Anyone For Crab and Garlic Ice Cream? Quiz

Answer: Cherry

First of all, an explanation of the solution:

To start with, we know that Coconut must be paired with one of the two-word ingredients (Bell Pepper or Soy Sauce) and that Shrimp is paired with an ingredient that comes before Coconut's pairing alphabetically. Since nothing comes before Bell Pepper alphabetically, one ice cream flavour on the menu has to be Coconut and Soy Sauce.

Mushroom is paired with an ingredient that also has eight letters in its name. The only two eight-letter options given are Cinnamon and Soy Sauce, so we can safely identify another ice cream as Mushroom and Cinnamon.

Bacon goes with one of the three ingredients ending with a 'y' - Cherry, Gravy or Honey - but can't be mixed with a five-letter ingredient (as that would contradict the information that Mushroom is the only ingredient paired with one with the same number of letters as it). So it must be Bacon and Cherry ice cream that appears on the menu.

Lamb is mixed with an ingredient that doesn't contain an L, A, M or B. The only two ingredients this is true of are Cherry and Honey. We've already matched Cherry, so it must be Lamb and Honey ice cream.

Eggplant is mixed with an ingredient whose name starts in the second half of the alphabet and comes (alphabetically) directly before that of the ingredient mixed with Potato. Of the ingredients left, only Orange and Pumpkin have names starting in the second half of the alphabet and we can rule out Pumpkin as an option as that comes directly before Soy Sauce (Coconut's partner) alphabetically. That means the menu must include both Eggplant and Orange ice cream and Potato and Pumpkin ice cream.

That leaves Crab, Salmon, Shrimp and Turkey to be matched with Bell Pepper, Garlic, Gravy or Mango. Salmon's ice cream partner has to have a longer name than the one paired with Bacon, which we now known is Cherry - so it must be Salmon and Bell Pepper. Neither Shrimp nor Turkey can go with Garlic (as they all have six-letter names) and since Shrimp's partner comes before Turkey's alphabetically, one ice cream must be Shrimp and Gravy and the other has to be Turkey and Mango. Finally, that just leaves the final ice cream on the menu to be identified by elimination as the titular Crab and Garlic flavour.

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Bacon and egg ice cream is actually a signature dish of the celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, which regularly appeared on the menu of his Michelin-starred restaurant, 'The Fat Duck', in the Berkshire village of Bray (Berkshire being an English county to the west of London). Cherry isn't the most popular fruit flavour to be used in ice cream (that honour surely has to belong to strawberry), but cherry ice cream does make a perfectly appetising dessert - as long as no bacon slips into the mix...

Answer: Soy Sauce

Soy sauce is a Chinese invention made from fermented soybeans, wheat, yeast and salty water. It is a runny liquid used as a condiment or for cooking - but not, generally speaking, in the production of ice cream. Coconuts on the other hand can actually be used to make ice cream, as the coconut milk makes a good dairy-free substitute for cow's milk.

Answer: Garlic

Crab ice cream is a popular dish in Japan, where it is known as kani aisu. It has a sweet flavour and, despite what you might expect, actually makes a good dessert. By contrast, garlic ice cream is a savoury dish that can often be found on the menu at international garlic festivals.

While the two ingredients might make good ice cream individually, I can't really see crab and garlic ice cream ever gaining much popularity.

Answer: Orange

Eggplant - also known as aubergine - is officially a fruit but generally treated as a vegetable for culinary purposes. Eggplants are usually deep purple in colour, so you would at least expect any ice cream made from it to have a nice vibrant appearance.

While many fruits mix together nicely in drinks, sweets, puddings or ice cream - the mild flavour of eggplant and the strong citrusy flavour of an orange don't generally complement each other.

Answer: Honey

Lamb and honey actually make an excellent flavour combination, but are generally only used together in a savoury main course when a sweet honey-glaze is applied to the meat during the roasting process or the lamb is served with a honey-based dressing. Honey ice cream is a relatively common dish as honey can be used instead of sugar in the ice cream production process - just leave out the lamb if you want people to actually eat your creation...

Answer: Cinnamon

Fungus ice cream anyone? No, I thought not...However, googling "mushroom ice cream" actually yields a surprising number of hits given that mushrooms don't commonly appear on dessert menus. If you're using mushrooms that you've foraged for yourself, extreme care needs to be taken to ensure that you are using edible varieties and not one of the many toxic ones capable of killing any unsuspecting humans who consume them. If serving mushroom and cinnamon ice cream then you should also hope that you don't make your dinner guests ill even if you have used an edible variety...

Answer: Pumpkin

Potatoes are a highly versatile vegetable that make excellent chips (fries), crisps (chips) and vodka - despite not counting towards the "five a day" portions of fruit and vegetables recommended by the World Health Organisation for a healthy diet. However, one example of a dish that isn't usually enhanced by the presence of the humble potato is ice cream - regardless of whether you try and pep it up a bit with some pumpkin. On the other hand, pumpkin ice cream is quite popular and makes a particularly seasonal dish to serve for Halloween.

Answer: Bell Pepper

While salmon is a common ingredient in cake (well, in fishcakes at any rate), fish ice cream (salmon or any other species) is not a flavour that would generally be available in an ice cream parlour. Also, while bell peppers are alternatively known as sweet peppers, they are not usually used as ingredients for desserts such as ice cream.

The only redeeming feature that I can see of a theoretical salmon and bell pepper ice cream is that it would likely be a nice colour - pink from the salmon and either red, orange, yellow, green, purple or white depending on the variety of bell pepper used.

Answer: Gravy

The term 'gravy' is associated with many different types of cuisine around the world and refers to various different food products. In much of the western world, gravy is a thickened sauce made from the liquid (or stock) produced when cooking or roasting meat.

However, it can also be vegetable or oil-based, while in eastern cuisines the term can refer to the sauce part of a dish such as curry. Whichever meaning you take though, it is unlikely that you would want to produce a gravy-flavoured ice cream either alone or mixed with shrimp or other seafood.

Answer: Mango

Turkey and mango is a fairly popular culinary combination as long as you are making a curry, chutney, stir-fry or some sort of salad. As an ice cream flavour it is probably safe to say that turkey and mango is unlikely to challenge vanilla's position any time soon - even post-Thanksgiving or Christmas when many people are left facing a large pile of leftover turkey despite having already made more turkey sandwiches than they can ever hope to eat.