Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 21, 1993                   TAG: 9309040336
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Almena Hughes
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

SOME COOL SCOOPS ABOUT ICE CREAM FOR THESE HOT DAYS

Edy's Grand Ice Cream - 65 years old but new in this area at Kroger Tanglewood - is hoping to spark a few fantasies of its own with its "Fantasy Flavor Search," which has a potential $1,000 prize.

Contestants must describe their fantasy flavor, including its proposed ingredients and a suggested name. Existing flavors include Bavarian Chocolate Torte (chocolate coconut ice cream with brownie fudge pieces, walnuts and a caramel fudge swirl) and Wild Berry Treasure (raspberry ice cream with chocolate chunks and a swirl of blackberry and blueberry jam). In October, 15 finalists will be flown to Edy's California home base to create their fantasy flavors and compete in a taste off. If Edy's actually markets any of the flavors, their inventors will get $1,000 per flavor plus recognition on the ice cream's package. Deadline to enter is Aug. 13. For details and an entry form, call (800) 777-3397.

Speaking of fantasies, Edy's has a manager of flavor development, whose taste buds are insured for $1 million and who actually gets paid to taste ice cream.

Maybe Virginia Tech's food science and technology department could convince him to taste its new concoction: a low-cholesterol, 10 percent milkfat ice cream. Tech assistant professor of food science Susan Duncan said the technology to strip cholesterol from fat has been developing for about 10 years. Tech is taking it a step further by reformulating the product back into cream, which at some point might be used in edibles such as reduced-cholesterol mozzarella cheese, creamer or cottage cheese.

Of course, taste is the real test. On Thursday, approximately 100 people will give the ice cream their grades. Duncan says she'd like to get a wide range of tasters. So if you're feeling adventurous, curious, or plain old hungry, she invites you to participate. Be among the first 100 people to show up at Squire's Student Center on the Tech campus between 2 p.m.-4 p.m. The test takes about 15 minutes or so. No cramming required.

This isn't a test, it's a riddle: When is ice cream not ice cream? The answer: when it's Chocolate Ice Cream Pudding Pie - a yummy-sounding recipe among over 350 compiled by the Friends of the Grayson County Public Library in "Our Favorite Recipes." The sturdy little book, honoring Grayson County's bicentennial, mixes historical tidbits about the county with a smattering of local family-favorite recipes such as Venison Herbed Pot Roast, Scalloped Cattails and Cattail Root Biscuits. It also combines a number of helpful kitchen and general household hints with a lot of appealing more standard recipes. It sells for $9 and can be ordered by calling (703) 773-2761.

Both history and ice cream get covered in the new 400-plus page paperback edition of "Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History" (available in bookstores for $18.95). When first issued in hardback in 1987, it was called part travelogue, part restaurant guide and part recipe book. Author John Egerton writes, "The traditional food and drink of people in the South - and the rituals surrounding their consumption of it - constitute the most defining, uniting and enduring manifestations of this region's culture." Of ice cream, he observes "Our early presidents from Virginia - Washington, Jefferson and Madison - all loved it. Dolley Madison made strawberries and ice cream a very familiar and popular dish in the 1800s...." He then dishes out a recipe for that most Southern of traditions: homemade-from-scratch fresh peach ice cream, using real eggs, real cream and fresh peach puree.

Add to that the July/August issue of the newly relaunched "Cook's Illustrated" magazine, which among its diverse hands-on instructions for a range of cooking projects includes an article on making vanilla ice cream. In the same issue, the subscriber-supported magazine, which carries no advertising, also covers choosing an ice cream maker and rates several of them. You can get a trial issue by calling (800) 544-7100.

I could just picture the cold, creamy mounds flecked with succulent peach morsels or dotted with bits of fresh vanilla bean. My taste buds were twitching. Then I ran across a trade secret from food stylist Jane Kuoni Hand for making fake ice cream. That's what actually looks so delicious in those ice cream photographs because, unlike the real thing, it doesn't melt under hot studio lights. Suffice it to say it involves Crisco shortening, Karo syrup, confectioners' sugar and an electric mixer. Sure quelled my ice cream craving.

Which is why I'm going to get off the subject of ice cream, except to ask on behalf of a reader from Buena Vista whether anyone knows how to make "Banana Split Dessert." The reader thinks it contains graham cracker crumbs, sliced bananas, Cool Whip, black walnuts, margarine or butter and crushed pineapple. What, no ice cream? If anyone knows the recipe, we'll pass on the information.

Now, what's to do while waiting for the ice cream to freeze?

Well, you could fire up the grill and test some of the delectable barbecue sauces, marinades and other dishes in three free recipe pamphlets. Request "Outdoor Cooking," "A Sauce for All Seasons" and "Microwave Magic" from Gravymaster Recipe Booklets, Dept. PR, 16 Business Park Drive, Branford, Ct. 06405.

You could buy up a mess of fresh shrimp and whip up an Aztec salad, Shrimp A La Parmesan or one of the other cool summer recipes specially developed by the Red Lobster Test Kitchens. Send a business size self-addressed, stamped envelope to Red Lobster Summer Shrimp Spectacular, P. O. Box 593330, Orlando, Fla. 32859-3330.

Or you could stop in at KFC for an order of its new Colonel's Rotisserie Gold chicken, which debuted locally Monday. Area manager John Wood says it took over a year to find just the right recipe for the chickens - deep marinated and slow roasted whole in a rotisserie oven. Whole birds will retail for about $6.99. Half and quarter portions, as well as meal packages also are available. Add a couple of the old-standard or new side dishes, including macaroni and cheese, zippier barbecued baked beans, garden rice and cornbread muffins - also debuting Monday. Then, plug in that electric ice cream maker, put your feet up, kick back and chill out.

There's more about chicken in the Marketplace column on today's Business Page.

\ Shelf Life runs twice a month in the Extra section. If you have an interesting new product, cookbook, contest, gadget or gew gaw, tell us about it. Write to Shelf Life, P. O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010.