Is it Safe to Eat Snow?
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Concoctions
< Snow Cream (ice cream)
We don’t get much snow in the part of Tennessee where I live, but when we do, we freak out and make ice cream out of it. “In my experience, snow cream is entirely unknown up north,” says Angela Warner Mayfield, a Georgia-based writer and southern foodways advocate who is currently working on a book about church and community cookbooks.
Traditionally, snow cream is made with canned evaporated milk, vanilla, sugar, and a bowl full of snow. “Honestly, that method is shit,” Mayfield says. “It’s too crunchy and sticky.” The trick is to use a mix of regular and liquefied sugar, like maple syrup, corn syrup, or agave nectar. “The liquid sugar prevents the formation of great big ice crystals, which helps keep it from being too crunchy and aids in distributing the milky goodness throughout the snow.” And use real cream, because life is short and evaporated milk is not super delicious.
Here is Mayfield’s recipe:
Ingredients
¼ cup sugar
12 ounces (1½ cups) heavy cream
¼ cup liquid sweetener like corn syrup or maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large bowl fresh snow (about 5 to 6 cups). Mayfield says it’s best to put your bowl out to collect snow as it falls from the sky. This keeps you from compressing the fluff out of it as you scoop it.
Directions
Over low heat on the stove, dissolve the sugar in the cream. Then add the liquid sweetener of your choice and the vanilla. Remove the mixture from the heat and chill until very cold.
Gently mix the cream into your snow. Pro tip: the amount of cream you need is relative to the volume and fluffiness of the snow you use. Stir in the cream in batches, giving the snow cream a taste at various intervals. When you reach the consistency you like, stop. Scoop into bowls, and be happy.
< Snow Cocktails
If you’re looking to soothe the sting of sidewalk shoveling, we’ve got your remedy. While pretty much any cocktail can be poured over snow, we think snow cocktails work best when they’re sweet and boozy. Montanya Distiller’s Jamaican rum-cream cocktail is perfect poured on a fresh glass of powder.
Montanya’s Jamaican rum-cream cocktail. Photo courtesy of Montoya.
This recipe makes a large batch, so it’s perfect for a party, or you can stick it in the fridge, where it will keep for about a week.
Ingredients
2 cups heavy cream
4 ounces organic chocolate chips
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cans (12 ounces each) organic evaporated milk
8 ounces organic caramel sauce
2 tablespoons strong, locally roasted coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups Montanya Oro rum
Directions
In a heavy saucepan, simmer the cream, chocolate chips, and cinnamon on low heat until the chocolate has melted; set aside. Put the evaporated milk, caramel, coffee, vanilla extract, and rum in a blender and mix. Stir both mixtures together, then pour over glasses of fresh snow.
Sugar on Snow (with Sour Pickles)
Every spring at Vermont’s Sterling College, students tap 200 maple trees in a nearby grove. Once the taps are flowing and the syrup is boiled down, the dining hall serves up “sugar on snow” or “maple on snow.” What sugar on snow means to you depends on where, exactly, you’re from, says Elizabeth Chadwick, an alum who is now a chef in the school’s dining hall. “It’s one of those regional things like, say, barbecue, or gravy, or biscuits,” says Chadwick. “It can have a lot of different takes and opinions. Around here a lot of people just pour the warm maple syrup on packed snow, but a lot of other folks cook the maple syrup to a caramel.” If you cook your syrup to the caramel stage and pour it over cold snow, it will cool to a taffy consistency.
Vermonters, in their endless quest to pair strange foods (looking at you, cheddar cheese with apple pie), eat sour pickles and unsweetened doughnuts with maple on snow. We had to fact-check that this is, indeed, a thing, and, well, Chadwick was not lying. In this video, Food Network host Alton Brown says maple on snow with pickles and doughnuts is the best food he’s ever eaten.
There are two ways to prepare it:
Snow-Cone Version
Warm a quarter cup of maple syrup. Pour it over soft snow in a glass. Taste it. If you want more syrup, go for it.
Taffy Version
In a small saucepan, bring one cup of maple syrup up to 234 degrees (no less, but it’s OK if you go slightly over). Immediately pour the syrup in ribbons onto fresh snow in a glass. As it hits the snow, the syrup will firm up, making a chewy, candylike treat.
