edible Marin and Wine Country Summer 2010 : Page 56

THE SCIENCE OF SCREAM BY ANDREA BLUM based in Emeryville has set out to produce the best sorbet in the world. Lucky for us, the delicious fruit of their labors can be found at 30 different farmers’ markets in the Bay Area, including three in Marin County. S The inspirations behind this sorbet are the highest quality fruits and nuts, sourced for their flavors and sugar content and broken out of their familiar forms, transformed into the smoothest frozen dessert you are ever likely to place on your tongue. It’s an experience of an unconventional kind and, for the owners of the two-year old business, it’s like a never-ending treasure hunt. I met Noah Goldner, a former stock analyst from New York City with endless enthusiasm, one morning at the Marin Civic Center Farmers’ Market in San Rafael. He’d been casting about the stands for something special. But, unlike a typical shopper looking for a flawless looking piece of fruit, Goldner was searching purely for flavor. “That’s how we found our yellow limes,” he said, referring to the main ingredient of one of their brilliant flavors. He expressed his subjective bias one day by handing me a tangerine. My mouth puckered when I tasted the citrus, but the flavor was pure tangerine and invigorating. “We aim for a certain level of sugar,” said Goldner, measuring the tangerine’s juice with a refractometer, a device normally used by winemakers to test sugar levels in grapes. Then he 56 | EDIBLE MARIN & WINE COUNTRY SUMMER 2010 cream is a sorbet unlike any you have ever tasted. Using fruit, a freezer and an alchemic machine that transforms flavored ice into cream, a trio of partners scooped several tastes for me from a small freezing contrap- tion designed by his business partner and founder of Scream, Nate Kurz—a renaissance man of sorts and a physicist with an inventor’s sensibility. The first taste—pistachio with a hint of sea salt—stunned my senses. It seemed impossibly smooth, even creamier than gelato, and with more intense flavors. It reminded me of the fresh nuts I’d eaten during a trip to eastern Turkey, hand-picked right off the trees—only this pistachio had the texture of cool crème fraiche. This was ice? It had no hint of water. “This is sorbet?” I asked. “No cream?” Scream’s flavors are a mix of intensity made possible by the quality of the fruit and nuts that are visually sourced each week, and by a machine known as the Pacojet. Back at the Scream kitchen, a space rented after hours from caterer Paula Leduc, enters Stephanie Lau, an anthropolo- gist turned pastry chef who develops the Scream flavors by literally “playing” with her food. The day I was there she was cutting up fresh guavas and testing their sugar before deep- freezing the mix. Interesting foods and ideas come out of an abundance of raw materials. The Bay Area and Northern California are veri- table crucibles. Yet, unbeknownst to most of the shoppers walking by at the farmers’ market, an innovation in sorbet previously only available to diners at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry or those fortunate enough to dine at Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli in Spain, is now readily and affordably available right here at our local markets. To understand what makes Photos: Joey Celis, Joricel.com , except center, top: Andrea Blum

