This Beloved Brand Once Tried To Popularize Pickle-Flavored Ice Cream
Legend has it, pregnant women crave pickles and ice cream; as Slate reports, this weird food mash-up became shorthand for "pregnancy cravings," possibly after the airing of an early 1950s episode of I Love Lucy, when a real-life preggo Lucille Ball sent her hubby out to the store, demanding a dill pickle and a milkshake. But do enough people, pregnant or otherwise, seek the combination of sour, tart pickle, and sweet, creamy ice cream for grocery stores to stock pickle-flavored ice cream?
This was a gamble Blue Bell decided to take, when it unveiled Dill Pickle 'n Cream, according to Houston History Magazine. The ice cream was green and had chunks of real pickle mixed in, and there weren't enough women with weird pregnancy cravings around to buy it, apparently, because Dill Pickle 'n Cream didn't make it to Blue Bell's permanent roster of flavors. Blue Bell has had much more success with traditional flavors – vanilla is its most popular – and the brand claims on its website to have invented Cookies 'n Cream.
Here's where you can buy pickle-flavored ice cream
If the idea of Dill Pickle 'n Cream actually does appeal to you, more than, say, Cookies 'n Cream, you can feast on pickle-flavored soft serve the next time you're in Manhattan. The Lucky Pickle Dumpling Co. sells pickle-flavored ice cream, and many foodies are big fans (via Bustle). The (male) Instagrammer Mike Chau shared, "Yes this is Pickle Soft Serve and it's really really good and you get a ton of it for just $5 and I just ate the whole thing and no I'm not pregnant," garnering thousands of engagements – which, admittedly, included some puke emojis.
For women who indeed are pregnant and crave pickles and ice cream, the brand Nightfood, available in some grocery stores and online, offers pints of Pickles For Two, which is made with skim milk and pickle juice. If you'd rather not commit to purchasing a pint – perhaps, these two foods together won't be great for your morning sickness – the Food Network offers a simple recipe for No-Churn Pickle Ice Cream which uses items you'd likely have in your pantry and fridge, anyway, like sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese. And, of course, pickles.