No shade to the two-note schoolyard frozen treat, but lately, ice cream sandwiches have grown up. In New York City, cool-kid scoopshops, pop-ups, restaurants, and even wine bars have peppered their menus with vibrant frozen sandos redolent with spiced, floral, herbal, and savory notes to tempt those of us inclined to eat the world—brain freeze be damned. Here’s how to make a few of our favorites.

Coconut-Taro Ice Cream Sandwiches with Ritz Crackers

The vibrant, violet-colored ice cream in this sweet-and-salty recipe from SAVEUR contributing editor Jessie YuChen is dairy-free and comes together easily—no ice-cream machine required. Get the recipe >

Sweet Fried Milk Buns with Ice Cream, Peanuts, and Cilantro

Peanuts and cilantro may be surprising toppings for many ice cream lovers, but the flavor combination is popular in Taiwan’s coastal Yilan County, where night market vendors roll the ingredients in thin wheat-flour wrappers for a beloved snack called hua shen juan bing qi. At Win Son in Brooklyn, pastry chef Danielle Spencer pays homage to the famous street food with this ice cream sandwich. Get the recipe >

Ginger Matcha Ice Cream Sandwiches

The secret ingredient in these bracing, eye-catchingly green sandwiches from Noona’s owner Hannah Bae is dextrose, a grape sugar that keeps the ice cream soft and scoopable. Get the recipe >

Vanilla-Rose Ice Cream Sandwiches with Cardamom Toast

In this fork-and-knife-optional sandwich from Malai’s Pooja Bavishi, buttery cardamom toast encases a heady rose-scented cream filling that requires no churning whatsoever. Get the recipe >

Brown Butter Sugar Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

At Bad Habit Ice Cream, chef Javier Zuniga often sandwiches chewy sugar cookies with fruit-based ice creams such as roasted banana or sweet milk with a swirl of fig jam. Fake it at home by softening a quart of store-bought vanilla and folding in a ripple of your favorite preserves. Get the recipe >

Bastani Sonnati Ice Cream Sandwiches

At Eyval in Brooklyn, chef Ali Saboor’s artful hand and Persian influence shine through in this elegant sandwich that’s perfumed with saffron, rosewater, and citrus and studded with raisins. Get the recipe >

The post 6 Bold Ice Cream Sandwich Recipes to Change Things Up This Summer appeared first on Saveur.

Pooja Bavishi’s Brooklyn-based operation, Malai, is beloved for its vast menu of spiced ice creams, sorbets, and other South Asian-inspired frozen treats—think kulfi pops and gulab jamun ice cream cake. In Bavishi’s at-home riff on her shop’s ice cream sando, buttery cardamom toast sandwiches a rosy no-churn filling. Cool the bread before assembling, then dip in chocolate for a rich, heavenly shell. If you prefer a meltier treat, assemble while the toasts are still warm, and serve immediately with a knife and fork. This recipe makes more ice cream than you “need,” but leftovers keep well in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.

Featured in “6 Bold Ice Cream Sandwich Recipes to Change Things Up This Summer” by Kat Craddock.

The post Vanilla-Rose Ice Cream Sandwiches with Cardamom Toast appeared first on Saveur.

A former business operations manager, Hannah Bae has done extensive recipe testing in the name of engineering the ideal ice cream texture for Noona’s, her eight-year-old line of frozen treats inspired by Asian American foods and flavors. Bae uses dextrose, a sugar derived from grapes, to ensure a soft and scoopable texture, as well as guar gum, a popular plant-based ice cream stabilizer that helps prevent the formation of icy crystals over time. If you plan to serve the ice cream within a few days of freezing, feel free to omit the latter. To best preserve the matcha powder’s delicate flavor, be sure to cool the ice cream base thoroughly before adding the tea.

Featured in “6 Bold Ice Cream Sandwich Recipes to Change Things Up This Summer” by Kat Craddock.

The post Ginger Matcha Ice Cream Sandwiches appeared first on Saveur.

SAVEUR contributing editor Jessie YuChen often throws pan-cultural popups and parties around New York City—sometimes in restaurants, but also in shops, homes, and event spaces with varying collections of kitchen equipment. This vibrant, violet-colored ice cream suits all kinds of events nicely; the plant-based treat comes together easily, no ice-cream machine required. Sweet-and-salty flavor combinations are beloved in Taiwan, where YuChen grew up; they suggest sandwiching this ice cream between Ritz crackers or even scallion crisps for an unexpected savory twist.

