Ice cream and summertime go together like kids and puppies.
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| 'Cute Puppies' courtesy openclipart.com |
According to this Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream), ice cream showed up in the Archaemenid Empire around 500 BCE. The Persians came up with their version of ice cream as a chilled concoction of rose water and vermicelli (for royalty). Ancient Greeks ate snow mixed with honey and fruit. Frozen milk and rice was the sweet treat in China. The Roman Emperor Nero ordered ice from the mountains brought to him and he ate it with fruit toppings. From there, ice cream became a popular dessert of the European aristocracy, including Catherine de' Medici and Charles 1 of England.
Ice cream recipes became increasingly popular in England in the 18th century. This is a recipe for making ice cream that was published in 'Mrs. Mary Eales's Receipt' (London, 1718)
Take Tin Ice-Pots, fill them with any Sort of Cream you like, either plain or sweeten’d, or Fruit in it; shut your Pots very close; to six Pots you must allow eighteen or twenty Pound of Ice, breaking the Ice very small; there will be some great Pieces, which lay at the Bottom and Top: You must have a Pail, and lay some Straw at the Bottom; then lay in your Ice, and put in amongst it a Pound of Bay-Salt; set in your Pots of Cream, and lay Ice and Salt between every Pot, that they may not touch; but the Ice must lie round them on every Side; lay a good deal of Ice on the Top, cover the Pail with Straw, set it in a Cellar where no Sun or Light comes, it will be froze in four Hours, but it may stand longer; then take it out just as you use it; hold it in your Hand and it will slip out. When you wou’d freeze any Sort of Fruit, either Cherries, Raspberries, Currants, or Strawberries, fill your Tin-Pots with the Fruit, but as hollow as you can; put to them Lemmonade, made with Spring-Water and Lemmon-Juice sweeten’d; put enough in the Pots to make the Fruit hang together, and put them in Ice as you do Cream.
Quaker colonist who 'introduced ice cream to America'...Confectioners sold ice cream at their shops in New York... Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson were known to have regularly eaten and served ice cream."
Ice cream's popularity moved westward with the settling of the West. We're probably all familiar with the stories, television shows, movies set in the Old West era that included a church social scene with the men standing around the hand-crank ice cream machine and children hovering nearby, anticipating filling their bowls with the cold treat on a hot summer day.
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| Nellie Oleson (screen capture - Kaye Spencer) |
In my novelette A PERMANENT WOMAN, the community celebrates Colorado Day (August 1st) with games, a parade, and tables and tables of food. And what summer celebration would be complete without homemade ice cream?
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| images via creative commons |
Here is my hand-me-down family recipe for homemade ice cream that I like to think could have been the exact recipe someone at that celebration used. *wink*
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| Click to enlarge - also available on my Pinterest board |
For more of my Hand-Me-Down Family Recipes, click here > PINTEREST
Until next time,
Kaye Spencer
Kaye Spencer
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Oh does this post bring back memories of my childhood. We would go to my great grandparents and homemade ice cream was almost always on the menu during the summer. Doris
ReplyDeleteMy parents and grandparents were keen on ice cream, too. Me... not so much. lol
DeleteThe directions for making ice cream had me thinking, oh my what a lot of work. So glad the Victorians persevered and we enjoy ice cream to this day. I vaguely remember the ice cream maker....we didn't have one but I think our neighbor on the farm had one and I must have "helped". In my very first historical, I had a scene about my hero and heroine having some in an ice cream parlor. Now I crave a float. You always post such interesting articles, Kaye.
ReplyDeleteMaking ice cream was a lot of work, but it must have been worth the trouble and effort. My family had hand crank and electric ice cream makers.
DeleteI haven't had homemade ice cream in over a decade. You made me want some homemade peach ice cream.
ReplyDeleteHomemade ice cream is a treasured delicacy in my husband's family. They go nuts over it.
DeleteYou have my mouth watering for homemade ice cream, too. As a kid, I remember taking turns at my grandparents house hand-cranking ice cream.
ReplyDeleteI remember the hand-crank ice cream makers, too. I was one of the kids that had the 'privilege' (*wink*) of standing on the top of the crank apparatus to keep it pressed down on the wooden bucket as the ice cream thickened and it became harder to crank. The apparatus would pop up if there wasn't a gullible kid around. lol
DeleteDourmar Cones and Barbecue is a little restaurant in Norfolk, VA. Their big claim to fame is the waffle cone. Mr. Doumar invented it. They still make their cones the same way today even though it's the great-granddaughter's husband who is making them. Off the top of my head, the cone was invented during a World's Fair in the 1890's. Previously ice cream was served up in a paper cone. It didn't take too long until the flat-bottomed cone was invented.
ReplyDeleteBut if you ever get to Norfolk, VA, Doumar's is worth the trip. Sit in car and someone on skates is going to come get your order. A pulled-pork (barbecue) sandwich is a must, and follow it with an ice cream cone filled with your favorite ice cream. Just a little piece of history that is still surviving.
I love making my own ice cream, especially this time of year when the strawberries and blueberries are fresh from the fields. Fresh cream and fresh fruit - what's makes not to like? I have an ice cream maker that makes a quart. That's the perfect amount. 4-6 people get a nice scoop - no leftovers to tempt me. :-)
This is a delightful snippet of living history. If I didn't live so far from Virginia, I'd love to visit the Dourmar Cones and Barbecue. In my teaching days, I'd bring the ingredients to class for the students to make their own ice cream in a bag or ice cream in a can. It was always the highlight of their day.
ReplyDeleteAll of us of a certain age have sweet memories of hand-cranked ice cream I also included an ice cream parlor scene in my first book, HUACHUCA WOMAN,where Josephine and her twin boys meet up with Pancho Villa who teaches the boys lessons about racism.
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