The Bizarre Savory Ice Cream Flavor That's Been Around Since The 1800s

Food and fashion may seem everchanging, especially if you spend any time on social media sites such as TikTok, but some old standbys never seem to die. Ice cream fits in this category. Sure, some folks like eccentric ingredients in their ice cream, such as pickles or garlic, but for the last 200 years, vanilla has remained a favorite. It still is the most popular flavor in the United States, with chocolate and strawberry pulling up the rear. But there was once a flavor that today may seem strange, yet was once a legitimate type of ice cream. It just happened to be made with oysters.

In Mary Randolph's 1824 cookbook, "The Virginia Housewife," she lists the recipe for this interesting ice cream flavor along with some others that remain popular today, including chocolate and strawberry. Unlike these others, oyster ice cream was savory, more like a frozen oyster stew than a sweet treat. In fact, Randolph's directions say to "make a rich soup" with the mollusks before straining it from the oysters and freezing it. The recipe also includes ham, flour, onions, and thyme.

At the time Mary Randolph published her oyster ice cream recipe in her very popular cookbook (that likely included recipes from her enslaved labor), these bivalves were a cheap and plentiful food. They were scarfed down as fast they could be shucked and were prepared in a multitude of ways, from pies and soups to being stuffed into turkey. Why not also in ice cream? If you're wondering how this unusual ice cream flavor tasted, the blog The SF Oyster Nerd has the answer. It actually made oyster ice cream and described the taste as briny and a bit gamey. "Imagine a sea wave hit your vanilla ice cream cone, then you took a lick," it reported.

Oyster ice cream may seem an oddity, but back in the late 18th century and into the 19th century, there was a lot of experimentation involving ice cream, which is how we also ended up with cucumber ice cream. Even further back, in the 1660s, there was an ice cream flavored with ambergris, a rare and pricey substance found in whale intestines that was waxy and highly prized for its sweet and earthy flavor. Oyster ice cream, like ambergris and cucumber ice cream, eventually faded into obscurity. Still, over the years, there have been a few bold chefs, including José Andrés in 2011, who have attempted to revive the flavor. Perhaps in this age of social media-driven trends, it can make a comeback yet.