Extreme Ice Creams

Extreme ice creams are ice creams you invent and make yourself, using a bit of flavour science and a lot of liquid nitrogen. You mix a base of cream or a plant-based alternative with your own choice of flavours, then pour in liquid nitrogen to freeze it in seconds. It's part cooking, part chemistry experiment and all excuse to eat ice cream.

Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen gas cooled until it turns into a liquid, at around minus 196 degrees Celsius. Pour it into an ice cream mix while it's being stirred and it boils away almost instantly, pulling the heat out of the mix as it goes.

That speed is the secret. Ordinary ice cream freezes slowly, which gives ice crystals time to grow. Flash freezing keeps the crystals tiny, so the ice cream comes out extra smooth and creamy. The nitrogen evaporates completely, leaving no taste behind.

And the dramatic fog? That's water vapour in the air turning into tiny droplets as it meets the freezing cold. Basically a smoke machine, but tastier.

Start with the five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (the savoury one). Great flavours usually balance a few of them. Salt makes sweet things taste sweeter, which is why salted caramel works so well. A little acid, like a squeeze of citrus, brightens everything up. Bitterness from dark chocolate or coffee stops things getting sickly.

Then think about aroma, because much of what we call flavour is really smell. Herbs, spices and zests carry a lot of it. Some of the best combinations sound odd until you try them: strawberry with black pepper, chocolate with chilli or basil with lemon. The weirder the better, within reason.

Your Activity Leader kicks off with a crash course in flavour theory and a few taste tests to get your palate warmed up. Then you experiment with ingredients and combinations to create your own mix, however strange. Finally, the liquid nitrogen goes in, the fog rolls out and your creation freezes in front of you, ready to eat. Only the Activity Leader handles the liquid nitrogen.

No lab experience needed, just a sense of adventure and a spoon. You don't need to be a chef either. It's all about tasting, tweaking and trusting your instincts, and the results are often surprisingly good. Occasionally they're surprisingly terrible, which is half the fun. Either way, you'll leave knowing a lot more about why food tastes the way it does.

You might also like Cocktail Mixology, Coffee Brewing and Pickling.

See all Camp Wildfire activities