Lunch with the Milkmade

   It is not everyday that you get to visit New York City. But those days are not such a fantasy far away when one of the Shirey Brothers, Austin, our Head of Research-NYC, Special Ingredient Curator, and Head of Networking, lives there, working there full time for Shireshack and only part-time for his real job. 

   It is also not everyday that you get to meet, let alone sit down with, someone who has cracked the impermeable pages of the New York Times.



(photo by John Makely - MSNBC)



Meet Diana Hardeman. She is the founder/operator of the New York City-based ice cream biz, Milkmade. But she does not run the typical ice cream shop with white walls, colorful design schemes, freezing air, and the smell of vanilla waffle cones. In the summer of '09, Diana purchased a small ice cream maker (a Cuisinart like the one I use), and talked with local farmers and businesses about partnerships. She set up a subscription-based ice cream business, meaning you sign up for a three month subscription and receive three pints of ice cream hand-delivered to your door; she makes two different flavors for each month (flavors that reflect the season: i.e. Red Velvet Cake during February/Valentine's Day), of which you get to choose one. 

   To say it blew up would be an understatement. She currently has a waiting list of over 1,500 people in the NYC area. Unbelievable. Recession? Ice cream does not know what the word means. Nor do I.

   Although other businesses boast their "hand-crafted" ice creams, Diana is the only true claimer of this. Still, with people beating down her door to get her ice cream, she makes her flavors in small batches, and everything sourced locally and naturally. All her ice creams are rooted in creativity and nostalgia, the very two points upon which my own ice cream is based.

   One other thing that sets Milkmade apart and makes her so unique is her faithfulness to local businesses. She lives by the motto "keep it local". And this promotes partnerships and interconnected opportunities for success. She sources most of her chocolates from Mast Brothers in Brooklyn; homemade pop tarts from Pies 'n' Thighs also in Brooklyn. It is this kind of thing that unites a business community, providing everyone involved with advantages.

   Well Diana is extremely busy, what with her growing fame, meeting with people from the New York Times, local businesses, making 20 different flavors in a weekend just to test them out, and let alone crafting 150 pints a month. But she found time in her schedule to sit down over lunch with Austin and I in Hearst Tower, where Austin works for his real/not as important job.

   She began by asking us questions, probably to see where exactly we stood in terms of ice cream making and our knowledge of the art. I like to think we surprised her a bit with how well informed and well versed we are in the art and the processes there of. She did this, I think, to determine whether or not she could talk about why honey makes ice creams icier, or how to make fruit ice creams less icy. Thankfully we passed the test because we did eventually tackle those topics.

   Diana answered all of our questions without a trace of snobbishness or a you're-just-a-small-ice-cream-maker-who-doesn't-know kind of attitude. She was very helpful, and explained different techniques that I am anxious to try this fall. And what I am still most impressed with is the fact that she was willing to sit down with us for over an hour, to explain certain things that will help me in furthering my own flavors and recipies.

   We had the same view and ideas about what and how ice cream is and shoud be. It is about the ingredients. It is not a cookie-cutter recipie that can be applied to every flavor. Fruit ice creams have to be made differently than more substantial ice creams (i.e. chocolate or peanut butter). 

   She was generous enough to bring us two pints (that equallys about $34 for members): Salted Caramel with chocolate cookies and Strawberry Shortcake. The Salted Caramel was a flavor she made for a Google meeting that hired her as one of their daily chefs. Most impressive. 

   The Salted Caramel was one of the best flavors I have ever had. Last week I was in the San Francisco area, so of course I tried the local fare. I went to Bi-Rite Creamery, a nationally famous ice cream shop, and got five flavors (I couldn't leave without getting a complete experience). But what I was most interested in trying was their Salted Caramel, which is their most famous flavor and is what they are nationally known for. Milkmade's blew it away. Bi-Rite's was a bit too burnt and tasted a tad bit smokey because of it. There is a fine line between caramel and burnt caramel, and Diana found this line and now walks it, never straying into burnt caramel or undercooked caramel. She nailed it. It was the perfect blend of sweet and salty, which is one of the greatest combinations known to food. And unlike Bi-Rite, who thought their flavor was well enough on its own, Diana threw in homemade chocolate cookies for a much-needed, well-thoughtout crunch. As I always say, "A crunch in ice cream does wonders for how well it is recieved." It makes all the difference in the world.

   Oddly, I did this same thing several weeks ago before I had tried either of their flavors. With my pint of Salted Caramel from Talenti, I threw in pieces of crushed up Oreo cookies. This is essentially the same thing Diana did. Her homemade chocolate cookies were basically Oreos. A very good combo.

   As I have stated before, I am not big on fruit ice creams. I find them less satisfying than denser, more substantial ice creams like Salted Caramel or Peanut Butter. But Diana gave me something unlike any other fruit ice cream I have ever had. Her technique is simple: more fruit, more fruit, more fruit. Fruit ice creams often come out weak, but by her philosophy, that is impossible. She dumps loads of strawberries into a pot on a stove, pours in cups and cups of sugar, and cooks it down to a sweet, thick, fruit syrup, and then blends it into the cream base. She is rewarded with a deep reddish-pink ice cream that knocked my socks off. (I mean, have you ever seen strawberry ice cream with that kind of color?)

   After retrieving my socks, I dug back in. It was the densist, richist fruit flavor I have ever had (I know that phrase keeps coming up, but I can say nothing less about this ice cream). The shortbread pieces, from SCRATCHbread in Brooklyn, were like little pockets of dry, crumbly gooness that balanced out the fruity sweetness. Sure it was icier than the Salted Caramel. That is unavoidable unless a bunch of unatural things are thrown in. But I would by no means call it icy.

   After having Milkmade's ice cream, I will use it as a metric with which to compare all other ice creams to. It was super creamy. She nailed the texture, and that is crucile in this line of work.

   She is working on shipping her pints with dry ice, so if she ever stars shipping nationwide, I would highly recommend signing up. I know I will.

-Reese O'Shirey, Esq.