Featured in “6 Bold Ice Cream Sandwich Recipes to Change Things Up This Summer” by Kat Craddock.

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Located in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, the dining program at Blackberry Mountain celebrates the flavors of the surrounding region alongside global ingredients and techniques—as seen in this simple yet elegant late-summer salad from executive chef Joey Edwards at the property’s Three Sisters restaurant. In the American South, peaches and sweet tea are iconic refreshments; this recipe features both, in an elevated and unexpected presentation that’s doable for any home cook entertaining on a hot summer night. Increase the recipe based on your farmers market haul and your guest list; the ideal ratio is about 50 percent peaches to 30 percent fennel and 20 percent frisée. Edwards advises using a light hand when dressing this peach and fennel salad; most of the dish’s seasoning comes from the granita’s sweet-sour-salty flavors, as well as the peppery richness of good-quality—preferably Sicilian—extra-virgin olive oil.

The post Peach and Fennel Salad with Sweet Tea Granita appeared first on Saveur.

I’ve been making sourdough matzo for over thirty years and I’ve been making vanilla ice cream ever since 2003, when I opened Eli’s Market on New York City’s Upper East Side. Nothing brings me more joy than marrying two great ideas and finding other smart uses for simple products. My motto has always been “waste not, want not,” and I firmly believe that just about everything I make can become even more delicious in its “second” life. Case and point: this seasonal chocolate caramel matzo ice cream.

My best ideas tend to come about when I mistakenly make too much of one item and need to figure out what to do with it. Almost anything can be repurposed and turning my unsold jelly donuts into jelly donut bread pudding or using the heels of crusty baguettes to make crostini batons are just two examples of the end result being almost better than the original ingredient. As we started planning for this Passover season, I realized my matzo and vanilla ice cream were such an excellent pairing that I’m almost annoyed I didn’t think of it earlier. What about matzo ice cream sandwiches next year?

At the market, of course I use our own housemade sourdough matzo for this recipe. If you’re unable to come by the shop to pick some up for yourself—or if you just want to use up your own Passover leftovers—Streits, Yahuda, or Schmurah work really well, too.

The post Eli Zabar’s Chocolate Caramel Matzo Ice Cream appeared first on Saveur.

Nothing halts a cooking spree to a crawl like the realization that you need to peel and mince four cloves of garlic. The skins that adhere to your fingertips, the way even a single clove’s sugar residue turns your cutting board into a surface as sticky as a movie theater floor.

Prep work for a feast shouldn’t mean sweating the small stuff. Instead, let your freezer do the heavy lifting. By stocking up on individual portions of minced garlic, grated ginger, or chopped fresh herbs, you can make sure you always have the flavors you love on hand. When done right, freezing ingredients can actually make them more flavorful during cooking; ice crystals puncture plant cell walls as they form, and upon thawing, release even more of the volatile flavor compounds than you’d get with just mincing alone. 

The fresh frozen garlic and herbs from Dorot Gardens are flash-frozen right on the farm within 90 minutes of harvest, which means you can keep delicate seasonings like dill or parsley for weeks or months, locked in their most vivid moment of flavor. Each individually portioned cube equates to a teaspoon of minced fresh garlic or herbs. It’s rare for convenience and flavor to go hand in hand in the kitchen, so when it happens, it’s good to take advantage. Here are a few ways to make the most of your own freezer’s bounty.

Skip the Onion Soup Mix

Nothing tastes quite like nostalgia, which for many of us means brisket, meatloaf, or pot roast soused in a gravy made primarily from packaged dried onion soup mix. Nothing wrong with that, but in a big, meaty braise, it’s nice when seasonings like onion and garlic complement a piece of meat rather than completely overwhelming it. Dorot Gardens’ fresh frozen garlic and frozen sauteed onions are a perfect match for red meat. Saute a few cubes in olive oil until they’re fragrant, then stir in a tablespoon of tomato paste and cook that for another minute, then whisk in chicken or beef broth for a braising liquid and gravy base that will turn your brisket or meatloaf into the star of a meal. You can even add some green to the plate by stirring a cube of Dorot Gardens’ frozen parsley straight into the pan while the meat is resting.

