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.Ice Cream's Cool History

Source of Recipe

Beth Hoffman
I scream, you scream, who doesn't scream for ice cream? This All-American summertime treat has its roots deep in the mountain passes of the Hindu Kush, its culinary origins in sixteenth century Italy and a royal pedigree that stretches across the Atlantic.

While the first "iced creams" are thought to have come from the sunny climes of Italy, frozen sweets are known from kitchens of cultures as diverse as China, Persia and India as early as 1000 AD. These delicacies, ancient antecedents to the Popsicle, were originally made from fruit juices and purees drizzled over shaved ice or snow. Indeed, the word sherbet hails from the Arabic, '"hariba," meaning "to drink."

Now, perhaps the question burning in your mind is how cooks were able to create a frozen desert in an era that predated modern refrigeration by almost a thousand years, in climates not generally known for their good skiing.

The answer lies in the overwhelming human desire for exotic snack food. The Chinese built subterranean icehouses, cooled by evaporation, where they stored blocks of ice cut from winter ponds. When creating their fruit ices for the Mughal emperors of Delhi, relays of horsemen were sent into high mountain passes to fetch ice and snow back to royal kitchens.

This dessert Pony Express idea was adopted by Italian confectioners who used sweetened cream instead of fruit to create frozen treats.

As with most foods exotic and decadent, the Italian ice cream wound up in the French court shortly after its creation, where it became a favorite of royalty. The dessert swiftly crossed the Channel and, in 1671, landed at the table of King Charles II.

The English took to the new dessert with a passion that would make even the French blush, and soon ice cream made its merry way farther across the Atlantic Ocean to grace the tables of their newest colony, America. It wasn't until the 18th century, when the first hand-cranked ice cream freezer was invented, however, that Americans really developed a taste for ice cream.

Who has time to tote ice and snow all over the place when you have a revolution to run? Since then, however, connoisseurs on both sides of the pond have somewhat erroneously referred to ice cream as an American dessert.

If ice cream itself is the product of Italian confectionery wizardry, the ice cream cone is pure Yankee, sort of. History tells of a hot summer day in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair. When an ice cream vendor ran out of bowls for his wares, the vendor in a neighboring booth, a Syrian pastry-maker named Ernest A. Hamwi, kindly obliged him with a pastry rolled into a cone. The ice cream vendor who hawked the first cones remains nameless, but Mr. Hamwi and his ingenious pastries are the stuff of culinary legend.

-----More History----

According to legend, Marco Polo brought the secrets of ice cream with him from the Orient, together with other sundry savories. There is, however, no proof of that, although there is some evidence that the Chinese indulged in iced drinks and desserts, which gives some weight to the Marco Polo theory.


The Chinese did, however, teach Arab traders how to combine syrups and snow, to make an early version of the sherbet. Arab traders proceeded to show Venetians, then Romans, how to make this frozen delight. The Emperor Nero was quite fond of pureed fruit, sweetened with honey, and then mixed with snow--so much so that he had special cold rooms built underneath the imperial residence in order to store snow. In the 1500s, Catherine de Medici brought the concept of the sorbet to the French, who were soon to make a great improvement on it.



As you will have noted, the above are frozen desserts, not ice cream. That invention awaited the development of the custard, then the discovery that freezing it would create a delectable dessert. This notable event occured in 1775 in France, and was shortly followed by the invention of an ice cream machine, which did a much better job of creating a light and fluffy frozen custard than beating by hand could do.


Thomas Jefferson, who imitated Nero in having a special cold room for storing snow, provides us with the first recipe for ice cream found in the United States. Not to be outdone, George Washington invested in one of the ice cream machines.


Until 1851, ice cream (or, more frequently, cream ice) was solely made at home. But an intrepid man from Baltimore, named Jacob Fussell changed all that by opening the first ice cream factory.


Near the turn of the century, the ice cream soda was created, although by who seems to be in question--either James W. Tuff or Robert Green. It does seem to have been done by accident, however--a scoop of ice cream falling in a glass of flavored soda water. At any rate, the drink became a national craze, and many a girl and boy went courting over an ice cream soda. So many, in fact, that many municipalities passes laws forbidding the sale of soda water on Sunday. Quickly afterwards, the 'sundae' was invented--it contained the ice cream, syrup, and whipped cream of the soda, but without the evil influence of soda water. Numerous variations existed.


The next ice cream craze with the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis. Charles Menches was doing a lively business selling scoops of ice cream in dishes, all the way up to the point that he ran out of dishes. Frustrated, but determined to still find a way to make a profit, he lighted upon his friend Ernest Hamwi, who was selling a wafer-like cookie called zalabia (a Syrian treat). The combination proved irrestible.