What are we doing today?

What are we doing today? What do we do every day? We make Cincinnati's best gelato and sorbet! Madisono's has the high honor of producing gelato and sorbet for The Dorothy Lane Markets in Dayton Ohio. This week we have several orders going out so we have dedicated much of our production time to fulfiling their orders. Grapefruit sorbet is one of those flavors and what better place to start? Start with Pink Grapefruits of course. I just finished cutting out all of the succulent fruit and preparing the base for the production run. Eye protection is required.

I stuck in this other photo of the Brick Auction from Sunday. I had a great time and enjoyed talking to many of you. Thanks to Howard Aine for his support of Madisono's. Madisono's will be back next year. You can see many of the photos of the bricks on their website.

I spent the morning making vanilla base for Madagascar Vanilla Gelato. What better place to start Madagascar Vanilla? Madagascar Vanilla beans! Once I had my ingredients measured out I opened the bag of beans and was instantly taken by the sweet fragrance of vanilla. It is hard to explain how good these things smell when you have hundreds of them in a room. For those of you who cook with real beans you know. Multiply that smell you get from one bean by a factor of 10 and it is dreamy. I gently cut the beans in half and then add them to the sweet milk and cream mix for cooking. The aroma fills the kitchen all day. (as I type this) Once the cooking is finished I will remove the vanilla base and it will be ready for freezing. That is what we will be doing tomorrow. And so it goes. Fruits, vanilla beans, fresh herbs, fresh milk, it never gets old or boring. The sights and smells change everyday with every flavor we make.

By the end of the day we will have made pink grapefruit sorbet, lemon basil sorbet, mango sorbet, and pumpkin gelato.

Thanks for supporting Madisono's

Matt

Weekend update

Here is a photo of Zoo brew. For 1 and a half hours I did nothing but scoop gelato and sorbet! It was a blast. We were set up in the Manatee house and next to The Pickin' Pig. Randy Amann was picking a fine selection of classic rock and roll and did a great job. Pink Floyd, Niel Young and many more kept the room festive. You can see the masses of people behind me. It was a zoo. It looks like this was the Alphonso Mango sorbet, Dark Chocolate Orange and Caramello with Sea Salt line up. Three great flavors. The cups I used just happened to nest in the mini Samuel Adams beer glasses which made eating much easier.
This Sunday I will be at the Brick Auction which benefits breast cancer. I will have a great selection of gelato and sorbet on hand so if you don't have any plans stop by the auction and check out the art. Follow the link.
I am coaching my daughter's soccer team this year. It was our turn for snack so, because of the warm temperatures, we decided to do Mad Pops. Strawberry Lemonade. The parents were asking for them as well. This is a great flavor and they are available at Findlay Market. Thanks again to all of you from Zoo Brew if you see Madiosno's on the shelf think about taking home a pint.
Where to find it?
Bigg's Stores
Cork and Bottle locations
The Party Source
Whole Foods
Sunshine Foods
Carls Deli
Keller's IGA
Dillionvale IGA
Reading IGA
Pipkins
Garnish Catering
Luigi's International Market
Jungle Jim's
Coffee Emporium
Lookout Joe
Silverglade's on 8th
Kremer's Market Buttermilk Pike
College Hill Coffee Shop
Wyoming Wines
Wyoming Meat Market
Piazza Discepoli Wines Glendale
Bluebird Bakery Glendale
And the top restaurants in Cincinnati
Thanks for your support
Matt

Zoo Brew and Huckleberries

Tonight I will be serving gelato and sorbet to more than 1000 people attending the Zoo Brew. This is a fundraising event that benefits CREW (Center for Conservation and Reproduction of Endangered Wildlife). There are several restaurants breweries, wines and other items for people to enjoy. The forecast for tonight is perfect. Madisono's will be set up in the Manatee house so if you are planning on attending please stop by and say hi. The picture here was taken yesterday. The beautiful rich color or pure Huckleberries is quite tempting. My parents had some left over huckleberries from their store at Findlay Market. My dad said, "is there anything you can do with those?" Well here it is. I cooked the berries, balanced the ph and then added them to our neutral gelato base. Our gelato bases are made from scratch. Not everyone does this by the way. The result is a very unique flavor that is 100% huckle berry. I have attached a link for huckleberries if you are interested in reading more about them. If you have never had them then please consider picking up a pint of this very seasonal flavor at 110 West Elder St. (Madison's) We only have a limited amount of huckles on hand. We also have a new Mad Pop flavor, strawbery lemonade.