Power Up A Pilaf

In homes across South Asia, many dishes begin with paste of fresh ginger and garlic that’s then enhanced with spices. This powerful paste adds savory depth to rice dishes, curries, and lentils of all kinds, and if you have Dorot Gardens’ frozen ginger and garlic on hand, you’re ready to follow suit. Heat a few tablespoons of oil or ghee in a large pan and add cubes of ginger and garlic over medium heat, along with a cinnamon stick and a bay leaf. When the pan smells irresistibly fragrant, add a cup of rinsed long-grain rice like basmati, and stir so every single grain becomes coated in the flavorful oil. Toast the rice like this until the grains develop a nutty aroma, then add your cooking liquid for a full-flavored pilaf that doesn’t even require a knife or cutting board. While this method works best for dishes that start with sauteing in oil, you can even keep it in mind for slow-cooker classics like cholent. Grains are sponges for flavor, and nothing works quite like ginger-garlic paste.

A Snappier Salad Dressing

Bottled salad dressings can’t hold a candle to ones you make yourself with fresh ingredients. This one comes together quickly and keeps for weeks: In a clean screw-top jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine lemon juice, olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a couple grinds of black pepper with one cube each of Dorot Gardens’ frozen turmeric and frozen chopped cilantro or parsley. Let everything commingle for a few minutes while the cubes defrost, then carefully screw on the lid and shake like a bartender for 30 seconds. (This is a great opportunity to get kids excited about a meal while pawning some manual labor onto them.) After shaking, you’ll have a versatile and emulsified salad dressing for any greens, now enhanced with turmeric’s earthy flavor and flecks of green herbs. What’s more, the black pepper in the dressing will enhance the bioavailability of the anti-inflammatory curcumin in turmeric, making this a salad that works harder for you than you worked for it.

The post This Secret to Fresh, More Flavorful Cooking is Hiding in Your Freezer appeared first on Saveur.

Picture this: You’ve snagged a bargain on organic chicken breasts at the local butcher, or maybe you made way too much of mama’s really good red sauce. You wrap everything well, packing it into zippy bags or food containers, then you open the freezer compartment of your refrigerator to find absolutely no space in there whatsoever. Zip. There’s that homemade ice cream from last week, plus ice cubes for chilling martinis, scrap bread saved for that new French toast recipe (or for croutons or stuffing), some leftover veggies waiting to become stock, even a few squishy reusable freezer packs for bumps and bruises, but no room for much else. 

If you’ve ever been frustrated by lack of freezer space, you’re in good company. Most of us have recently been cooking and baking at home more than before, so we have prepped food, staples, plus leftovers, plus, plus, plus. Where to keep it all if not in the freezer? 

Hannah Kirshner is a writer, artist and food stylist, and author of Water, Woods & Wild Things, and she knows the value of having extra freezer space. “I grew up on a small farm outside Seattle,” she remembers, “and so we had a standing chest freezer. You know, it looks like a refrigerator. It was always full of meat and vegetables from our farm—and popsicles.” 

Valery Lomas, lawyer-turned-baker and author of Life is What You Bake It has a great take on the extra freezer, too, though she has no room for one in her own kitchen right now. “My mom has an extra refrigerator and freezer… it makes a lot of sense,” she says. “If you’ve got the space, [you can] buy in bulk for the family. People hunt and fish, take advantage of shrimp season and all that kind of stuff.” Lomas’ own idea of a best use for a chest freezer? “That’s for my dream house, a chest freezer. And I’ll just put butter in it.” 

According to Caleb Schwin, a product specialist at Kelly’s Home Center, “Freezers are probably the simplest appliance in the industry. They have not changed, hardly at all in the last 35 years.” Kelly’s Home Center is a family business that’s been an institution in Oregon since 1974, long before Amazon and even before the likes of Home Depot. During that time, the basics have remained the same: There’s an insulated box with a lid or a door, and an electric condenser that keeps the air cold. “It holds temperature,” he says. That’s pretty much it. 

There are two basic styles of chest freezer on the market: the chest version, with a lid that lifts up on the top; and the standing or upright style Kirshner refers to, which as she says looks rather like a refrigerator, but with a single door and a single purpose. Which style is best for you, “is more of an aesthetic factor than anything,” Schwin adds, and depends how you want the contents to be organized, and the size of the space in which the freezer will live.

Schwin adds that most freezers, no matter the brand name on the front, are really made by only a few manufacturers. Behind every brand you see—well-known, budget, or otherwise—is a freezer motor manufactured by one of very few companies. So don’t be swayed by brand name alone; look instead for the style, construction, and features that suit your needs. 

Because of the size and commitment, this may be one purchase you’ll want to make at a local appliance dealer. For a coast-to-coast comparison, we checked Kelly’s prices and those at Gringer & Sons Appliances in New York, another family-owned institution, against what’s available online. The local stores’ prices are comparable to what you see online, because, let’s face it, they are all competing in the same market. Plus, most local stores also offer delivery.

