Thanksgiving in a Cone? Portland Scoop Shop Reimagines the Feast

Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey Ice Cream

Would you try turkey-flavored ice cream? Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey, to be exact – made with turkey-fat caramel and speckled with fried-turkey skin brittle? Bacon has already crossed over into dessert territory, and now at one adventurous ice cream shop, poultry is getting in the game.

This month at Portland’s Salt & Straw, the Thanksgiving feast has been reimagined as a five-course menu of ice cream flavors. Co-owner Tyler Malek and R&D manager Kat Whitehead fine-tuned their seasonal flavors for months, and when FN Dish visited Portland over the summer, they gave us a sneak peek at the process of turning the classic holiday meal into a sweet, creamy flight.

Not surprisingly, channeling Thanksgiving’s piece de resistance – the turkey – proved the biggest challenge for these ice cream artisans. “We’ve been working on that recipe for over two years now!” Malek told us. It took about 20 batches before their final Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey recipe was pronounced ready to scoop. “We were confident this flavor would work,” Malek said. “We tried a couple of different renditions but loved the idea of crispy skin in the form of candied brittle and really pushed the limits on what that could look like in ice cream.”

Sweet Potato Casserole

To round out the Turkey Day ice cream feast, there are flavors inspired by classic sides: Sweet Potato Casserole with Maple Pecans, Hazelnut Rosemary Stuffing and Honey-Bourbon Corn Pudding. “Most of these recipes are actually inspired by my own family recipes,” Malek explained. “I grew up with a family from Montana, so all those casseroles, bread puddings, and ‘salads’ definitely hit home for me. I think the Sweet Potato Casserole is my favorite when it comes to nostalgia.” It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie, so Spiced Chevre Pumpkin Pie ice cream marks the official “dessert” of the flight.

Chevre Pumpkin Pie

If you don’t live near Portland or Los Angeles, where the latest Salt & Straw outpost recently opened, you can still feast on their Thanksgiving ice creams this month. All of the flavors can be ordered on Salt & Straw’s website and shipped anywhere in the United States. The flavors are also available by the scoop, flight or pint at all Salt & Straw scoop shops from Nov. 1 – Nov. 29. For every Thanksgiving pint purchased at a scoop shop, Salt & Straw will donate a pint to the  Oregon Food Bank for their Thanksgiving meals around the state.

Check out these reimagined Thanksgiving desserts from Food Network.

Photos by Leela Cyd Ross and Sara Levine

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