About ice cream
Food historians tell us the history of ice cream begins with ancient flavored ices. The Chinese are generally credited for creating the first ice creams, possibly as early as 3000 BC. Marco Polo is popularly cited for introducing these tasty concoctions to Italy. This claim (as well as his introducing pasta to Italy) are questionable. The ice creams we enjoy today are said to have been invented in Italy during the 17th century. They spread northward through Europe via France. "French-style" ice cream and its American counterpart, "Philadelphia-style," are egg-yolk enriched products made with the finest ingredients. The egg yolk/custard base creates a richer flavor and creamier texture. Vanilla is the most popular flavor of this genre. Food historians tell us this type of ice cream originated in the 17th century and proliferated in the early 18th.
"...the Chinese may be credited with inventing a device to make sorbets and ice cream. They poured a mixture of snow and saltpetre over the exteriors of containers filled with syrup, for, in the same way as salt raises the boiling-point of water, it lowers the freezing-point to below zero. It is said that Marco Polo observed the practice and brought it home to Italy, traditionally a country that specializes in making ices. But all manner of things are said of Marco Polo....Francois I's daughter-in-law, Catherine de Medici, brought the fashion for sorbets to France. It soon spread from privileged tables to the middle classes when coffee houses became popular in the eighteenth century, and the ingenious Italian Procope made ice cream one of his cafe's specialties...At the end of the eighteenth century ice cream was made at home, in those households that owned an ice-cream maker, and Menon gives some recipes which are still very good."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translated by Anthea Bell [Barnes & Noble Books:New York] 1992 (p. 749-50)
"Ice cream is reputed to have been made in China as long ago as 3000 BC, but it did not arrive in Europe (via Italy) until the thirteenth century, and Britain had to wait until the late seventeenth century to enjoy it (hitherto, iced desserts had been only of the sorbet variety)... by the time Hannah Glasse and Elizabeth Raffald were giving recipes for it in the mid-eighteenth century, it was evidently well established. At first, ice cream was simply as its name suggests: cream, perhaps sweetened, set in a pot nestling in ice to cool it down. But before long recipes became more sophisticated, and the technique of periodic stirring to prevent the formation of ice crystals was introduced, and ice cream was set on a career of unbroken popularity. As early as 1821 we find mention of "ice-cream gardens' in New York....Since introducing ice cream to Europe in the Middle Ages, Italy has never relinquished its lead in theis field, and over the centuries the manufacture of ice cream has in many countries been the province of Italian emigres."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 167)
"Italians were the undisputed master in developing methods of chilling a freezing drinks...The creation of sorbet resulted from experiments in chilling drinks, and it too became a matter of myth. Supposedly, sorbet was also brought to France by Catherine de'Medici...There is no documentary evidence to support this hypothesis, however and we cannot prove that the art of sorbet making was already practiced in Italy in the middle of the sixteenth century...Latini's... Treatise on Various Kinds of Sorbets, or Water Ices...composed between 1692 and 1694...contains the first written recipes on how to mix sugar, salt, snow, and lemon juice, strawberrries, sour cherries, and other fruit, as well as chocolate, cinnamon water, and different flavorings. There is also a description of a "milk sorbet that is first cooked," which we could regard as the birth certificate of ice cream. De'sorbetti, the first book entirely dedicated to the art of making frozen confections, was published in Naples in 1775. Its author, Filippo Baldini, discusses different types of sorbets...A separate chapter deals with "milky sorbets," meaning ice creams, whose medical properties are vigorouly proclaimed."
---Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History, Alberto Capatti & Massimo Montanari [Columbia University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 110-1)
"The first ice creams, in the sense of an iced and flavoured confection made from full milk or cream, are thought to have been made in Italy and then in France in the 17th century, and to have been diffused from the French court to other European countries...The first recorded English use of the term ice cream (also given as iced cream) was by Ashmore (1672), recording among dishes served at the Feast of St. George at Windsor in May 1671 One Plate of Ice Cream'. The first published English recipe was by Mrs. Mary Eales (1718)...Mrs. Eales was a pioneer with few followers; ice cream recipes remained something of a rarity in English-language cookery books...As for America, Stallings observes that ice cream is recorded to have been served as early as 1744 (by the lady of Governor Blandon of Maryland, nee Barbara Jannsen, daughter of Lord Baltimore), but it does not appear to have been generally adopted until much later in the century. Although its adoption then owed much to French contacts in the period following the American Revolution, Americans shared 18th century England's tastes and the English preference for ice creams over water ices, and proceeded enthusiastically to make ice cream a national dish."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 392-3)
NOTE: These passages illustrate the conflicting data cited by food historians regarding the "first" mention of the phrase ice cream'.
