THE FORGOTTEN CRAFT OF

Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Handcranked
ice cream
machine
Electric
ice cream
machine
THE FORGOTTEN CRAFT OF
MAKING ICE CREAM
YOU SCREAM! I SCREAM! WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM!
Ancient frozen ices
Documentation is sketchy at best, but legend has it
that Alexander the Great liked to have a frozen wine
concoction before battle. The Roman emperor Nero
is said to have had his slaves prepare a frozen
dessert made of ice mixed with fruit pulp and honey.
In the 13th century, the Italian explorer and merchant
Marco Polo is said to have returned from China with
recipes (thousands of years old) for frozen fruit juices
and honeyed milks.
It is likely that many ancient cultures, especially those
in cold climates, enjoyed flavoured ices.
Alexander
the Great
(B.C. 356-323)
Nero
(37 - 68)
Marco Polo
(1254-1324)
Just add cream
Ice cream as we know it traces its history to Europe in
the 1600s, when chefs learned the secret of churning
sweet cream mixes into ices. Legends say that
“crème ice” was served in the court of Charles I of
England and that he tried to keep the recipe a secret.
By the mid-17th century, the secret was out, and rich
nobles throughout Europe were enjoying this frozen
treat. Ice cream at this time was made by taking a
bowl of cream, sugar and other flavours and placing it
inside a tub filled with ice or snow and salt. It took
about an hour of simultaneously shaking the ice bowl
and stirring the cream bowl to achieve the perfect ice
cream. This was called the pot-freezer method.
Ice cream in the colonies
In the United States, George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson are reported to have enjoyed ice cream. In
1774, a New York shop began selling confections and
ice cream. James and Dolly Madison served ice
cream at their second inaugural ball in 1813. Thomas
Webb of Toronto is credited with opening the first
Canadian ice cream store in around 1850.
Ice cream remained a luxury item due to the rarity and
expense of the ingredients combined with the amount
of work required to make it.
It’s in the bag
Great ideas
Before there was ice cream, there were ice drinks and
desserts. Ice was hard to come by in ancient times,
and they did not have freezers in which to store it. Ice
was brought down from high mountains at great
expense. The slushy drinks and sweet-water ices of
ancient times were only for the very rich.
Over the years,
there have been
many shapes
and sizes of ice
cream cone.
The ice cream cone came into
use in the early 1900s. One
story credits a Wall Street ice
cream vendor who, in 1903, did
away with costly glass dishes by
serving his treats in a waffle cup.
Another story says that the ice
cream cone was invented at the
1904 World’s Fair in St Louis,
when an ice cream vendor
teamed up with a waffle vendor
The invention of the ice cream
soda is usually credited to
Robert M Green of Philadelphia.
Green made a product that
consisted of carbonated water,
syrup and cream, but one day
he used ice cream instead of
regular cream. The concoction
was an instant success.
The ice cream sundae
is said to have been
created as a way
to get around
Victorian laws that
banned the
sale of soda
on Sunday.
It is easy to make ice cream at home. You can buy a
motorized or hand-cranked ice cream maker,
or you can try this easy plastic-bag method. This
recipe serves one and takes about 10 minutes.
Ingredients
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2cup milk or half-and-half
• 1/4teaspoon vanilla
• 6 tablespoons rock salt
Step one: Put
sugar, milk and
vanilla in a pintsize freezer bag
and seal tightly.
Step two: Place
the salt and ice
into the gallonsize plastic bag.
Fill about halfway.
Step three: Put the small bag inside the large one and
zip the large bag closed.
Step four: Shake until mixture becomes thick, about
five to 10 minutes.
Step five: Remove the smaller bag and wipe the
salt and ice off the top, then open carefully
and enjoy!
Tip: Wear gloves to shake the ice bag,
because it does get cold. Texture of the
ice cream will vary due to humidity and
other factors.
It is generally accepted
that the first wholesale ice
cream factory was opened
in Baltimore, by Jacob
Mix it up!
You can easily change the above recipe by
Fussell in 1851. Advances
substituting another flavour for vanilla. Try adding a
small amount of jam or chocolate powder. Try breaking
up and adding bits of a cookie for your own version of
in refrigeration in the 20th
century allowed for ice cream’s
widespread popularity.
cookies ’n cream. Adding crushed-up candy cane
makes a colourful and tasty holiday treat. Or you
can use fruit juice instead of cream or milk to
Favourite flavours
As ice cream’s popularity grew,
so did the number of flavours.
According to the International Ice
Cream Association, here are the
top flavours (in order of popularity):
vanilla, chocolate, butter pecan,
french vanilla, strawberry, neapolitan,
chocolate chip, cookies ’n cream,
fudge ripple and praline.
This illustration is
based on an early
“artificial freezer”
from 1843.
• 1 pint-size zipper-type
freezer bag
• 1 gallon-size zipper-type
freezer bag
• ice cubes
create a delicious sorbet. There are plenty of ice
cream recipes on the Internet. Why not try to
make pumpkin ice cream or banana ice cream?
Cookies ’n
cream made
®
with Oreo
cookies was
introduced in
1983 and
became an
instant success.
Salt and ice?
The reason you need to add salt to ice to make ice
cream is that salt lowers the freezing/melting point of
water. A10 percent salt solution freezes at 20°F (6.7°C), and a 20 percent solution freezes at 2°F(16.7°C). To make ice cream, the ingredients need to
be lower than 32°F (0°C). Adding salt to ice
lowers the melting temperature of the ice to
Ice cream as we know it
about 0°F (-17.8°C), which is cold enough
to freeze the ice cream mixture.
Reports vary, but credit for the invention of the first
hand-cranked freezer is usually given to Nancy Johnson of New Jersey in the 1840s. The hand-cranked
churn was faster and produced a smoother ice cream
than the traditional pot-freezer method. This invention
allowed ice cream to become available to average
people, not just the rich.
Some early ice cream scoops had a
blade to help release the ice cream from
the scoop. Many modern ice cream
scoops work the same way.
1920s
1940s
1950s
SOURCES: World Book Encyclopedia , World Book Inc.;
International Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers;
The Forgotten Arts & Crafts , DK Publishing
http://www.zingersicecream.com
Those interested can download the Teacher’s Guide for this issue’s World of Wonder at http://www.comics.com/wow
© 2007 Triefeldt Studios, Inc.
Distributed by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
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