David, the correct spelling of the gastronomical tip is “Chabrot”. I found this definition in a recipe :

The Chabrot:
Before finishing the soup, it is traditional to make chabrot by diluting the remaining soup by pouring a little red wine into the bowl or onto the plate (about ½ glass). Then you drink it out of the bowl or plate in small mouthfuls. It is likely that the root of the word come from the latin capreolus “to drink like a goat” which is what one would emulate drinking from the plate or bowl.

I had a close run on the lemon icecream front in Newcastle recently. I was trying to get the oils from the lemon zest by warming the grated zest with the juice before adding it to the mix. Even though the dairy was all absolutely fresh I still almost curdled the mix when I added the warm juice. I guess the combination of a little heat and a lot of acidity just tipped it over the edge.
The other problem with warming the juice and zest together was that it released pith flavours into the mix which gave the icecream a bit of a bitter aftertaste. This was despite the fact that I used a lemon zester tool and was really carefull not to zest too deeply to cut into the pith.

My disatisfaction with that batch was why I thought about trying to release the oils from the lemon skin by just scraping its surface – it sort of worked but I think there’s still room for innovation on this one.

Sounds like a tasty batch. Lemon ice cream is tricky but yummy – it always needs the freshest dairy to avoid curdling…