< >
Concoctions
< Snow Cream (ice cream)
We don’t get much snow in the part of Tennessee where I live, but when we do, we freak out and make ice cream out of it. “In my experience, snow cream is entirely unknown up north,” says Angela Warner Mayfield, a Georgia-based writer and southern foodways advocate who is currently working on a book about church and community cookbooks.
Traditionally, snow cream is made with canned evaporated milk, vanilla, sugar, and a bowl full of snow. “Honestly, that method is shit,” Mayfield says. “It’s too crunchy and sticky.” The trick is to use a mix of regular and liquefied sugar, like maple syrup, corn syrup, or agave nectar. “The liquid sugar prevents the formation of great big ice crystals, which helps keep it from being too crunchy and aids in distributing the milky goodness throughout the snow.” And use real cream, because life is short and evaporated milk is not super delicious.
Here is Mayfield’s recipe:
Ingredients
¼ cup sugar
12 ounces (1½ cups) heavy cream
¼ cup liquid sweetener like corn syrup or maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large bowl fresh snow (about 5 to 6 cups). Mayfield says it’s best to put your bowl out to collect snow as it falls from the sky. This keeps you from compressing the fluff out of it as you scoop it.
Directions
Over low heat on the stove, dissolve the sugar in the cream. Then add the liquid sweetener of your choice and the vanilla. Remove the mixture from the heat and chill until very cold.
Gently mix the cream into your snow. Pro tip: the amount of cream you need is relative to the volume and fluffiness of the snow you use. Stir in the cream in batches, giving the snow cream a taste at various intervals. When you reach the consistency you like, stop. Scoop into bowls, and be happy.
< Snow Cocktails
If you’re looking to soothe the sting of sidewalk shoveling, we’ve got your remedy. While pretty much any cocktail can be poured over snow, we think snow cocktails work best when they’re sweet and boozy. Montanya Distiller’s Jamaican rum-cream cocktail is perfect poured on a fresh glass of powder.
Montanya’s Jamaican rum-cream cocktail. Photo courtesy of Montoya.
This recipe makes a large batch, so it’s perfect for a party, or you can stick it in the fridge, where it will keep for about a week.
Ingredients
2 cups heavy cream
4 ounces organic chocolate chips
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cans (12 ounces each) organic evaporated milk
8 ounces organic caramel sauce
2 tablespoons strong, locally roasted coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups Montanya Oro rum
Directions
In a heavy saucepan, simmer the cream, chocolate chips, and cinnamon on low heat until the chocolate has melted; set aside. Put the evaporated milk, caramel, coffee, vanilla extract, and rum in a blender and mix. Stir both mixtures together, then pour over glasses of fresh snow.
Sugar on Snow (with Sour Pickles)
Every spring at Vermont’s Sterling College, students tap 200 maple trees in a nearby grove. Once the taps are flowing and the syrup is boiled down, the dining hall serves up “sugar on snow” or “maple on snow.” What sugar on snow means to you depends on where, exactly, you’re from, says Elizabeth Chadwick, an alum who is now a chef in the school’s dining hall. “It’s one of those regional things like, say, barbecue, or gravy, or biscuits,” says Chadwick. “It can have a lot of different takes and opinions. Around here a lot of people just pour the warm maple syrup on packed snow, but a lot of other folks cook the maple syrup to a caramel.” If you cook your syrup to the caramel stage and pour it over cold snow, it will cool to a taffy consistency.
Vermonters, in their endless quest to pair strange foods (looking at you, cheddar cheese with apple pie), eat sour pickles and unsweetened doughnuts with maple on snow. We had to fact-check that this is, indeed, a thing, and, well, Chadwick was not lying. In this video, Food Network host Alton Brown says maple on snow with pickles and doughnuts is the best food he’s ever eaten.
There are two ways to prepare it:
Snow-Cone Version
Warm a quarter cup of maple syrup. Pour it over soft snow in a glass. Taste it. If you want more syrup, go for it.
Taffy Version
In a small saucepan, bring one cup of maple syrup up to 234 degrees (no less, but it’s OK if you go slightly over). Immediately pour the syrup in ribbons onto fresh snow in a glass. As it hits the snow, the syrup will firm up, making a chewy, candylike treat.
