Where do they come from. Everyone has a suggestion and some are worthwhile. Once I dreamed of a flavor but I forget which one, although we actually made the flavor. A few like Burnt Caramel are happy accidents.

Yesterday I flipped through a book about the favorite last meal of 50 famous chefs. Michel Richard of Citrus in DC and his cookbook, Happy in the Kitchen, said as part of his last meal he wanted to eat Maple Burnt Caramel. That sounded great and with Michel’s endorsement I thought it would be great. When you’re coming up with a new recipe it should usually be stronger before freezing than you want it to taste when frozen. Chad Coffin was making ice cream so he agreed to add some Grade B Maple Syrup to a batch of Burnt Caramel. And we both agreed to make it a little more Maple than we thought we wanted. Tomorrow is Wednesday and both of us get to taste it after the ice cream has spent a long night in our twenty below zero freezer.

Alex Castagneto is the ambitious chef of Estragon. Estragon is a very good Spanish restaurant at 400 Harrison Avenue in the South End of Boston. Estragon was the name of the character in Waiting for Godot who only liked to sleep and eat. Alex called with a somewhat urgent request. At the end of this week a famous Spanish chef is visiting the restaurant and he has requested Walnut ice cream. Italians make Noce gelato, which is wonderful. It is a sweet walnut butter that I have never been able to find in North America.

I read a lot of recipes and settle on one that sounds sensible. Heat walnuts with a little salt and a secret ingredient. Then infuse those toasty nuts in a double boiler full of milk and cream. The nuts should infuse or impart their flavor to the ice cream mixture. My favorite recipe for making this flavor emphasizes the need for reinforcing the flavor of walnuts by using a Walnut liqueur called Pappa Peppe. Nothing named Pappa Peppe can be too expensive but I have spent hours visiting liquor stores fruitlessly searching for any kind of Walnut liqueur.

I did find what must be the world’s best Walnut liqueur, from Austria at the Fresh Pond Whole Foods. But it is $40 and we only need a few ounces to make this flavor. I can’t reach Chef Alex so I am immobilized. The toasted nuts are infusing in the heated cream but their taste is subtle. I hope to convince Estragon to share the cost of the Walnut liqueur, or even share some of their own booze.

This is a flavor that might interest a lot of restaurants and would be good for people who want something unusual for entertaining dinner guests. It will not replace Chocolate Chip. More work tomorrow.

So far this year we have stolen a pretty good recipe for Lemon Gelato from Sarah Jenkin’s and Mindy Fox’s good book, Olives and Oranges. We also “appropriated” a wonderful recipe for Mango Coconut Sorbet from another cookbook, whose author allowed that the recipe had originated at another famous restaurant. From that same book we made a new Cocoa Syrup that might change the way we make Cocoa Pudding. And we converted a fine recipe for Black Peppermint ice cream to a fine recipe for Sage ice cream.

I wanted to make Rum and Cocoa Cola ice cream but no drug store in Cambridge stocks Coca Cola syrup. Even as a child I knew I was getting medical advice from my mother that she had acquired from listening to doctors on the radio during the Depression.