In from the cold

Move over Häagen-Dazs, hello Parmesan and anchovy. Christopher Hirst samples some truly 'adult' ice-creams

How does the idea of cinnamon and candied pumpkin ice-cream appeal? Another celebrity chef's fusion invention? Wrong. The recipe was published in 1690. Moreover, according to ice-cream guru Robin Weir, the flavour is "absolutely unbelievable. It's an irresistibly sophisticated flavour from Naples, which was was a very elegant place at that time." In the days when preserved ice was an expensive luxury, chilled confections were too pricey for the nursery. "There were some really interesting flavours back then," says Weir, co-author of the authoritative bestseller Ices (Grub Street, £11.95). He is now researching historic ice creams. "Rose, carnation, juniper, saffron ... I've just come across a recipe for daffodil ice-cream, but I'm checking it for toxins before having a go."

In her classic history of ices, Harvest of the Cold Months, Elizabeth David revealed that in 1806 a London confectioner called Frederick Nutt published recipes for 31 ice-creams aimed at mature palates, with flavours including ginger, coffee, pistachio and Parmesan. Italians have never lost the idea that ice-creams can be enjoyed by adults and not necessarily as a refreshment on a hot day. During the evening passeggiata in Italian towns, you will often see distinguished gents deep in conversation while licking their cornets of zuppa inglese or stracciatella.

The Wiltshire-based company Hill Station specialises in "gourmet ice-creams for grown-ups". Its products are noticeably less sweet than most ice-creams and infused with complex, spicy flavours. Varieties include cardamom, dark roast coffee, stem ginger, nutmeg and, that top 17th-century lick, cinnamon. Hill Station was founded four years ago by Charles and Gina Hall, a pair of American investment bankers who had tired of globe-trotting. "Living here, we were struck by the lack of choice in ice-cream, but were impressed by the variety and quality of the cream that was available," says Gina Hall.

The couple spent a year developing recipes and scaling up production from one litre to 500 litres at a time. Inspiration comes from "restaurants, books, seeing what flavours are being done in different countries. In San Francisco, there's a place that only does tea-flavoured ice-creams." Some flavours have proved a little too outré for Hill Station. "I was convinced I'd like tamarind ice-cream," recalls Hall. "It turned out to be the weirdest ice-cream I've ever had, salty and very tangy. Someone said it was like something you might find down an alley in Cairo."

For her trial purposes, she uses a Gaggia home gelateria, also advocated by Robin Weir ("a smashing machine"). When I acquired one a year ago I found myself transfixed by its icy churning – rather like when people used to stare into the first glass-fronted washing machines. The Gaggia is not cheap. You can buy an awful lot of ice-cream for £299, but when did you last have ice-cream flavoured with caramelised rhubarb or Armagnac and prunes? A succession of experiments with homemade jams were uniform triumphs – strawberry, blackcurrant and, best of all, a wonderfully delicate raspberry. Marmalade produces a palate-entrancing bitter-sweet ice-cream – but you don't have to use home-made preserve. "You can use anything from Rose's Lime to Cooper's Vintage or ginger," says Robin Weir. "Even quite nasty marmalades make great ice-creams."

Some of the most distinctive ice-creams are flavoured with different forms of cream or milk: clotted cream, goat's milk, mascapone, crème fraîche. You wouldn't think they'd make a difference but they do. Ricotta produces an exceptional ice-cream with a particular savoury note. But steer clear of avocado. I was tempted when a recipe suggested that avocado ice-cream should be "served with lime liqueur", which I took to be margarita. The result set hard as a rock and tasted of under-ripe bananas, though the sauce was great. Undeterred, I bounced back with Robin Weir's fresh blackberry ice-cream, supercharged with a splat of crème de mur.

There is no law which demands that ice-cream has to be sweet. In his 1988 book English Seafood Cookery, someone who still called himself Richard Stein includes a recipe for anchovy ice-cream in puff-pastry. At the Leatherne Bottel near Goring, Julia Storey serves horseradish ice-cream with gravadlax and chilli ice-cream with smoked halibut. But the greatest innovator in savoury ice-creams is Heston Blumenthal, Michelin-garlanded chef at the Fat Duck in Bray in Berkshire, who came up with a bacon-and-egg ice-cream. "Your mouth fills with smoked bacon flavour first, then you get scrambled eggs," he reports. "The idea is quite a big hurdle, but it's proved very popular." Other chilly innovations from Heston include sardines-on-toast ("You have to use tinned sardines with Mother's Pride") and Big Mac ice-creams. He once tried a foie gras ice-cream. "You have to purée for a really long time," he advises any imitators.

Perhaps the ideal accompaniment for this liverish treat would be Robin Weir's ultimate ice. "It was a sorbet I made with eight bottles of Château d'Yquem for the Oxford Food Symposium, a gathering of scholarly gastronomes, in 1995. Fortunately, we got sponsorship, because the wine cost well over £1,500. It was incredible. But if you've a half-bottle of ordinary dessert wine, you can make a delicious sorbet in minutes." Finally, no survey of grown-up licks can be complete without a certain exotic pod, originally from the New World but now grown mainly in Madagascar. What could be more sophisticated, subtle or grown-up than vanilla?

Hill Station ice-creams are available from selected branches of Tesco and Sainsbury. For details of other outlets log on to www.hillstation.co.uk or call 01249 816596.