Fran Magazine: Issue #50

In search of a perfect caramel

You’re reading the FIFTIETH!!! issue of Fran Magazine. There have definitely been more issues than that but this is the “official” 50th. This issue is for paid subscribers. Consider a paid subscription for more access to issues like this one, which features multimedia components.

Housekeeping

I am “getting the light” (comedian term) from Substack telling me this post is too long for email. It’s not even THAT long, but open in browser to experience all of the twists and turns of the following anecdote…

In my spare time

What I’m listening to: In the wake of the New York Ballet’s excellent Copland Episodes, I find myself drawn to the composer’s “Billy the Kid” suite. Phil called it “very literal” — he’s not wrong.
What I’m watching: Skipped the Super Bowl to see Godland, a new film by Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason. Too bad — it’s not very good!!
What I’m eating: Sautéed butter beans with harissa!!!

@johngsCreamy Harissa Beans – Recipe Below – this is the most divine, quick and easy recipe to make after work or for brunch. It only needs a few ingredients and you are on your way to decadent diner heaven. Enjoy x JGS . Serves 2 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling 1 onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced 1 x 400g tin butter beans 1 tbsp rose harissa 80ml double cream The juice of ¼ - ½ a lemon A small handful of finely basil leaves Parm to serve Toast to serve Salt 1. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 minutes until a little golden. 2. Tip the beans and all the liquor into to pan. Add a good pinch of salt and mix well. Bring to the boil and bubble away, stirring occasionally, for 6-7 minutes until the sauce is super rich and thick. 3. Add the double cream and harissa and mix. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 1-2 minutes or until the cream has reduced and is super thick. Add the basil and the juice of ¼ a lemon and mix well. Have a taste and if it needs more lemon, add it in. 4. To serve, spoon over your toast, drizzle over a little oil and rain down the Parmesan. . #comfortfood

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This is not a cooking Substack

Some people will know this, others will not: but I have spent just as much time formally employed by ice cream companies as I have media/writing-focused publications. Such is the way of the world. When I graduated from college at the tail-end a different recession, everyone’s parent was content to say a snide thing about becoming a barista. Alas, I never learned how to make a good cup of coffee — something I am still working on until today — but I know how to scoop ice cream really well.

My proximity to ice cream has granted me superior if not largely useless knowledge about the food: when it’s good, when it’s bad, when it’s lacking the right mouthfeel, when it’s Philadelphia style, etc. But perhaps more essentially, my proximity to ice cream granted me the unique opportunity to enjoy a lot of ice cream breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. The food service landscape of contemporary America does not allow for much time away from the register, and I always hated “bringing a sandwich” with me somewhere. So you make due. In turn, in these long, hot, sticky ice cream summers, I got used to long and short phases, love affairs, trysts with various flavors in various combinations. A vanilla moment, a coffee weekend, the one week where I only had cookies and cream only to never go back to it. Even flavors I was often loathe to enjoy (Jeni’s has their wildberry lavender, Morgenstern’s had (has?) lavender vanilla — generously speaking I would say that I hate lavender as both a flavor and a scent) would make their way into the mealtime routine. But the main reason I suspect that I was able to down just about any flavor at any time of day was not because I was in a strict “food is fuel” mode or because I can just eat ice cream any time (this behavior has not been replicated in my post-food service life) but because I would top every flavor with what is, in my humble opinion, the ice cream topping: caramel sauce.

Caramel sauce is mutable, delicious, consistently textured, and often savory. It can give the most saccharine flavors a sense of depth; it can give the most savory flavors a necessary balance. There’s a high floor — even the cheap shit is pretty good — and a low ceiling — caramel is never “doing too much.” In the way that competitive eaters will dip their hot dogs in water, I began to put caramel on anything I ate to resemble any sense of a pinch of salt. Though I am a long time chocolate lover, I find hot fudge or the miserable “chocolate sauce” to be wholly inconsistent and often not very “chocolate-tasting.” Don’t even think of getting me started on butterscotch — vile. There is nothing more grand than a cheap soft-serve vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of caramel sauce on top, a rare reminder than life is often good.

About eight months ago I started making my own ice cream at home. Please do not even think this will pivot into a small business venture. This is just a fun way for me to do, like, fuck around and churn. I have been accumulating ice cream cookbooks — starting first with custard-based ice creams (eggs) and moving into whatever the other kind is (no eggs). Right now I am working my way through the Salt & Straw book. Do I like Salt & Straw’s ice cream? I am definitely compelled by it, having been to the shops out west a few times. Like Morgenstern’s french fry flavor, I am a bit baffled by their “weirder” entries; maybe I am too old-fashioned to readily accept “potato” as ice cream flavor. Regardless, I have had fun with the book so far, mostly exploring their least labor intensive recipes.

This past week I wanted to make their Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons ice cream, a recipe that requires an ice cream base that is literally salt-flavored with, well, caramel ribbons. To me, the challenging part of this ice cream is incorporating the caramel: you can’t just throw in toppings when the ice cream churns for fear that the topping gets overworked or too mixed in or too frozen in the process. It can’t all be a one pot meal, NYT Cooking!!! Most soft or goopy ingredients get added to an ice cream when it’s being packaged into its storage container. Think about the act of marbling a cake: how delicate you have to weave in another flavor or texture.