Thanks for supporting Madisono's

Matt

Catching up......

This is a photo of the dessert served on September 19th for the Findlay Market benefit, Lunch on the Land. I used a mini brioche from Skirtz and Johnston and a scoop of blackberry gelato. The blackberries came from Madison's Ridgeview farm. Serving gelato on brioche is a Sicilian way of serving gelato. Madisono's is now serving the Lexington Wholefoods as well as Sunrise Bakery. I made an appointment with the owner of Sunrise Bakery, Steve. I showed up with several pints of gelato and sorbet. As we talked he brought out a freshly baked tray of brioche. Each one measured 3 inches in diameter and smelled divine. Steve told me then that he was going to serve the gelato in this manner and that it is very common in Sicily. He then proceeded to cut one open and carefully scooped in chocolate, french vanilla and pistachio, folded it over and tucked it into a wrap. The warm brioche against the cold gelato was and incredible combination. I knew then that this would be the perfect way to serve Madisono's for the Findlay event. It required no plate, spoon or anything. I think it is fair that Sunrise get credit for this concept, not that they invented it but that he has put it into practice. In the four years that I have been making gelato, none of my restaurant customers have ever served it in this way. Thanks Steve for the inspiration. The event was huge success. The participation of so many talented chefs, the scenic location (Turner Farm) and the weather made for a perfect day. Jay Erisman from The Party Source was resident Smilier and Amy Tobin was master of ceremonies.

All of us had a great time assisting each other on the line and I believe the guests had a good time as well.

Madisono's is still making Mad Pops and will have a new flavor at Findlay this week. Strawberry Lemonade.

Thanks for supporting Madisono's

Matt

The mystery of flavor

This morning I started my day with a cup of tea and a bowl of Kashi cereal, the kind that tastes great with honey. The flavors of honey, milk, tea and a neutral cereal was pleasant. Each flavor was well balanced and complimented one another. What is the speed of flavor? Fast, slow, zig zag, or head on? In the frozen dessert business, flavor is the number one issue I consider everyday. Texture is a close second, but without the right balance, or intention, flavors can be slow, to fast, or wind up in a dead end. "Where do you go from there? No where." (Nigel Tufnel)
Today, one of my employees said he tried the Alphonso Mango gelato and did not favor it over the previous recipe. We began talking about flavor and how this mango gelato is different from the previous one. The Alphonso mango has a unique flavor. It is highly esteemed in the culinary world for it's texture and bold flavor. When you scoop into a pint of Madisono's Alphonso Mango gelato the full flavor of the fruit prevails. This new recipe is our neutral gelato mix(made from scratch at Madisono's) and Alphonso Mango. The simpler the better. But the flavor is different and I understand what he was saying. This flavor is fast by design and delivers a unique profile similar to a mango lassi. Try it with some cardamom on top, you will not be disappointed.
This weekend I am participating in the Findlay Market Fundraiser, Lunch on the Land. I have used Madison Ridgeview Farm blackberries to create a blackberry gelato. It will be served on a mini brioche from Skirtz and Johnston. I started by making a concentrated syrup from many pounds of frozen berries. The plan was to incorporate this pure syrup into the neutral gelato mix and process. The color of the syrup was a very deep purple and when mixed with the gelato mix turned a beautiful purple. Despite attempts to get this flavor into the fast lane it just refused to be hurried. I would classify this as a slow flavor, a single gear so to speak. Is this bad? My intention was to create a head on blast of blackberry, but the reality is that despite the volume of syrup added to the mix this will never happen. The use of all natural fruits and purees for flavoring gelato and sorbet is a challenge at times. So the solution is to embrace the reality of the flavor and accept it. What I decided to do was to process the blackberry gelato according to recipe design and then compliment it with puree as a swirl. The result is that I have a much more visually appealing gelato due to the marbling of the dark purple puree against a soft purple gelato. The puree adds a second gear to the flavor but does not corrupt the texture of the finished gelato. In the end I was pleased and I think that you will be as well. It will be available at Findlay Market this weekend while supplies last.
Thanks for supporting Madisono's
Matt