THE SCIENCE OF SCREAM

ANDREA BLUM

Scream is a sorbet unlike any you have ever tasted. Using fruit, a freezer and an alchemic machine that transforms flavored ice into cream, a trio of partners based in Emeryville has set out to produce the best sorbet in the world. Lucky for us, the delicious fruit of their labors can be found at 30 different farmers' markets in the Bay Area, including three in Marin County. The inspirations behind this sorbet are the highest quality fruits and nuts, sourced for their flavors and sugar content and broken out of their familiar forms, transformed into the smoothest frozen dessert you are ever likely to place on your tongue. It's an experience of an unconventional kind and, for the owners of the two-year old business, it's like a never-ending treasure hunt. I met Noah Goldner, a former stock analyst from New York City with endless enthusiasm, one morning at the Marin Civic Center Farmers' Market in San Rafael. He'd been casting about the stands for something special. But, unlike a typical shopper looking for a flawless looking piece of fruit, Goldner was searching purely for flavor. "That's how we found our yellow limes," he said, referring to the main ingredient of one of their brilliant flavors. He expressed his subjective bias one day by handing me a tangerine. My mouth puckered when I tasted the citrus, but the flavor was pure tangerine and invigorating. "We aim for a certain level of sugar," said Goldner, measuring the tangerine's juice with a refractometer, a device normally used by winemakers to test sugar levels in grapes. Then he scooped several tastes for me from a small freezing contraption designed by his business partner and founder of Scream, Nate Kurz–a renaissance man of sorts and a physicist with an inventor's sensibility. The first taste–pistachio with a hint of sea salt–stunned my senses. It seemed impossibly smooth, even creamier than gelato, and with more intense flavors. It reminded me of the fresh nuts I'd eaten during a trip to eastern Turkey, hand-picked right off the trees–only this pistachio had the texture of cool crème fraiche. This was ice? It had no hint of water. "This is sorbet?" I asked. "No cream?" Scream's flavors are a mix of intensity made possible by the quality of the fruit and nuts that are visually sourced each week, and by a machine known as the Pacojet. Back at the Scream kitchen, a space rented after hours from caterer Paula Leduc, enters Stephanie Lau, an anthropologist turned pastry chef who develops the Scream flavors by literally "playing" with her food. The day I was there she was cutting up fresh guavas and testing their sugar before deep-freezing the mix. Interesting foods and ideas come out of an abundance of raw materials. The Bay Area and Northern California are veritable crucibles. Yet, unbeknownst to most of the shoppers walking by at the farmers' market, an innovation in sorbet previously only available to diners at Thomas Keller's French Laundry or those fortunate enough to dine at Ferran Adrià's El Bulli in Spain, is now readily and affordably available right here at our local markets. To understand what makes Scream so smooth, we need to look to the futuristic world of the Pacojet, an ice cream-making technology that, as its name suggests, has common roots with the jet engine. "It's crazy what comes out of here," said Goldner, as he turned on one of the five Swiss-made machines the size of a coffee maker. The machine began to literally scream in the background. The Pacojet blade spins at about 2,000 revolutions per minute, shaving off layers of the frozen mixture that comes out of Kurz's freezing "contraption" at -10F. It shaves it to a width of 2 microns–a microscopic one millionth of a meter. A one-quart canister takes four minutes to process. A single serving like the perfectly textured scoop Goldner served me takes just 20 seconds. The Pacojet has turned the frozen mixture of only nuts or fruit, sugar and a little water into a smooth blend of packed, unadulterated flavor. "That is perfection," he said as he explained the importance of temperature prior to processing in the Pacojet and also when it's served (at around +10 F). The hand crank ice cream maker and ice crystals found in my "water ice" on the New Jersey shore now seem a quaint relic from childhood. Kurz, who had his very own physics lab in high school, Goldner, an ardent frozen dessert devotee in pursuit of perfection, and former Google cook Lau were just three strangers who serendipitously met two years ago. Now, through experimentation and problem solving, they've taken sorbet to new gastronomic heights. "Why do navel oranges go bitter while Valencia oranges don't? " Kurz asks (Answer: it's caused by a compound called limonin found in the pith and seeds of the navel oranges.). "We've learned a lot about food chemistry and how to find the best fruit, process it and repeat," he said. "Rather than creating a recipe, we have a pattern we follow based on sugar or degrees brix." The quality control they exercise over their product seems rare in the world of frozen desserts. No preordered mixes, no stabilizers like guar gum, minimal sugar and water make this sorbet unique. "I don't know anyone in the world who is doing what we are doing," said Goldner, a self-described frozen dessert snob. "Especially with nuts and without stabilizers." Stabilizers are widely used by other frozen dessert makers to prevent crystallization. Another thing that sets Scream's sorbet apart is that its overrun–the term used to describe the percentage of air within the final product–is almost nil. In other words, when a Scream sorbet melts, it still has almost the same volume. This is very different from, say, supermarket-bought ice cream, which can be up to 100 percent overrun. "Ben and Jerry's is a superpremium ice cream and has about 20 percent overrun. Haagen Dazs is in the same category, but it's a little denser at 15 percent overrun, explained Kurz. We try to add as little air as possible–changing the way we use the Pacojet to defeat its normal function of making something light and fluffy. Instead, we want dense and intense." Gelato, by definition, has less air than ice creams, but still not as low as the Scream sorbets. On the verge of opening their first retail store and production kitchen in Oakland, the team still makes small batches of sorbet, quart by quart. "It's taking the quality of sorbet you see at high end restaurants and taking it to a wider audience," said Kurz, referring to the French Laundry. "No one has tried to make a range of flavors at this quality." Besides the use of the ultra high-tech Pacojet, the care with which they source their ingredients greatly distinguishes the process of making Scream sorbet. They select the fruit or nut flavorings for every batch themselves, thereby controlling the quality and consistency. From yellow limes to bergamot, walnuts, kabocha squash, delicate raw almonds and lavender, the team hand selects the ingredients, carefully controlling for sugar content. Using the refractometer, each batch is measured in degrees brix. It's extremely labor-intensive work. Kurz explained that frozen desserts with a high brix content must be served very cold in order for them to be "scoopable." Use of the Pacojet allows Scream to make sorbet using less sugar and able to be served at a warmer temperature, making for a smoother, creamier texture. The result is an experience you are not likely to forget. "Our goal" said Goldner, "is to make the best sorbet in the world. In fact, we already are making the best in the US outside select restaurants." My recommendation: try it and you might well agree. Scream can be found at the Marin Civic Center Farmers' Market on Thursdays and Sundays and at the Mill Valley Farmers' Market (on East Blithedale Avenue) on Fridays. Samples are handed out with pride. Flavors include, but are not limited to, Bergamot-Almond, Black Sesame-Almond, Cashew-Caramel, Coconut-Chocolate, Coconut-Thai Basil, Kettle Corn, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Guava, Hazelnut-Chocolate, Lemon-Shiso, Lime- Jasmine, Macadamia-Vanilla, Pistachio, Sweet Potato Pie and Watermelon. www.screamsorbet.com Andrea Blum is a journalist by profession, cook by avocation and curious about way too many things to list, especially cultures other than her own. Her travels have led her to France and Italy where she made cheese and started a cooking school in Chianti and to the Tibetan Highlands where she ate raw yak and starchy noodles with numbing spices. Of particular interest to her are knowing where her food comes from, the health of the planet and its soil and ice. She is currently a reporter covering the environment north of San Francisco.

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