Ice cream face-off: Lynah Swirl shoots, scores

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

On Monday, the final was sundae.

Students showed off their final projects, Dec. 2 in Stocking Hall, for Cornell's Food Science 101 course -- full-flavored ice creams. This year's winner, according to expert judges: a chocolate concoction called Lynah Swirl.

From right, Lisa Blum '06, Rebecca Markowitz '05 and Brent Borodic '06, students in the Food Science 101 course, sample the various ice cream flavors made for the class's final project, Dec. 2, in Stocking Hall. Blaine P. Friedlander Jr./Cornell News Service

Joseph Hotchkiss, professor and chair of Department of Food Science, teaches the course and divided the class into three teams. To help students understand how the food industry works, each team was given an assignment to develop a marketing and business plan and to make what they thought might be a commercially viable ice-cream flavor. In addition to Lynah Swirl, the other flavors were Caramel Appel and Alpha Pie.

Student projects were scrutinized by some seasoned judges, including Michael Turback, Ithaca restaurateur and author of the new book A Month of Sundaes; Leslie Herzog '77, a food scientist with Unilever/Best Foods N.A., a company that makes Sealtest, Breyers and Ben and Jerry's ice creams; Anthony Kveragas, Cornell chef at North Star in Appel Commons; Kim Bukowski, manager of the Cornell Dairy; and David Brown, senior extension associate in food science.

Caramel Appel, named after North Campus' Appel Commons area, featured an apple-flavored white ice cream with a caramel swirl, chunks of tiny apple and crushed mixed nuts. Like all the student-made ice creams, it had a rich fat content, 16 percent, and a 92 percent overrun, which is the air that tempers the ice cream's richness.

The third ice cream, Alpha Pie, had a vanilla base with apple flavoring, pieces of pie crumbs and a caramel swirl. This apple ice cream also had 16 percent fat content, but an 80 percent overrun, making it less rich.

The hot Cornell hockey team's Lynah "faithful" may appreciate cool Lynah Swirl. It is a rich, smooth chocolate ice cream with a banana pudding swirl, punctuated with intensebrownie chunks. As the winning flavor, it may be available this spring at campus dining halls and at the Cornell Dairy Bar. Work off extra calories now, because Lynah Swirl has a premium 17 percent fat content and 66 percent overrun.

Even winners have problems. While the chocolate was delicious, the banana swirl proved problematic. In producing Lynah Swirl, the banana pudding froze into a solid rock inside the ice cream. "This is a good example of how formulation affects texture," said Hotchkiss. "The chocolate, however, tasted like Häagen Dazs."

Kerry Martens '05, an Alpha Pie team member, explained that the hardest part of developing the ice cream was "trying to balance all the flavors. ... Maybe next time we'll add more flavor and pie crust," he said.