A Pacojet By Any Other Name
Jan 8, 2023 · 2 minute readAs many of you know, I have a considerable amount of pastry-related equipment in this house. Some might say more than you’d find in many a high-end restaurant, but I couldn’t possibly comment. But, despite things like the tempered, the melangeur, and enough molds to start a chocolate factory, there has always been a white whale that I could never justify: the Pacojet.
Now, the Pacojet (which I believe makes a starring appearance in The Menu) is a fancy, fancy way of making ice cream. You basically freeze an ice cream base to -20°C and the Pacojet spins a blade at around 2,000 RPM inside the base, making a creamy, silky ice cream in seconds. You’ll find it as a mainstay in most three star Michelin restaurants. The only slight catch is that it costs around $5,000. So, more than just a little pricey. You can’t really justify paying the cost of two fridges just for making ice cream.
But then, just before Christmas, I learnt two things that I hadn’t been expecting: the original Pacojet patents expired a couple of years ago, and over a year previously, Ninja released something called the Creami1. This is essentially a Pacojet. That costs under $2002. Needless to say, I had one ordered even as I was on my way to the airport.
Now, given that it’s about 25 times cheaper than a Pacojet, there are some economies; mainly that instead of the almost indestructible metal canisters, the Creami uses plastic, and it doesn’t quite have the same oomph as today’s Pacojet models. But all that really means is that you may have to spin the base twice instead of once…and you know, I think I can live with that.
And this weekend, I finally tried it out! I made an ice-cream base using Eddie Shepherd’s caramelized white chocolate recipe (I had a bunch of chocolate left over from Thanksgiving that I needed to use anyhow!), stuck the mixture in the freezer for 24 hours and then…made ice-cream in three minutes flat.
All hail our new knock-off Pacojet gods!