It’s summer and it’s the right time for ice cream, home made or otherwise. The origins of ice cream are a little messy but we do know a few things.
In the 5th century B.C., Ancient Greeks were encouraged to eat snow blended with honey and fruits at the ancient Agora of Athens, because Hippocrates, the father of medicine, instructed his patients to consume ice. In the 4th century B.C., one of Alexander The Great’s favourite meals was snow mixed with honey and nectar.
Biblical references also show that King Solomon was fond of iced drinks during harvesting. During the Roman Empire, Nero Claudius Caesar (A.D. 54-86) frequently sent runners into the mountains for snow, which was then flavoured with fruits and juices.
But for sure, the ice cream as we know it today can be traced back to China’s T’ang period (618-907 A.D.), probably as a dish for the rulers. The founder of the dynasty, King T’ang of Shang, kept 94 “ice men” on hand to lug ice to the palace to make a dish made of koumiss (heated, fermented milk), flour, and camphor.
Over a thousand years later, Marco Polo returned to Italy from the Far East with a recipe that closely resembled what is now called sherbet. Historians estimate that this recipe evolved into ice cream sometime in the 16th century.
The first official account of ice cream in the New World comes from a letter written in 1744 by a guest of Maryland Governor William Bladen. The first advertisement for ice cream in America appeared in the New York Gazette on May 12, 1777, when confectioner Philip Lenzi announced that ice cream was available “almost every day.”
Until 1800, ice cream remained a rare and exotic dessert enjoyed mostly by the elite. Around 1800, insulated icehouses were invented. Manufacturing ice cream soon became an industry in America, pioneered in 1851 by a Baltimore milk dealer named Jacob Fussell. Like other American industries, ice cream production increased because of technological innovations, including steam power, mechanical refrigeration, the advent of homogenization, electric power and motors, packing machines, and new freezing processes and equipment. In addition, motorized delivery vehicles dramatically changed the industry.
Wide availability of ice cream in the late 19th century led to new creations. In 1874, the American soda fountain shop and the profession of the “soda jerk” emerged with the invention of the ice cream soda. In response to religious criticism for eating “sinfully” rich ice cream sodas on Sundays, ice cream merchants left out the carbonated water and invented the ice cream “Sunday” in the late 1890’s. The name was eventually changed to “sundae” to remove any connection with the Sabbath.
Ice cream became an edible morale symbol during World War II. Each branch of the military tried to outdo the others in serving ice cream to its troops. In 1945, the first “floating ice cream parlour” was built for sailors in the western Pacific. When the war ended, and dairy product rationing was lifted, America celebrated its victory with ice cream. Americans consumed over 20 quarts of ice cream per person in 1946.
In the 1940’s through the ’70s, ice cream production was relatively constant in the United States. As more prepackaged ice cream was sold through supermarkets, traditional ice cream parlours and soda fountains started to disappear. Now, specially ice cream stores and unique restaurants that feature ice cream dishes have surged in popularity.
These stores and restaurants are popular with those who remember the ice cream shops and soda fountains of days past, as well as with new generations of ice cream fans.
The first edible ice cream cones were mentioned in French cooking books as early as 1825. In the United States, ice cream cones were popularized in the first decade of the 20th century and became big business.
For us who have travelled and lived in Greece, ice cream is an integral part of the volta, a late afternoon stroll and some of the flavours are unlike any other in the world.