The delicious history of ice cream
Recently, I discovered a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream recipe that I had never tasted. So I decided to learn more about this delicious dessert that we all know but we don’t know the origins.
Who invented ice cream dessert ?
I was born and ice cream was already there, my parents and grandparents were children and ice cream was already there too. How long have we been eating ice cream ?
Greeks and Romans : a first version of sorbet
For the Greeks and Romans, making a refreshing dessert meant carrying blocks of ice from the top of the mountains and crushing them with honey.
We are not already into ice cream but it was a first version of what we know today as sorbet. But what is the difference between a “sorbet” and “ice cream” ?
- Ice cream are composed with milk, eggs or milk protein.
- Sorbet are based on water with fruits or syrup which is basically water + sugar
Now let’s get back to the ancien Rome.
The emperor Nero had snow and ice transported from mountains or volcanoes such as Mount Etna, these natural ice being stored in ice-boxes and buried in wells to be preserved. Nero also feasted his guests with crushed fruit with honey and snow, practices that Seneca found very expensive.
How long have these sorbets and frozen fruits been eaten ? Historians remain silent on the subject. It seems that these icy preparations lasted in the Middle East but not in the West.
Ancient China : a first prototype of ice cream
It was only a few hundred years later, in China in the 16th century B.C under the Shang Dynasty that the emperor reveled in granites made of snow, milk and spices. Chinese had developed a process where they managed to freeze ice cream by using salt and salpeter (nitre) to lower the freezing point of ice.
The legend said that Kublai Khan founder of the Yuan dynasty, loved to drink milk, and would add ice to the milk to make it last longer during the summer. He also added preserves and jam to his favorite icy drink, creating the first ice cream prototype. Kublai Khan issues a decree that anybody except the royal family can make ice cream in order to keep production process private.
Italian traveler Marco Polo met Kublai Khan and had the honor of enjoying the royal treat. After leaving China, Marco Polo brought the technique of making ice cream back to Italia. Marco Polo is often recognized for bringing knowledge of Chinese ice cream techniques to Italy where it was perfected, but it seems clear that news about ice cream has traveled to Europe from the Arab world, also via a number other sources.
Arab world : “saracen connection”
Sicily itself was actually an Islamic Emirate during the years 965 to 1072, so in a sense the “oriental traditions” may have bloomed on Europe. Sugar and its work, like noodles, puff pastry, escabeche and distillation, are part of the “Saracen connection” which is the Arab contribution to European food culture, defined by the british historian Anne Wilson.
In fact, this connection concerns above all Spain and Italy, which is perfectly logical given the Arab presence in Spain and Sicily. So the Hispanic peninsula becomes, according to the words of Liliane Plouvier, the first “jam-making land” in Europe, happily gathering knowledge Muslim pharmaceutical, before being challenged by Italy which, like Catalonia and Languedoc, communicates directly with Al-Andalus. It was not until the second half of the 16th century that frozen drinks appear in Italy for become a real local specialty. Mixtures of snow and scented water or wine are spreading in
the whole peninsula down to the working classes. Before that, there is no document confirming that the sorbet technique is known to the Italians.
Italy : ice cream technique perfected
As for the Italians of the Renaissance, they discovered that by mixing salt with snow, it reproduced a chemical reaction which helped to cool the mixture without freezing it, and it was important. We do not know the name of the pastry chef, who in Italy in the 15th century had the idea of adding cream, transforming sorbets into ice creams.
The gourmet Catherine de Medicis, who reveled in Florence since her childhood, had them put at her French table after her nuptials with King Henry II of France in 1533. European royal families were infatuated but it was not until the 18th century that ice creams really gained ground. Indeed, it takes living ice — devoid of snow — come from afar, to keep them and stocks were scarce and expensive.
France : symbol of the expension of ice cream in Europe
The first cooler was only created in Paris in the 17th century. They are also found in castles like Versailles or Chantilly. This does not prevent the development of ice cream recipes. We owe Menon’s first written record in his Science of the Confectioner’s Butler (1750). Joseph Gilliers also published in Le Cannaméliste Français (1751) several “snow” recipes, including an artichoke ( blanched bottoms, pistachios, candied orange, cream and sugar).
In 1689, the Sicilian Francesco Procopio del Coltelli opened the first café in Paris, Le Procope. He not only served coffee there, but also over a hundred different sorbets and ice creams. All the good Parisian society is rushing into it, including the “quality ladies”, which was not done until then. And if they dare not leave their carriage, a valet brings them. In 1720, he invented frozen mousses by adding whipped cream to his ice creams: these “Chantilly ice creams” immediately became fashionable. In the 18th century, glaciers multiplied in Paris and consumption now spreads throughout the year. Ice creams are served in cups or in bricks, molded in fruit, egg cups, glasses.
The French Revolution will not kill the ice cream. On the contrary, it democratizes them. Glacier then became a profession in its own right and ice cream makers invaded French homes.
America : first step to the industrialization of ice cream
In 1785, Thomas Jefferson, future third President of the United States (1801), was ambassador to France. Fascinated by these fashionable ice creams, he brings with him mussels and a vanilla ice cream recipe: six egg yolks, half a pound of sugar, two bottles of cream and a vanilla pod, cooked together then placed in what was then called a “sarbottiere”.
During his presidency, frozen desserts were then systematically served at official White House meals. In 1806, Frederic Tudor, a businessman from Boston nicknamed Ice King, undertook to collect and sell ice from frozen lakes. And a little later, Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth, an entrepreneur who also participated in the ice trade, invented an ice-cutting machine.
In 1843, in America, in Philadelphia, a woman named Nancy Johnson invented a machine, a crank ice cream maker that prevented the formation of ice crystals in the mix and finally created this smooth and silky creamy treasure that, thanks to modern refrigeration, is now in many places.
Today, ice cream can be found almost everywhere on every street corner and in every supermarket. Every year, we consume worldwide, up to like more than 5000 Olympic-sized pools full. There is different brands of ice cream such as Häagen-Dazs, Ben & Jerry’s or Magnum but I will not going depper for each brand because that’s another story.
Written by Anderson Cuellar.
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