Frozen Custard

The latest dispute raging in our New York apartment and beyond is over the definition of frozen custard. Some of us believe that once you cross the Mississippi in an eastbound direction, ice cream makers change their recipes and all that soft frozen stuff you buy is, in fact, frozen custard, not ice cream, not soft serve. AND you can tell because it's soooo creamy.

Some of the more cynical members of our group believe that the recipe doesn't change, but that east coast ice cream makers want to (pretentiously) evoke French cuisine even at their (terribly) unpretentious ice cream stands.

Enter the USDA, who says that those who want to call their product frozen custard must add a certain amount of egg yolk to said product.

Naturally after doing all this research, it became imperative to conduct a taste test to see if the fuss was worth the fuss. So Judy, Hal and I trundled off to the Shake Shack near Times Square. We chose the Shake Shack because it belongs to Danny Meyer, restaurateur extraordinaire, and owner of NYC's most popular restaurant (Union Square Cafe). We figured that because Danny Meyer is still in business, he probably follows FDA rules. And he claims to sell frozen custard. (See sign.)














Results? Oops, I've used up my allotted words for the day. But the following picture says it all.