A beautiful Saturday at Findlay Market

When I woke up this morning and the breeze was blowing a cool 6o degrees or so through my window the birds were chirping, and the sun was beginning to shine. A good day for Findlay. I had a bowl of oatmeal, some mangos and a pressed coffee. I arrived to scoop gelato from 10 t0 2:30 and had blast! We offer over 15 flavors of gelato and sorbet at the dipping station and today was the official debut of Madisono's Mad Pops. The response to the Mad Pops was great. We had three flavors, Alphonso Mango with pineapple, Redraspberry with strawberry, and Blackberry lemon. My wife designed some great stickers and we started using the impulse heat sealer on some new bags. The packaging looks great. Thanks Margot!
Madisono's is excited to be the first to bring this unique treat to Cincinnati. Lately, I have been introduced to many new music groups. I am lucky in that, I can listen to music all day long as loud as I want. We generate lots of noise in the production facility with blenders, batch freezers, and compressors running everywhere. It doesn't pay extra, but the benefit of music all day is worth something. I always want to jump into Wikipedia, Myspace or websites to get more information on these bands but time does not always allow it. I find that flavors are like music. Complex or simple arrangements that have emotion, depth and purpose. There just is not enough time to explore the abyss of flavor. So what is there to do?
Take a breath and slow down. Rome was not built in a day. Some bands may break up but their music will last. It will be there. Flavors will be there too. They are not going anywhere. Sure there may be a season to wait but for the most part they are there like notes waiting for placement. The introduction of Madisono's Mad Pops will give us many more flavor notes to compose with. It is my hope to bring to all of you a sweet melody on a stick.
Here is a band that I have taken the time to look into. I hope you enjoy it. Mexican Elvis,

Thanks for supporting Madisono's

Madisono's Mad Pops debut at Findlay Market

Those of you who follow this blog know that posts do not show up regularly. I would like to say that I am working on doing a better at this. I hope to post at least once a week and maybe more. There are some great things happening at Madisono's and I love to talk about it.
What is a Mad Pop you ask? A Mad Pop is a frozen fruit pop, made with real fruits and madisono's sorbet. Imagine Alphonso mango sorbet with pineapple or Madiosno's lemon sorbet and blackberries, or red raspberry sorbet and fresh strawberries. Each fruit batch is made from scratch and then poured into the molds. Everything about this concept is done by hand and in very small batches. I think this would qualify as artisan. Once frozen they are removed and then packaged. This idea has been brewing for a long and I am finally able to introduce some initial products for people to try and get some input on them. I have been overwhelmed at flavor possibilities. So many flavors and so little time.
Pops are nothing new, we all had them as kids but they were just frozen juice, with fake food colors and artificial flavors. Even today they are still made with crappy ingredients. Mad Pops is offering something very different. There is so much fruit in these you can feel it. The lemon blackberry is made with blackberries from Madison's Ridgeview Farm in Adams County. We froze many pounds of berries just for Mad Pops. The inspiration for pops is found in the Mexican Paletas. My sister in law is from Panama and all through Latin America paletas are everywhere, made with real fruits and simple ingredients. Paleta shops are showing up in places around the country and now they are available here. We have some big plans for Mad Pops here in Cincinnati. More on that later. If you get to Findlay Market stop in to Madison's for a Mad Pop and let me know what you think. Have a good holiday weekend.
Thanks for supporting Madisono's Gelato
Matt