Oyster ice cream: if it’s good enough for Tom Sawyer ...

Though we’re only halfway through the year, I’ve already tasted one of my top dishes for 2018. Have you?

Not surprisingly, I had it when abroad. Things always taste better when we’re on holidays. But saying that, we always go looking for the same things, to comfort or reassure us. In accordance with my own tastes, it had to be oyster and seaweed.

Back in January, on an article on trends for 2018 in this newspaper, I suggested savoury ice-creams would make more of an appearance on our menus.

One such ice-cream I mentioned was oyster ice-cream. The first time I tasted oyster ice-cream was in 2013, at Cook it Raw in Charleston, North Carolina. The chef April Bloomfield paired a smoked oyster ice-cream with a grilled steak. I was amazed at how the singular tastes of oysters and ice-cream merged. I made a few attempts at making a similar ice-cream at Aniar and then forgot about it. How many people desire oyster ice-cream, after all?

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Outstanding

Recently I tasted at another oyster ice-cream in Brae Restaurant in Australia, run by Dan Hunter. It was outstanding. It was covered in dried sea lettuce. Although a symbol of contemporary Australian cuisine, it spoke to me of what Irish cuisine could be. Oysters and seaweed: they are our first foods. They should be our national foods.

The first documented mention of oyster ice-cream comes from 1824. Seemingly, it was a favourite at many 19th-century oyster festivals. In Mary Randolph's cookbook The Virginia Housewife, there is a recipe for this strange saline ice cream.

Such was its fame, oyster ice cream featured in Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  

From the White House to celebrity chef José Andrés's restaurants, oyster ice-cream has made many appearances since its inception. Some have loved it. Some have hated it.

There are many ways to make it, but all involve using the oysters as an egg substitute. Make a regular ice cream and use oysters instead of eggs. It’s that simple.

Whether you serve it with steak, seaweed or asparagus, you’ll be in for a treat.