Whether buying online or checking out chest freezers in a brick-and-mortar store, there are certain basic features you should consider, including the thickness of the box wall (thicker is usually better); the flexibility, durability, and adhesion of the gasket sealing the door or lid; how well and easily the door or lid shuts and stays shut; and whether the exterior finish suits your style.

After that, look at the extras, such as whether the door or lid holds itself open for convenience, or if there’s a kick-plate to open the door with no hands, something that’s only available on the pricier models. Then consider all the interior organization options, baskets, etc. 

For an appliance that’s mostly a big insulated box with one job—keeping things cold—that’s about it. These are the best chest freezers we’ve found online.

• Best Overall: Midea 7 Cu. Ft. Chest Freezer
• Best Value: Avanti Freestanding 10 Cu. Ft. Chest Freezer
• Best Chest Style (Smaller): Plastic Development Group Garage or Basement 5 Cu. Ft. Chest Freezer
• Best Chest Style (Mid-size): Danby Garage-Ready 7.2 Cu. Ft. Chest Freezer
• Best Standing Style: Danby Designer Upright Freezer
• Best Really Small Freezer: Small Upright 1.1 Cu. Ft. Freezer
• Best Accessory: 2 Pack Refrigerator Thermometer

Features to Keep in Mind

Storage Space: The real-world, practical capacity of a freezer is determined both by what you’ll be stashing inside and how well you’ll be able to organize and keep track of it all. Standing styles will often have sliding drawers and shelves on the door, like a refrigerator, and chest styles will often have fitted baskets as accessories. Plus, you can add organizing gear to either chest or standing styles in order to help make things more accessible and easier to see.

Drawers and Dividers: Chest-style freezers will often come with one or more fitted basket inserts made of solid plastic or coated wire, and you can sometimes order extras from the dealer. You can also adapt other storage and organizing options to the freezer: canvas shopping bags that can be lifted out, bins that stack, even tied up grocery bags or cardboard boxes will work in a pinch. It’s all about keeping “like with like” and making sure that everything is visible and easy to handle.

Temperature: A freezer—whether integrated with a fridge or standalone—should be kept at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, never above. Many appliances will have built-in temperature read-outs, but those sensors can quietly fail, so it’s worth investing in a simple, manual fridge/freezer thermometer that will allow you to double-check internal temperatures. Checking the temp occasionally is always a good idea, because a fridge or freezer that isn’t holding its temp is always the first sign that either the door isn’t sealing properly, someone is forgetting to close the door, or the appliance needs servicing. Better safe than sorry—those homemade frozen dumplings are worth their weight in gold. 

Energy Efficiency: The chest style will be marginally more efficient than the standing style. It’s a matter of simple science: Cold air drops naturally, so opening a freezer from the top doesn’t let as much cold escape, because the coldest air is at the bottom of the freezer box. But opening a freezer door that swings from the front will allow cold air to escape more easily. The kWh/yr (kilowatt hours per year) used by a chest freezer will range from about 150 to as much as 450, but that will depend a lot on its size and how often the door is opened. Once you decide on a model, there’s a great resource at energystar.gov that can help you decide whether the brand and style you want fits comfortably into your energy footprint.

Manual vs. Auto Defrosting: 

First, we need to understand how and why frosting happens in a freezer. When a freezer door is opened, warm air flows in from the room, and cold air flows out of the freezer. That imbalance allows frost to occur in the freezer box. So, frost inside a freezer can happen in the moments when the door is standing open, or when the gasket doesn’t seal properly around the door. An auto defrost feature will compensate for the imbalanced temperature with extra-cooled air, but honestly, as long as you don’t stand around with the freezer door hanging open (one of those things your mother warned you not to do anyway), chances are frost won’t be a routine problem. All freezers have the capacity to defrost when they are—of course—turned off, and chest freezers will have a drain at the bottom of the freezer box. Once a year, or once a season, depending on how much you’re storing, plan to empty the freezer and allow it to defrost entirely before cleaning the interior, re-freezing and restocking.

Our Top Picks

Best Overall: Midea 7 Cu. Ft. Chest Freezer

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With a footprint under a yard wide, and great capacity, this is an ideal starter freezer because it doesn’t take up a ton of room. It has a stay-open lid, so you aren’t stuck holding it while selecting, and comes with two top-level baskets. It also offers a temperature control, which some people find useful when the freezer lives in a cooler or warmer part of the house.

