The founder of a designer ice cream chain has claimed The New York Times published one of her recipe techniques without giving her the proper credit.
Jeni Britton, the owner of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, made the claim in an impassioned post to Instagram last week.
She initially shared with her approximately 163,000 followers about how New York Times Cooking released a video featuring one of the three disputed recipes being prepared on Tuesday, August 12.
All the desserts incorporated cream cheese instead of custard as the main ingredient, and Britton eagerly noted her own ‘signature game-changing cream cheese base ice cream’ concept that she had created nearly two decades ago.
‘To say that seeing the @nytimes post my recipe is disappointing is an understatement,’ she raged. ‘It makes me mad.
‘Maybe it’s an outsized reaction, but I worked on it for years and took a huge risk publishing it,’ she continued.
Britton, 51, has more than 90 ice cream shops across the US. Her post has amassed more than 32,000 likes in just few days.
“I developed this recipe to resemble what’s achievable on premium equipment at Jeni’s using a low-cost machine at home,” she elaborated in a video. “I wanted you to become the ice cream creator, experience the delight I do, and craft any flavor you desired.”
She informed her approximately 163,000 followers about New York Times Cooking’s video post of the recipe on Tuesday, August 12 (as seen here). Both she and the recipe promoted by the Times utilize cream cheese as a foundation instead of the conventional custard.
“[The Times] disregarded it for years, always favoring the traditional custard base as ‘the only ice cream recipe you’ll ever need’ even after conducting a detailed interview with me about my method,” she commented.
‘[M]eanwhile the WSJ lauded it and called my book and technique the ice cream making bible and my book became a @nytimes bestseller.
‘Comment and tell them we [see] them.’
Britton also pointed out that one of the Times’s recipes, which was for a cheesecake-inspired ‘Peanut Butter ice cream,’ used four ounces of cream cheese compared to the two ounces she preferred.
‘I tried that and all of my tasters said it tasted like frosting,’ she griped. ‘So I stay at 2 ounces unless I’m specifically making a cream cheese ice cream.’
Britton reiterated how she thought up the concept in 2007, in her kitchen.
She started her business with a stall in Columbus, Ohio, in 2002.
Today, she has 37 distinct ice cream flavors sold in stores across 16 states.
‘I made this recipe to mimic what we can do on expensive machines at Jeni’s in your home kitchen on an inexpensive machine,’ she explained in a video attached to her post.
‘So, I wanted you to become the ice-cream maker and have all the fun I have and make any flavor that you wanted.
‘So I needed to build an ice cream base that was very sturdy and also very scoop-able so that it was like American-style scoops from an ice cream shop. So you could pull it out of a freezer, scoop it, and put it on a cone like we do at Jeni’s.
‘That was my goal.’
The cream cheese recipe was later included in two of her books, 2011’s ‘Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home’ and ‘The Artisanal Kitchen: Perfect Homemade Ice Cream: The Best Make-It-Yourself Ice Creams’ in 2019.
‘I stand by the fact that the idea is not his,’ Jeni still said on Instagram. ‘It originated in my kitchen in 2007.’
She also claimed the writer of the article, whom she named as Scott, refused to give her credit after she reached out to him.
‘[He said] the recipe was his own, but then went on to disprove that in his own words,’ she wrote in an update to her initial post.
Jeni Britton, the founder and owner of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, accused the New York Times of stealing one of her ice cream making techniques without giving her the proper credit last Wednesday
Britton, 51, has more than 90 ice cream shops across the US, with stores also selling her ‘designer’ ice creams in 16 states
‘He told me, “that’s not how information works anymore” – like, no one owns anything now. (THIS IS BULLSH*T for a NY Times writer)’.
The Times also posted the ice cream recipes on their website – and enthusiasts were quick to point out how Scott’s method was similar to Britton’s.
One person wrote in the comments: ‘According to Jeni Britton Bauer (of Jeni’s Ice Cream fame), the corn syrup keeps ice crystals from forming. Instead of corn syrup, I use Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which is harder to find but actually tastes good (like butterscotch).
‘Bauer’s basic recipe, which was my go-to for years, also uses cream cheese.’
Another added: ‘So glad you brought up Jeni’s recipe. I use her recipe exclusively and this one is similar (omits corn starch). I encourage folks to seek it out.’
The NYT recipe currently holds a three-star rating on their site.
A New York Times spokesperson explained to Daily Mail how the recipe in question was a unique creation that did not draw from Britton’s.
‘Jeni has been criticizing The Times for days now, despite our outreach and conversation with her and the fact that we followed our standards clearly here,’ Times spokesperson Jordan Cohen said.
‘Jeni is welcome to her opinions, but she is wrong on the facts: this is an original recipe designed from a custard base and with particular proportions, ingredients and technique.
‘The reporter who wrote this story has been making ice cream for many years; he started out by helping his mom manage the ice and salt levels in her old-fashioned churning bucket,’ Cohen continued.
‘Now, he creates his own distinct recipes using ratios and formulas, of which this is one.
‘We deeply respect original recipe development and the integrity of Jeni’s work but these recipes are substantially different in numerous ways.’
‘I needed to build an ice cream base that was very sturdy and also very scoop-able so that it was like American-style scoops from an ice cream shop. So you could pull it out of a freezer, scoop it, and put it on a cone like we do at Jeni’s,’ she said. ‘That was my goal’
Britton, meanwhile, told Ohio outlet 614 Now last week that the writer responsible told her he found the recipe in a book by Dana Cree, ‘which was inspired by [her] recipe and does credit [her]’, she said.
Britton has received coverage in The Times before, with reports on several of her ice cream innovations and an interview about her use of cream cheese in ice cream in 2016. All the pieces credited her for her recipes.
She did not immediately respond to a Daily Mail request for comment.
