Ice cream is one of the most universal foods available to us. It doesn't matter the place, the climate, or the hour; it's a formidable wildcard capable of adapting to anything. Because it requires cold, the ice cream we can obtain and prepare today is a relatively modern creation, but our ancestors have been experimenting with cold and sweetness for thousands of years, sometimes covering enormous distances.
Whether big or small, cream-based or water-based, with fresh or dried fruits, sauces, honey, or even a bit of alcohol, ice cream is magical. Every region has its special way of preparing it, and when someone says they make the best ice cream, it's almost a declaration of war, but there's something more intense than natural competition: trying to determine its origins. As with many other foods, time has destroyed records and faded stories, yet certain isolated references remain.
Ancient Origins
One of the oldest references takes us to ancient Greece, around 500 years before Christ. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, used to recommend that his patients consume ice to improve their well-being, and Alexander the Great (356 BC – 323 BC) enjoyed eating a mixture of ice or snow with honey and nectar. But one of the most solid pieces of evidence comes from Persia.
Around 400 years before Christ, a curious combination of ice, rose water, and an ancient version of what we now know as vermicelli pasta, which also included fruits and saffron, was developed. Its modern equivalent is the so-called Faloodeh, which retains the noodles and rose water. If we look for a living ancestor of ice cream, this is probably it.
On the other side of the planet, the Chinese were working on their own cold desserts, based on a mixture of rice and milk. The containers were cooled with snow and saltpeter to modify the freezing point, but some experts doubt this and insist that the application of snow and saltpeter was discovered thousands of years later. In ancient Rome, Emperor Nero ordered frequent transport of snow from the mountain to eat it with fruits, while the rest of Roman elites had another use: to cool wine.
Kulfi: India's Dense Delight
Another variant we can find and enjoy today is Kulfi. Its roots extend to the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century, and in its most traditional style, it combines evaporated milk, saffron, and pistachios. The snow-saltpeter combo appears again here. Stories say that the Mughals moved ice and snow from the Himalayas more than 500 miles, whether by cart, boat, or on foot. A fundamental difference is that Kulfi is not churned, and its density makes it take longer to lose coldness.
Europe's Flavorful Debut
As for its European debut, several historians believe that the famous plot involving Marco Polo bringing ice cream from China to Italy, and then Catherine de Medici doing the same in France with her elite Italian chefs, is a myth. The available evidence is very poor and often contradictory. However, there is one name that recurs: Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, the father of gelato, a Sicilian fisherman and cook who, in the late seventeenth century, opened the oldest café in Paris, Café Procope. There, he perfected one of the first machines for making ice cream, and the explosive combination of coffee and ice cream attracted the brightest minds of the last 300 years. Café Procope remains open.
Ice cream began to gain traction across Europe not only because of its popularity but also with the help of literature. The first recipe for flavored ices in France predates the opening of Café Procope, while in England, one of the oldest publications dates back to the early eighteenth century. It is said that the Quakers were responsible for bringing ice cream to the United States, and at least three of its presidents were avid consumers, with a report showing George Washington spending $200 in one day (more than five thousand dollars adjusted for inflation).
The nineteenth century allowed ice cream to make a giant leap in quality and availability, stimulated by advances in refrigeration. Another name we must mention is Agnes Marshall, the Queen of Ice. In the late nineteenth century, she patented an ice cream machine, and her cookbooks basically took Victorian England by storm, especially with a recipe for cream cones. She even suggested using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream.
The Modern Era
The twentieth century did nothing but break all established scales for ice cream. Its mechanization allowed costs to drop significantly, new flavors to be developed, and its shelf life to be extended with the help of additives and stabilizers. What was once an exclusive delicacy for kings, emperors, and presidents can now be obtained in minutes, and we can only celebrate it in one way: with a giant tub and a spoon in hand.
