Jennifer McLagan is a food writer who’s spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way to cook with the kind of ingredients our increasingly prudish palettes are afraid to try. Slaving over a hot stove, McLagan has produced guides to cooking with fat, another on bones, as well as a compendium of what to do with cuts of offal we normally turn our noses up at.

She recently spoke to Sean Moncrieff about another taste that causes most of us to wrinkle our faces in displeasure, bitterness. Back with another askew take on culinary history and contemporary cuisine, Bitter: A Taste of the World's Most Dangerous Flavor, with Recipes reveals the hidden treasures found in green vegetables, grapefruits, beer, and chocolate.

As Jennifer tells Sean, our innate fear of biting into bitter foods stems from an ingrained cultural misunderstanding of what they mean and how they might affect us, but that by opening our minds and mouths to new experiences, we’re more likely to experience a more complex and diverse explosion of flavour.

One of the more unusual recipes in McLagan’s book is one for ice cream, and with a spell of fine weather lifting the mood of the whole country, you might want to try something a bit different to yet another 99. Here’s Jennifer McLagan’s guide to whipping up a bitterly beautiful batch of turnip ice cream:

Turnip Ice Cream

• 250 g turnips, about 3 medium turnips
• 250 ml whole milk
• 250 ml whipping (35 percent fat) cream
• A blade of mace, or a good pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
• 3 egg yolks
• 75 g sugar
• A pinch of fine sea salt
• 1 tablespoon vodka

Peel and coarsely grate the turnips, then place them in a medium saucepan and add the milk, cream, and mace. Bring to a boil over medium heat, remove from the heat, cover, and let stand for 15 minutes. Taste the mixture: it should taste of turnip; if not, let stand another 10 minutes. Strain the mixture into a large measuring cup, pressing down on the turnip to extract all the liquid.

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and salt in a large bowl until the mixture is light and thick and the sugar is dissolved. Whisk the strained milk and cream mixture into the egg yolks, then pour into a clean saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Strain into a bowl and cool quickly by placing it in a larger bowl or sink filled with cold water and ice. Stir the mixture often. When it is cool, cover and refrigerate overnight. Also, place a container for the ice cream in the freezer to get cold.

The next day, remove the ice cream mixture from the refrigerator, stir in the vodka, and then churn in an ice cream machine following the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to the cold container and freeze until ready to serve.

You can listen back to the Moncrieff show’s interview with Jennifer McLagan below: