon peel on top. Now if I can just get my wife to make the pecan pie....