Since Summer has arrived, my brain is going to one of my absolute favorite foods: ice cream! I began wondering who invented this lovely, sweet, cold, sugary treat. Had it been around long? I figured flavored ice had, surely, but ice cream?
Many ancient cultures enjoyed some form of ice or snow added to their dishes, including the Greek, Roman, Japanese and Chinese. Egyptian Hieroglyphics even include a nod to icy drinks!
As it turns out, we know a food somewhat similar to ice cream was consumed in China during the Tang Dynasty, between 618-97 AD. It’s true – this treat is literally thousands of years old! For King Tang of Shang, his dish was made by 94 “ice men” and included buffalo milk, flour, and camphor. Later, in the year 200 BC, China had a dish a bit closer to what we would consider ice cream today, when they took a milk and rice mixture and used snow to freeze the dessert.
The frozen concoction, the forerunner to ice cream, caught on in a big way, and versions of this tasty treat traveled around the world. In Rome, the Emperors were said to have sent their servants to the tops of mountains so they could bring back fresh snow and ice, because snow at the bottom of the mountains was unhealthy and not very sanitary. Once the snow was collected, flavoring was added. Emperor Nero was said to have mixed his ice with honey and fruit juice!
Marco Polo, who lived from 1254-1324, witnessed the treat being made in China and brought the delicious confection with him back to Italy. King Charles I of England, who reigned from 1625 – 1649, adored his flavored ice and supposedly paid his chef £500 a year so the country would not learn his secret recipe! When Catherine de Medici married the Duke of Orleans in 1533, she was said to have brought Italian chefs back with her to France, and the chefs brought this cold confection to France. Ah, to be royal or an explorer! Well, to be honest, there’s no actual evidence in support of these stories, but they’ve been repeated enough to become legendary. That counts, right?
Ice cream as we know it today wasn’t created until we discovered how to freeze cream. Sure, we could chill the cream, but not freeze it. The secret? Adding salt! Who knew? Now, bear in mind, the salt wasn’t added directly to the cream; instead the cream was placed in a bowl, and was surrounded by ice and salt in order to freeze it.
Other than one mention in a medical text in the 13th century, the process of freezing cream wasn’t discovered or used until the sixteenth century. We know Persian Emperors would bring ice to Delhi, India to use in fruit sorbets. They created a frozen dairy dessert called Qulfi, which is still popular in India and other countries.
Ice cream began being served to the general public in France in the late seventeenth century at a restaurant called Café Procop, which still exists today. The ice cream was made from milk, cream, butter, and eggs. In America, the first time ice cream was mentioned was in 1744, when a visitor of Maryland Governor Thomas Bladen wrote about the strawberry ice cream he was served.
Before the 1800’s, Ice cream was a treat people could only have on special occasions because there weren’t any insulated freezers. In 1843, Nancy Johnson patented a hand cranked churn method which created smoother ice cream much faster than placing cream in a pot surrounded by ice and salt.
In the 1870’s, Germany’s Carl von Linde invented industrial refrigeration. Finally, ice cream could be kept frozen! With the continued developments and the inventions of the Industrial Revolution, ice cream is now widely available.
And now you know the history of ice cream!