THE TURKISH ICE CREAM THAT DOESN’T MELT

Chewy and stretchy aren’t usually word used to describe ice cream. But, then again, this isn’t your normal ice cream at all.

In Turkey, there’s an ice cream factory that’s been around for decades, and they produce five tons of Maras ice cream per hour. Yes, per hour. It’s a family owned and run business in its fourth generation of ice cream makers.

So, what makes this family’s ice cream so unique that it’s often cut with a butcher’s knife instead of scooped?

For starters, they use goat milk instead of cow milk. These goats roam around in the Ahir Mountains, where they eat plants like tragacanth and herbs like thyme. This adds to their milk’s distinct flavour.

The second ingredient that adds to the Maras ice cream’s distinctiveness is the sweetener. They argue that not every sugar has the same standard and that’s why they only use a specific sugar in the ice cream. They analyse all the different types of sugar they receive in their lab and only then decide which factory’s sugar they’ll use.

The third ingredient is where the magic happens. Salep is the root of wild orchid, and that’s what gives the ice cream its elasticity and aroma. Hand churning the ice cream also adds to its elasticity, something that Maras find helps a lot.

Goat milk, specific sugar and salep. Now those are ingredients we wouldn’t have used to make ice cream, but we definitely can’t wait to try it someday.

Watch the Great Big Story video below to see how this stretchy and chewy Maras ice cream is made in Turkey.

Image credit: Epicurious