Upstate Custard

I spent the last, full, sun-blazing week of summer at my sister’s house in upstate New York. She and her family live outside of Rochester, in an area I would describe as “country.” They have a separate apartment attached to the side of the house that they sometimes rent out as an AirBNB, but business has been slow since the pandemic, and it was available for me to stay for a few days. It felt incredibly dreamy to just be able to walk outside without even wearing shoes; after six months of apartment living, I’m hot for lawns.

I’m also hot for frozen custard, and for whatever reason, upstate New York has it in abundance. Frozen custard is similar to ice cream, but it’s made with eggs; it’s often closer to soft ice cream in consistency, but with less air whipped into it. It’s very smooth, dense, and flavorful.

On one brutally sweltering day, my sister and I went to Long Acre Farm’s Amazing Maize Maze and spent an hour and a half fumbling our way through the twists and turns; we emerged ravenous for something cold and sweet. I searched google map for ice cream, and Abbott’s Frozen Custard popped up nearby. “Oh, you HAVE to try Abbott’s!” my sister exclaimed.

Abbott’s is a Rochester-local chain that’s been around since 1926. The storefront is a far cry from the cute, airy-designs of the Brooklyn shops I’ve been patronizing (note the lack of branding!) but that makes sense — upstate New York is a different world with different tastes. But we can all get behind good-tasting frozen custard! While Abbott’s “signature flavors” are fairly boring; chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate almond, local franchises seem able to offer a variety of other options; I had Saturday Morning Cereal with Froot Loops, and it was great! The base absolutely tasted like milk that had been sopping up a sugary cereal for awhile (in a good way!) and there were lots of Froot Loops dotting the scoop. They were a little soft, but I’m not sure how you would retain the crispy crunch of them, so I’m not going to hold that against Abbott’s! The texture was not as “soft” as I like it, but it was very dense and glossy, with a really pleasing mouthfeel.

A few days later, I went to my sister’s local ice cream place, Dipper Dan’s. They don’t have a website, but if you close your eyes and imagine a small-town ice cream place … you can probably imagine what it looks like! They mostly have ice cream, but I wanted to try their frozen custard since I had gotten so excited about it.

Their custard came directly out of one of those stainless-steel machines, and they only had standard flavors, chocolate, vanilla and chocolate-vanilla swirl. I got a chocolate scoop and yes, it was basic as hell, but it was the perfect melty texture, and the flavor had surprisingly depth. I think it’s the denseness of frozen custard; it just makes it taste much richer than the typical aerated soft ice cream. (Which, don’t get me wrong — I love that too.)

Melty, luscious custard in a cone

Abbott’s Frozen Custard, Saturday Morning Cereal with Froot Loops:

4 spoons and a sudden desire to watch cartoons.

Dipper Dan’s, Chocolate

4 spoons and a well-coated tongue.