Are You Brave Enough To Try This Controversial Ice Cream Combination

I’ve heard about odd ice cream flavors before. Lobster ice cream, anyone? Yet when I learned that there was a ketchup and mayo ice cream recipe out there, I first gagged a little — and then wanted to know where such a zany idea came from.

Surprisingly, ketchup and mayo ice cream is not new. Back in 1959, Heinz ran an ad featuring an ice cream-like concoction called “Carnival Cream.” It included Maraschino cherries, toasted almonds and, of course, Heinz ketchup.

Baskin-Robbins also toyed with a ketchup ice cream that never made it out of the lab.

Then in 2016, a ketchup and mayo ice cream paired with waffle fries was sold by Freezerburn, an ice cream shop in the Phillipines. The bizarre combination made headlines and copycat recipes ensued.

I was having trouble envisioning what this flavor combo would taste like, so I had to try the recipe myself.

There aren’t that many ingredients: eggs, ketchup, mayonnaise, heavy cream, vanilla and sugar.

And you need to get some crispy fries to eat with the result.

The Steps

First, you whip the cream.

Add vanilla and ketchup.

Fold them into the cream.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and mayo until thickened.

Pour the egg mixture into the ketchup cream.

Fold until fully blended.

Pour into a loaf pan.

I laid a sheet of parchment paper flat against the top of mixture to seal out air before popping it in the freezer overnight.

Side note: If I made this again, I’d try to adapt the recipe to use my ice cream maker, because my stand mixer led to more of an icy ice cream.

The next day, after I’d scooped myself some of the ketchup and mayo ice cream, I couldn’t bring myself to drizzle more ketchup on top at first.

I tried the ketchup and mayo ice cream on its own, and then the ice cream with fries dipped in it. And it was pretty good! The red-flecked, light rose-colored ice cream has a fruity, spicy essence that almost reminded me of the spices in pumpkin pie.

There’s enough sugar, vanilla, eggs and cream in this recipe to counterbalance any ketchup or mayo flavoring that might turn the ice cream into a salty disaster. (Besides, most ketchup today has a lot of sugar in it already.)

Truly, I didn’t hate it! My toddler wanted a second scoop, but who trusts a toddler’s tastes? My husband liked it with French fries — which leads to my biggest takeaway from this recipe: You need to pair it with fries. The saltiness from the fries makes the ice cream seem sweeter and draws out the tomato flavor.

I did eventually add some ketchup topping to one of the scoops.

Plus a fry.

The resulting mouthful was too odd for my palate. Skip the extra ketchup in my opinion!

The overall verdict? I’d still rather dip my fries in a regular shake, but this unique flavor is worth a try at least once!