Best Value for Extra Space: Avanti Freestanding 10 Cu. Ft. Chest Freezer

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If you have the floor space, this freezer offers great interior storage, but doesn’t have an assisted lid or extra baskets. Consider this larger size if you’re storing bulk amounts of meat or staples that won’t require frequent access.

Best Chest Style (Smaller): Plastic Development Group Garage or Basement 5 Cu. Ft. Chest Freezer

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This smaller chest freezer is just the basics with one fitted basket and decent interior space, good enough for those extra loaves of bread or extra tubs of ice cream.

Best Chest Style (Mid-size): Danby Garage-Ready 7.2 Cu. Ft. Chest Freezer

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This chest freezer touts itself as being “garage-ready.” This is an issue worth considering, because some manufacturers will consider it a violation of the warranty to keep a freezer “outdoors.” In practical use, however, it’s perfectly safe and reasonable to keep a freezer in a basement or garage where it’s generally cooler, as long as temperatures there aren’t truly extreme. Residential refrigerators and freezers aren’t built to work reliably against extremes of temperature.

Best Standing Style: Danby Designer Upright Freezer

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This substantial standing (upright) freezer is simple and not over-the-top expensive, but still has features that allow it to be easily organized, including shelves on the door and racks in the freezer compartment. While an upright can be marginally less efficient than a chest freezer, its smaller footprint can be helpful in small spaces.

Best Really Small Freezer: Small Upright 1.1 Cu. Ft. Freezer

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This is a great freezer that serves specific purposes in a small space, like keeping frozen meals in a dorm room or office, or for someone who needs to keep medication at low temperatures. If you have extra countertop space, it’s perfect, and its glass door even doubles as a message board when using dry erase markers. But if it’s destined to sit on the floor, a small standing freezer would have the same footprint, more interior storage, and be only a bit more expensive. 

Best Accessory: 2 Pack Refrigerator Thermometer

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Digital readouts and automatic sensors are great, but nothing beats a plain old thermometer. Simply place one (they hang) near the center of both your fridge and your freezer to confirm at a glance that food is kept at a safe temperature.

Ask the Experts

Q:  Does a chest freezer use a lot of electricity?

Chest freezers are actually fairly efficient, in part because they only use energy to do one thing, and also because we tend not to be opening and closing them as much as we would a refrigerator. 

Q: Can I plug my chest freezer into a regular outlet?

Yes, most home chest freezers are designed to be plugged into a standard AC household outlet. Commercial freezers are another matter, but home chest freezers are plug-and-play. That said, there are chest freezers that are designed specifically to run on the DC current (12 or 24 volts) from a car’s cigarette lighter. This can be useful if you’re in a remote location, off the grid, or need something that can run easily on solar power (or even golf-cart batteries!)

Q: How should I maintain my chest freezer?

The two biggest things to watch for in chest freezers (or in refrigerators, for that matter) are food spills and leaks, or doors that are left standing open or ajar. Avoid such small crises in advance by making sure everything that goes into the freezer is properly sealed or lidded. As for doors left ajar, some newer, fancier appliances have a warning that sounds if a door is open. If the door gasket on a chest freezer isn’t sealed, or if something like a bread bag or other errant bit of packaging impedes the seal, the air leakage will cause frost, and therefore, the need to completely defrost the freezer. 

Our Take

Once you have a chest freezer, you’ll find it easily filled, whether you keep it stocked with butter or seasonal produce. And once you decide you need one, you’ll want to pick the best chest freezer for your needs. They’re incredibly efficient in what they do, aren’t terribly expensive, and whether chest-style or standing, can have a footprint smaller than a standard refrigerator. The chest style-freezer can even double as a counter or work space when it’s closed, or be covered entirely with something either practical (a large cutting board, perhaps) or decorative (fabric that matches the room). You’ll love knowing that it’s so easy to find the frozen peas now that they aren’t buried behind those extra bags of coffee beans you got on sale. 

The post The Best Chest Freezers Are Worth the Space appeared first on Saveur.

Spring Pea Soup with Leeks and Herbs »

Creamy Fenugreek and Spinach with Cheese (Methi Malai Paneer)

Buckwheat and Ricotta Gnocchi with Cream, Peas, and Spinach

Bacon and Shrimp Fried Rice

Noodles with Peas (Pasta e Piselli)

Fresh Peas With Lettuce and Green Garlic

Cooked and Raw Winter Salad

Brown Butter, Peas, and Mint Omelette

Cold Pea and Basil Soup

Sweet Peas with Prosciutto

Peas with Orange and Mint

The post Fill Your Freezer with Frozen Peas appeared first on Saveur.

