Flavor Affinities for Pawpaws

September 15, 2018 4:40 PM

I'm making pawpaw ice cream tonight, and of course, there's no listing for it in the flavor bible. Help?

Ideas:
Lemon/lime
honey
orange
nutmeg/allspice
???

posted by tedious to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

I always thought paw paws tasted like mango/banana to me, so i'd look up those flavors in the bible.
posted by Karaage at 5:25 PM on September 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

I’ve made “six threes” ice cream which pairs banana flavoring, and I tweak it according to how sweet my bananas are. I have paw paw trees but no bounty yet, but that recipe might be my first attempt to work with the flavor, ice-cream-wise. I tried looking it up in On Food and Cooking, to see if there is more to know scientifically but it’s not in the extensive index. Sassafras, another native tree, is, not paw paw. Oh well.
posted by childofTethys at 7:08 PM on September 15, 2018

Paw paws to me taste like mangos with carmel and an avocado texture. Maybe you can look up those flavors in the bible?
posted by cnidaria at 11:29 PM on September 15, 2018

Tweet at Stella Parks (@bravetart) and David Lebovitz (@davidlebovitz) and ask -- that's what I did a week ago with a question about making grapefruit ice cream, and they both answered quickly!

(I'm jealous that you can get paw-paws: here in New England I can't find any.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:17 AM on September 17, 2018

Try a mascarpone or cheesecake ice cream base with the puree and add a bit of nutmeg and some lemon zest to brighten it.
posted by ananci at 10:38 AM on September 17, 2018