Most people love ice cream or frozen yogurt substitutes, but have we ever really thought about how this delicious dessert developed? Do we believe that this wonderful sweet came form Italy? If we did, we'd be wrong.
1. It is generally believed that ice cream had its beginnings in ancient China in the second century BC although some claim it was much longer ago. What is certain is that the precursors of ice cream were made of snow and were eaten by the wealthy as they could send slaves into the snowy mountains to bring them back snow for desserts. The snow was flavoured with fruit and fruit juices and must have been more like a sorbet than what we now know as ice cream. Alexander the Great is documented as eating snow flavored with honey and nectar. The Emperor Claudius (56-86 A.D.) had slaves bring him snow and this was flavored with different fruit and juices.
Ice pits were dug by slaves to store snow in China and archaeologists have found these dating back to the 7th century B.C. Alexander the Great also stored snow in such pits around 330 BC and the Romans certainly had them. In Naples the pits were across the Bay of Naples, so it could be dangerous for people to row across the Bay in bad weather. During those days, the Neapolitans had no ice cream.
2. In the mid-16th century scientists discovered that by adding salt petre, potassium nitrate to water, wine and cream, it could be frozen. They soon replaced this with common salt, so iced cream could be made more easily.
3. The story goes that Catherine de Medici took an ice cream recipe with her to France on her marriage to Henri II, in 1553. By the 17th century, King Charles II of England was eating ice cream at banquet in 1672.
The Italian Latini published his "Treatise on Various Kinds of Sorbet or Water Ices" between 1692 and 1694 and mentions a "milk sorbet that is first cooked." Filippo Baldini wrote of "milky sorbets" much later in 1775 in De' sorbetti or frozen desserts from Naples.
4. The first recipe that didn't come from Italy was Mrs. Mary Eales Receipts (the older word for recipes, published in 1718 whose recipe must have been a frozen ice cream that was not smooth, but had ice crystals in it.
5. Wall's of London began operations around 1823, selling ices in the streets of London from a fleet of tricycles with the slogan "Stop me and Buy one." Because of the scarcity of food and dairy products, this business fell into decline during the war years in Britain, 1939-1945, but after the war, Wall's invested in freezers for shops and sold off its tricycles. It is now, of course a multi-national company. And in Pakistan there are tricycles selling the ice cream in portable freezers in Pakistan, which street vendors lease form the Wall's company.
Spring is just beginning in Pakistan, so the vendors will be selling their wares once more, upstaging kulfi which is the traditional type of ice cream in the Asian subcontinent. I am looking forward to it!
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