Why is my icecream bitter?
I am new to making homemade ice cream. I just started to feel confident with plain vanilla, so it was time for the next step - adding fruit.
The custard recipe says it can be turned into fruit ice cream by adding 30g pureed fruit per yolk. I looked into the basket for a fruit likely to make a good puree, and settled for a honey dew melon. I made the custard base (yolks, cream and sugar with a pinch of salt), and, because I wanted more fruit taste, made 50g of melon puree per yolk and thickened it with a bit of guar gum, because I feared crystals from the rather liquid melon. I added the melon to the prepared custard, it wasn't exposed to heat.
After chilling and transferring to the freezing plate, I indulged in licking the thermometer, spoon and bowl used for the making of the ice cream. I was unpleasantly surprised at the lack of melon aroma and strong bitter taste. It was as if I was chewing the seeds of the melon, although there were none in the ice cream, I am sure I'd have seen them if they had fallen into the puree. Combined with the overbearing sweetness of unfrozen ice cream, I thought of throwing the batch out. But I froze it anyway. Frozen, there is much less bitterness (and of course much less sweetness), it tastes as if I am eating a raw gherkin. In fact, if I didn't know that there is melon in there, I probably wouldn't have recognized. It is eatable, but not especially good.
The aroma problem was solved when I ate a piece of the melon: this exemplar must have grown in a dark greenhouse. It was watery, only a hint of sugar content, only a hint of aroma. But it wasn't bitter, just tasteless.
But I am still wondering what went wrong. Does melon react with guar to create a bitter compound? Does melon react with cream to create a bitter compound (I know kiwies do, but melons?) Was there so much heat in the custard base as to cook the melon, and does cooked melon taste bitter? Would a better melon have made a difference, or would it have been bitter, sweet and aromatic at the same time? Is melon generally unsuitable for making ice cream?
Best Answer
This is about a melon-milk shake that I made previously. I don't know if it applies. Melon has a reaction when mixed with milk which causes the taste to become bitter. When freshly made it tastes okay, but when left for some time (a few hours) it gets bitter.
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Why is my homemade ice cream bitter?
Melon has a reaction when mixed with milk which causes the taste to become bitter. When freshly made it tastes okay, but when left for some time (a few hours) it gets bitter. Changing this answer to the accepted one, because after some experiments mixing milk an melon puree I could reproduce the problem.Why does my chocolate ice cream taste sour?
Acid/sour flavours are more rare these days due to the growth of proteolytic psychrotrophs during storage at elevated temperatures, rather than lactic acid bacteria. Salty: Ice cream too high in milk solids-not-fat. ... Induced by the presence of copper or iron in the mix or from the milk itself.Why is my pineapple ice cream bitter?
Pineapple contains active enzymes that can derail some recipes. For example, if you cook the fruit with milk or cream, the mixture will become bitter. You can avoid this by just pre-cooking the pineapple and then adding it to the cream/milk recipe.How do you make homemade ice cream creamy and not icy?
Harold McGee, a food scientist, recommends substituting 1 Tbs. of honey for 2-1/2 Tbs. of sugar in ice cream. Adding a liqueur or wine to an ice-cream mixture will make it softer because alcohol, like sugar, lowers the freezing point of a liquid.How to Reduce Bitter Taste - 9 Ways to Reduce Bitter Taste in Any Food - Fitness and Nutrition Guide
More answers regarding why is my icecream bitter?
Answer 2
It's no surprise to me that you describe the final taste as being similar to a raw gherkin, because both melons and gherkins are closely related to the cucumber.
Melons actually do have bitter notes; according to McGee, they contain "green, grassy compounds" as well as sulfur compounds, the latter being the same sort of thing you'd find in garlic.
Since melons only get sweeter on the vine, I would assume that the general blandness was caused by the melons being harvested too early and possibly sitting on the grocery store shelf for a long time.
If there was noticeable bitterness beyond what you tasted in the raw fruit, it was probably just because you got a concentrated dose of it in puree form. Overcooking it would also increase the bitterness, but you say it wasn't exposed to heat (could the custard still have been very hot when you incorporated the melon?).
There is no way it was a reaction with guar gum - it's a very common additive in melon-based drinks and desserts. It's also extremely unlikely to have been a normal reaction with the cream; I've made melon mousse and other dairy items with melon and never noticed any kind of unusual bitterness.
The only other possibility I can think of is that there may have been a problem with the cream itself. This varies quite a bit from brand to brand and region to region, but most of the time, the "cream" you buy does not just have cream in it; for example, I'm looking at a typical supermarket carton that contains cream, milk, skim milk powder, dextrose, and a bunch of E numbers, and even some sodium citrate. These creams can easily take on bitterness before they go sour. So if you were using the typical supermarket brand of heavy cream, and it was sitting in your fridge for a while, that may have been a contributing factor.
All in all, I think it was probably a very random and unfortunate combination of factors that would have been due to the specific ingredients used rather than the types of ingredients. I doubt you'd get the same results if you tried again with fresh melons, cream, and eggs.
Answer 3
I would like to answer your question based on my personal experience with honeydew melon, because I always want to prepare honeydew melon when it is available in the market. Adding sugar and water to the melon will not introduce bitterness in the mixture, however the moment I add milk (evaporated or condensed) and after mixing, the result will be a bitter mixture. So there is really a negative result combining milk and honeydew melon.
Answer 4
After reading all questions and answers I am still left with out an answer to my question.
I have made pineapple ice cream and papaya ice cream and to my astonishment it was so bitter! I used fresh pineapple, it came out bitter with the custard base, then I used the one from the tins and it was perfect. So I went and do a research and found out that when using fresh pineapples you should first cook it with some sugar. I have not tried it as yet.
As to the papaya I was so disappointed. The pureed papaya was not bitter, the custard was not bitter, and when I combined the fruit with the custard it was not bitter! But while in the Ice Cream maker I tasted it and could not believe what I tasted so I tasted again and it was very bitter, more than the pineapple, so maybe I have to cook the papaya with sugar first too.
I hope this info is of some use to others.
Answer 5
I had the same exact problem with both melon ice creame and pineapple ice cream. I tasted the ingredients before mixing them (cold). The bitterness came after the mixture left sit in the refrigerator for a while. I suspect the fruites had a chemicals reaction to stainless stell pot I left the mixture in but not sure what caused it....
Answer 6
Melon should be fine in ice cream, I think yours was just a bad specimen. While you say it was not as bitter fresh it still was not a tasty melon, its possible that during the puree/ice cream making process the combination of ingredients enhanced the bitterness.
Your best bet would be to try again but insure that the melon you start with is good and sweet. I have never used guar gum making ice cream before, so I don't know if you are better off leaving it out or not.
Answer 7
I had a similar problem with pineapple ice cream and found this: http://www.all-about-food.org/tips/faq/milk-become-bitter-kiwi.php
From this page:
Why does milk become bitter if you add kiwi?
If you combine milk, yogurt or curd with fresh kiwifruit, it will become bitter and viscous.
The reason for this unpleasant effect is due to the proteolytic enzyme actinidin of the kiwifruit. This enzyme breaks down milk proteins (casein) into smaller sub-units (peptides, amino acids), which are responsible for the bitter taste. Pineapple and papaya can also make milk taste bitter because of its proteolytic enzymes bromelain (in pineapple) and papain (in papaya).
Answer 8
I just made cantaloupe gelato base for the first time and had this problem too. I added a bit more sugar and some lime juice and so far it's much more edible, lol. Bitter flavors are usually basic, so maybe the acid is helping neutralize it?
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