Pop quiz: When you last hit the grocery to stock up, what’s the strangest thing that ended up in your basket? Ten cans of a soup you can’t stand? Buns, no hot dogs? A carton of shelf-stable milk from a grain you’ve never heard of? It’s okay, no one is perfectly clear-headed when contemplating the unknown.

I bought a pineapple. Perched atop five-pound bags of basmati and a mini-mountain of canned goods, it was a true oddity. The inspiration had come from a moment the day before when, as I panic-scrolled through news updates, a post about homemade piña coladas momentarily halted my freakout. The very idea of it—chunks of fresh pineapple, cut-up and frozen, mixed with white rum and cream of coconut, and finished with a splash of añejo rum—sounded dreamy. So, when I should have been scoping the granola aisle for a month’s worth of healthy breakfasts, I spotted that spiky little tropical treat and threw it in the cart instead.

In fact, while the actual frozen foods case (along with the cereal, bread, meat, and candy aisles) had been mostly cleared of inventory, the produce aisle was still full of color and life. Consider the possibilities: a frozen stash of chopped bell peppers, onions, and celery—the Louisiana cook’s holy trinity—on hand for gumbo, red beans and rice, and etouffee. (There are several one-pound bags of parcooked, peeled crawfish from The Cajun Grocer in my deep freeze.) Add a bag of diced carrots alongside those onions and celery and I had mirepoix at the ready for bolognese or ragu. I could add just about any diced and frozen veggies to fried rice. How about fresh herbs for pesto, made now and frozen in ice trays for a quick fix to all that pasta that was certainly in my future? Greens blanched and frozen for a soup, a stew, and—of course—more pasta? Berries washed, frozen on sheet pans, then bagged, to eventually add to muffins, a crisp, or even an upside down cake? Suddenly, I saw a season’s worth of brighter options.

So the next time you shop, whether you’re putting in a delivery order, or doing the 6am dash with self-checkout to ensure social distancing, don’t ignore the produce. Instead, look around and take in all the potential. With these recipes as a starting point, go forth with fresh inspiration. And if you find yourself needing a piña colada recipe, well, we’ve got you covered there, too.

Mr. B’s Gumbo Ya-Ya

Red Beans and Rice

Crawfish Etouffée

Penne Bolognese

Potato Gnocchi with Pork Ragu

Bacon and Egg Fried Rice

Pesto Varieties

The Best Chicken Soup with Rice, Carrots, and Kale

Palestinian Spinach and Chickpea Stew (Sabanekh bil hummus)

Farfalle with Cavolo Nero Pesto

Blueberry Crisp

Blueberry Upside-Down Cake

The post Meal Prepping for Uncertain Times: Freezer Edition appeared first on Saveur.

Porcelain figurines have long been tied to stereotypically feminine, sometimes cloyingly sweet things. Which is what makes porcelain the perfect material for artistic Jessica Stoller’s gleaming statues combining food, femininity, and something more grotesque.

A crown of eclairs and a melting chocolate-ice-cream hair piece drip down onto the sweet female faces of Stoller’s portrait busts, making an explicit connection between the usually implicit ideas of femininity, indulgence, and frivolity. The figures lick at gooey, sugary sweets with smooth porcelain skin and faces frozen into perfected objects of desire. In an interview with Mold, Stoller discusses the long history of women being “physically compared to porcelain, an unrealistic standard of perfection, homogeneity, and whiteness.”

Her pieces seem also to nod to the long and fraught history of sugar as a tool of human fantasy—and enslavement. As Sidney Mintz articulates in his seminal book Sweetness and Power, sugar’s use as a spice and a medicine declined as Europeans consumed it in larger and larger quantities, primarily because of slave labor on sugar cane plantations in the new colonies. The proliferation of sugar and sweets over the past several centuries has been, as Mintz puts it, “the direct consequence of… the exercise of power.”

The pastel, almost ghostly desserts in Stoller’s sculptures cuttingly comment on that costly abundance of sugar and its feminization over time. In a recent interview, Stoller says she is interested in “the ideas of the ‘feminization’ of sugar and how once ubiquitous, it was no longer tied to wealth and male power. It became ‘feminized.'”

Take a look at more of Stoller’s work on her website.

The post These Grotesquely Beautiful Sculptures Freeze Women and Sugar in Porcelain appeared first on Saveur.