Mrs. Glasse's recipe, 1747:
"To make ice cream. Take two pewter basons, one larger than the other; the inward one must have a close cover, into which you are to put your cream, and mix it with raspberries, or whatver you like best, to give it a flavour and a colour. Sweeten it to you palate; then cover it close, and set it into the larger bason. Fill it with ice, and a handful of salt: let it stand in this ice three quarters of an hour, then uncover it, and stir the cream well together: cover it close again, and let is stand half an hour longer, after that turn it into your plate. These things are made at the pewterers."
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile of the first edition, 1747 [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 168)
RECOMMENDED READING:
The Great American Ice Cream Book, Paul Dickson [Atheneum:New York] 1972
ON THE WEB:
History of Ice Cream, International Dairy Foods Association
Ice Cream, University of Guelph
Baked Alaska
The history of Baked Alaska is an interesting study of food evolution and culinary folklore. Most food historians generally agree this confection originated in the 19th century. None of them are willing to commit with regards to "absolute" credit. Why? There are (at least) four popular stories regarding the "invention/evolution" of this dessert:
Thomas Jefferson
---served minister Manasseh Cutler a puddinglike dish that included "ice cream very good, crust wholly dried, crumbled into thin flakes. [1802]
Chinese Chef
---unnamed, in Paris, no references made to his professional training or this being a Chinese dish. Pastry shell is used.
Benjamin Thompson
---aka Count Rumford, in Monaco, claim to fame is discovering meringue doesn't melt
Charles Ranhofer
---Delmonico's most famous chef, New York City, said to have served this to mark the occasion of Seward's Alaska purchase.
Culinary evidence confirms the concept of this recipe (cream and cake, without the ice or heat) dates to the Renaissance. Fancy molded bombes combining frozen cream and cake/biscuits were perfected in 18th-19th century Europe. Desserts approximating "Baked Alaska" began to appear in the middle of the 19th century. The name, however, belongs to the early years of the 20th. Today? We have Mexican fried ice cream served with cornflake crusts and Japanese ice cream tempura.
About ice cream About meringue About ice cream cake & bombes
"Baked Alaska. A dessert made of sponge cake covered with ice cream in a meringue that is browned in the oven, but the ice cream remains frozen...The idea of baking ice cream in some kind of crust so as to create a hot-cold blend of textures occurred to Thomas Jefferson, who in 1802 served minister Manasseh Cutler a puddinglike dish that included "ice cream very good, crust wholly dried, crumbled into thin flakes," And a report in the French journal Liberte for June 1866 indicates that the master cook of the Chinese mission in Paris imparted a technique for baking pastry over ice cream to the French chef Balzac of the Grand Hotel. But baked Alaska as we know it today may be traced to the experiments in heating and cooking conducted by Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814), born in Woburn Massachusetts, who became a celebrated scientist both at home and in England, where he was awarded the title of Count Rumford for his work...His studies of the resistance of egg whites to heat resulted in the browned topping that eventually became the crown for what came to be called "Baked Alaska." Patricia M. Tice in Ice Cream for All (1990) asserted that Delmonico's chef, Charles Ranhofer, created "Baked Alaska" in 1869 to commemorate the purchase of Alaska by the United States, although in his own cookbook, the Epicurean (1893), Ranhofer calls the dish "Alaska, Florida," The term "Baked Alaska" dates in print at least to 1905 and was used by Fannie Merritt Farmer in the 1909 edition of her cookbook."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 16-7)
[NOTE: A Dictionary of Americanisms (c. 1951) provides exact cites for the 1802 and 1909 references. ]
"A baked Alaska is a pudding consisting of a block of ice cream surrounded with meringue and then baked for a short time in a very hot oven. The notion of cooking an ice dessert within an insulating covering seems to have originated with the Chinese, who used pastry for the casing. It was apparently introduced to Europe in the mid-nineteenth century when a Chinese delegation visited Paris. The French took up the idea, substituting meringue for pastry (beaten egg whites are a poor conductor of heat) and naming the dish omelette norvegienne, Norwegian omelet' for its arctic appearance and cold centre. The English name baked Alaska originated in America around the turn of the twentieth centuury, the allusion being to Alaska's icy cold weather."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 16)
