Welcome to Humphry Slocombe at Home

Welcome to Humphry Slocombe at Home.

Last year while visiting San Francisco, and after dinner at the nearby Flour + Water, I made the short half-mile walk down Harrison St. to the famed ice cream shop Humphry Slocombe. Despite it's reputation as a very busy destination, when my wife and I walked in we were the only customers there! The staff was terrific and nice enough to walk us through that day's selection and let us try a few different flavors before I settled on a couple scoops of "Secret Breakfast." What struck me about Humphry Slocombe was just how different it was from any other ice cream I've ever had. No plan vanilla, chocolate, and bright green mint ice cream here. No, take your pick between "Foie Gras" ice cream sandwiches, "Honey Thyme", or "Salt & Pepper." It was fantastic and a trip that I still talk about a year later. 

Just a couple weeks ago I saw that the men behind Humphry Slocombe, Jake Godby and Sean Vahey, were releasing a dedicated cookbook detailing their shops recipes and immediately ordered it on Amazon. The book is fantastic, detailing the shop and the owner's back stories with recipes and inspirations. 

I've made ice cream from scratch a handful of times, and understand basically how to make it. However, I was only able to make basic vanilla and chocolate so many times before the end result wasn't worth all the effort. Since I'm a half-day's flight away from Humphrey Slocombe and was only able to taste a few flavors while there in person, I thought it would be a fun summer project to cook my way through the book. Summer is only about 25 days here in Minnesota, so I'll have to cook fast.

The "cook the book" blog might be considered cliche now in the blogging world, but I've always enjoyed such blogs as The French Laundry at Home (Link) and Alinea at Home (Link). I plan on following a similar format. I don't intend on writing entire recipes or really even giving the reader exact measurements, just talking the reader through the process and my thoughts on each flavor. 

For the record, here is the LINK to purchase the book from Amazon. It's very inexpensive even new at $13 and well worth the investment.

Next up: Harvey Milk and Honey