Bobby Hill’s proclamation of “who’s ready for sauerkraut ice cream?!?!” at his Japanese-German fusion restaurant Robata Chane sparked smiles from his family, friends and foes alike in the new season of King of the Hill. But the reality of the dessert was probably more grin-and-bear-it than begging for seconds — not that it’s that odd on the surface.
“Sauerkraut definitely isn’t the most out-there ingredient I’ve used,” gastronomer and ice cream influencer Hannah Spiegelman of A Sweet History tells me.
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Spiegelman, like Bobby, isn’t afraid to take culinary risks. She’s served scoops in a uranium glass in honor of Marie Curie. She’s embraced strong Midwestern flavors (to put it politely) in a Malört-infused “Chicago Float.” She’s even experimented with pork blood in a frozen homage to every ‘00s girl’s favorite movie, Twilight.
“Most of my flavors are inspired by historic places or people,” she explains of the more than 250 concoctions she’s crafted since 2017. “I use ice cream as a storytelling device.”
Radiation, bodily fluids and Polish grandfathers’ liquor of choice, however, all proved to be more ice cream-friendly than sauerkraut. The seasoned chef, even with her near-decade of experience, admittedly struggled to create a palatable version of Bobby’s signature dessert.
Taking a note from the show’s visuals — “Bobby’s ice cream looks like it has candied red sauerkraut on top,” Spiegelman notes — she approached the garnish first, reverse-engineering the pop of red by soaking regular sauerkraut in hibiscus tea.
With her cabbage stewing, she turned to the ice cream. She started with a “classic plain base” and infused it with traditional German flavors of “caraway seed, bay leaves and sauerkraut brine.”
Despite achieving a satisfying “savory” foundation with a strong “buttermilk flavor,” this pickle-y brine only went so far in creating a restaurant-worthy treat. “The base flavor was great, but I’m not fully happy with the candied sauerkraut,” she confesses, citing “the texture” as the culprit for the dish’s questionable outcome. “I’d like to try to dry the sauerkraut more after candying it.”
That said, Spiegelman still gives Bobby a lot of credit for his heart being in the right place. “Bobby looks like he’s trying to prove the point that he’s taken inspiration from other cultures, but he’s creating something uniquely his own,” she says, offering him a few extra points for not just recreating Spaghettieis, a German ice cream designed to resemble pasta.
“Bobby seems to really value research and presenting Japanese and German cuisine in both a historical light and with his own personal twist,” she continues. “At the end of the day, he just wants to share his knowledge and passion for food. Ice cream should be fun, but it can also spark curiosity, bring up memories and subvert people’s expectations.”
So while Spiegelman’s culinary passion may not involve pickled German toppings any time soon, she can still see eye-to-eye with Bobby on something much more important: Dessert is sweet, even when it involves sauerkraut.