"The original recipe is said to have been perfected or rather brought back into fashion, at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, by the chef Jean Giroix. An American doctor, and investor, honoured as Count Rumford, is credited with the invention of this dessert, which is based on the principle that beaten egg white is a poor conductor of heat. However, according to Baron Brisse, in his cookery column in La Liberte (6 June 1866), a chef to a Chinese delegation visting Paris introduced this dessert to the French. During the stay of the Chinese delegation in Paris, the chefs of the Celestial Empire exchanged courtesies and recipes with the chefs at the Grand Hotel. The French dessert chef was delighted at this opportunity: his Chinese colleague taught him the art of cooking vanilla and ginger ices in the oven. This is how the delicate operation was performed: very firm ice cream is enveloped in an extremely light pastry crust and baked in the oven. The crust insulated the interior and is cooked before the ice cream can melt. Gourmand can then enjoy the twofold pleasure of biting into a crisp crust and at the same time referencing the palate with the flavoured ice cream."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated Edition [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 65)
"Baked Norvegienne, or baked Alaska, was a favorite gourmet dish in the Fifties. It appealed on a number of levels: (1) it tasted good; (2) it was easy to make (at least so long as it was made quickly); (3) it looked as though it must be difficult; (4) with its simple meringue, ice cream, and cake base it was a safe dessert to serve to even the stodgiest guests; and (5) it was both festive and fancy. Everyone seems to agree that a dish something like baked Alaska appeared in France in the mid-1800s. Whether it was invented earlier by an American scientist named Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814) who was experimenting with the insulating properties of egg whites of by a Chinese chef in Paris who baked ice cream in an insulating pastry shell in the 1860s is debated. Personally I prefer John Mariani's explanation that Dr. Thompson's experiments resulted in a dessert called "Alaska-Florida" that was popular at the famous Delmonico's restaurant in New York on the 1800s. For all its French pretentions, baked Alaska has always seemed like an American dish. The French name omelette a al Norvegienne refers to the fact that the cake base is traditionally cut into an omelette shape. Presumably Norvegienne alludes to its chilly interior, although Francois Rysavy, President Eisenhower's chef, said that baked Alaska is a "Scandinavian delicacy." There seems to be no evidence for his statement, however...The Chinese chef how may have invented baked Alaska (but probably didn't) baked his ice cream in pastry shells. That idea was also a popular one in the 1950s. Ice cream pies were very chic then, and baked Alaska ice cream pie was too soigne for words."
---Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren [MacMillan:New York] 1995 (p. 200-1)
RECIPES THROUGH TIME:<BLOCKQUOTE"
[1894]
"Alaska, Florida", Charles Ranhofer
[1903]
"4419. Omelette Norvegienne.
Place an oval-shaped base of Genoise 2 cm (2/5 in) thick on a silver dish; the length of the oval should be proportionate to the size of then omelette. Place wither a cream or a fruit ice of the selected flavour on the Genoise, forming an oval pyramid. Cover the ice with a layer of either ordinary meringue or stiff Italian meringue and smooth with a palette knife so as to give an even coating 1 1/2 cm (3/5 in) thick. Decorate with some of the same meringue using a piping bag and tube; place in a very hot oven to cook and colour the meringue rapidly but without the heat penetrating to the ice inside."
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Escoffier 1903, The first translation into English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann of Le Guide Culinaire in its entirety [John Wiley:New York] 1979 (p. 527)
[NOTE: Escoffier offers several nine variations on this theme. Each sports a different name and slightly different ingredients.]
[1909]
"An ideal Summer dessert is baked Alaska. To make it pack a round mold with vanilla ice cream. Cover and gind the seams of the mold with strips of muslin dipped in melted paraffin. Repack in ice and salt, and stand aside for at least two hours. At serving time turn the ice cream on a folded napkin on a platter. Beat the whites of four eggs until light, add four tablespoons of powdered sugar, and whip until light and dry. Cover the ice cream thoroughly with this meringue, and dust well with powdered sugar. Stand the platter on a cold board, and run the whole in a hot oven for a moment to brown. Serve at once."
