The origins of ice cream

Once upon a time, ice cream was not something that you bought at the park or the beach on a hot summer’s day. Once upon a time, it was reserved for the world’s elite.

Incredibly, ice cream has been around since Roman times.  Evidently it was made from ice that was cut in the Alps, packed in straw and brought to Rome before it was mixed with fruit juices. The infamous emperor Nero adored it. It was however less like the ice cream that we enjoy today and more like what the Italians call a Granita. 

And the Romans probably took this idea from the ancient Egyptians. 

In fact, a reference is even made to it in the Bible when Abraham instructs his son Issac to cool off by mixing goat’s milk and snow. 

The ancient Greeks would make ice drinks with lemon, honey, pomegranate juice and ice or snow. Alexander the Great brought snow with him on his conquests and would mix it with honey whilst campaigning in India. 

Unfortunately this along with many other inventions disappeared as the Western Roman empire was destroyed by the Goths and Vandals. However, it continued in the Eastern Roman Empire even after it had been conquered by the Muslims. Incidentally, the cuisine of North Africa today is meant to be the closest that resembles the cuisine of our ancestors during Roman times. The Arabs brought a version of it to Sicily where today an artisanal tradition of making Gelato still flourishes. The Arabs or Moors loved mixed fruit juices which they would mix with snow from Mt Etna and called them Sherbert or in Arabic Sharabit. However, this was still a little bit different from todays version. 

In Renaissance Florence a  man called Ruggeri won a competition for “most unusual dish” which was a frozen form of the sorbet drink which people were already serving. He gave Catherine de Medici the recipe before she moved to France and it was served at the wedding feast of Catherine de Medici, the Queen of France. 

However the more modern day version of ice cream also came from Florence. A man called Bernardo Buonatali organised partes for the Duke of Tuscany and he created a system of barrels in the cellars which could safeguard snow. At one party he created an ice mixed with cream and flavoured with oranges,  lemons and bergamot and served it chilled. In some sources he is credited with adding eggs and thereby making it creamier. In others no.

In fact here food history  becomes murky as so many people claim that their countries also invented it. Some people say that it was brought to Britain from the French court by Charles the Second when he returned. Some say it was invented in England afterwards. We do know that he tried to keep the recipe secret and for the royal palate only.

And in Persia and China there are yet more versions that are more like Granitas that could also be claimed to be precursors. And let us not go near Marco Polo and that polemic…. 

Some say true ice cream was only invented later by a Sciclian chemist who discovered how to freeze using an ingredient that was used in making gunpowder.

And although I have researched this Wikipedia has very different information again. (And unfortunately is less correct these days)

However we do know that like everything in life it was reserved for the elites and considered a wonderful luxury until the masses were able to have it as well.

In 1790 the first American ice cream parlour opened in New York and in 1846 an American called Nancy Johnson invented and patented the first domestic ice cream maker. In 1848 a fellow American William Young started to produce en masse the ‘Johnson patented ice cream freezer”. From then on many were able to enjoy this gorgeous treat but as a result it was no longer exclusive and once it became mass manufactured expensive cream began to disappear from the recipe. In Britain a BBC documentary discovered that in certain commercial varieties half the product was air.

I personally recommend that you make your own if possible as it tastes so much better and commercial ice creams these days very rarely contain cream unless they are of the artisinal type.

With home freezers they are very easy to make and you do not need an ice cream maker. Simply a bit of foresight. It is also an excellent way to use up fruits where you have too many and not enough time to make jam or to quickly use them before they become over-ripe.

Now for the Etiquette. In many older books it says to eat it with a fork and this comes from French etiquette where puddings or dessert are frequently eaten with a fork. In fact until ice cream became mainstream with the invention of domestic freezers it was de rigueur to eat it with a fork. 

However these days I personally would not do this. Etiquette (unlike Protocol) is constantly changing and as everyone uses spoons these days I think you would look a little silly serving it with a fork. 

Sorbets are frequently served at official dinners in Europe as it is believed they cleanse the palate and if I serve a sorbet course I personally serve it with a demi-tasse spoon as it should only be served in tiny amounts. 

And finally if you love porcelain there are so many wonderful pieces of Sévres devoted to ice cream. They can be superb decorative pieces.