---"Delicious Dishes for Summer," New York Times, July 4 1909 (p. X6)
[1918]
Baked Alaska", Fannie Merritt Farmer (use your browser's "find" feature to get to the recipe). Compare with "Delmonico Ice Cream with Angel Food," (same page)
[1955]
"Baked Alaskas.
1. Start heating oven to 450 degres F. For cake base, choose one of Alaskas, p. 428; set cake base on brown paper (1/2" larger than cake) on cookie sheet.
2. Make meringue: With electric mixer or egg beater, beat 3 egg whites until they stand in peaks when beater is raised. Slowly add 6 tablesp. granulated sugar, beating until stiff and glossy.
3. Quickly fill or top cake base with aobut 1 qt. Very firm ice cream, as directed below. Quickly cover ice cream and base completely with meringue. If desired, sprinkle with slivered almonds, shaved chocolate, or shredded coconut. Bake 4 to 5 min., or until delicate brown.
4. Remove from oven at once; slip 2 spatulas between Alaska and paper; transfer Alaska to chilled serving dish. Garnish with berries or fresh, frozen, or canned peach slices, etc. Serve at once.
5. To serve ablaze, pour a little lemon extract over 3 sugar cubes; set on top of meringue; light; carry to table.
Alaskas:
Igloos: Use bakers' spongecake layer as base. Pile ice cream on top, leaving 1/2" free around edge.
Brownie: Use panful of uncut borwnies as base. Top with brick of ice cream.
Little Baked: Use 6 bakers' dessert shells as base. Top each with well-drained canned pineapple slices. Place scoop of ice cream on each.
Traditional: Use 1 piece thin spongecake, 8"X6"X1". Top with brick ice cream.
Surprise: Use 9" tube spongecake as base. Hollow out as in Frozen Ice-Cream Angel, ..Fill through with 2 to 3 pt. Ice cream...
P.S. You can have Baked Alaska on short notice if you keep cake and ice cream on hand in your freezer."
---Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Dorothy B. Marsh [Good Housekeeping:New York] 1955 (p. 427-8)
Related food? Fried ice cream.
Banana splits
Two American towns claim the banana split as their own: Latrobe PA and Wilmington OH. Which one deserves the honor? You decide...
According to The Food Chronology, James Trager [Henry Holt:New York] 1995 "The banana split was created [in 1904] by Latrobe, Pa., pharmacy apprentice David Strickler, 23, who had returned from a visit to Atlantic City, where he was inspired by watching a soda jerk. He placed three scoops of ice cream on a split banana, topped it with chocolate syrup, marshmallow, nuts, whipped cream, and a cherry, sold it for a dime, and was soon imitated by other soda jerks, who generally used three different ice cream flavors-chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla-topped with chocolate, strawberry, and pineapple, nuts, whipped cream, a cherry, but no marshmallow. Strickler eventually took of the pharmacy and continued making banana splits until he sold the place in 1965." (page 380)
The Great Banana Split/Cincinnati Enquirer
/Cincinnati EnquirerThe Banana Split Book/book review
/book reviewFood historians tell us bananas were introduced to the American public in the 1880s. These exotic fruits were actively promoted and quickly embraced. Late 19th and early 20th century American cookbooks contain an interesting variety of banana recipes. Many of these simly added bananas to extant recipes: banana ice cream, banana ambrosia, banana cake, etc. Antiques catalogs confirm glass serving dishes were manufacutered to accomodate this odd, new shape. About banana cookery.
Egg creams
The general concensus of the food historians are with regards to egg creams, as Americans know them today, are:
Egg creams were invented at the beginning of the 20th century.
They originated in New York City [Brooklyn].
The have never contained eggs or cream.
Debates regarding the exact genesis and "true recipe" of this confection are intense. The same holds true for many beloved foods we eat today, esp. those born of the soda fountain era. Culinary evidence confirms egg-based soda recipes with chocolate syrup did exist, under different names. They descended from early egg nog recipes. "Egg Drin", a popular early 20th century soda fountain concoction, is strikingly similar to the classic egg cream.
"By 1891, there were more soda fountins than bars in New York according to On the Town in New York by Michael and Ariane Batterberry. In the 1920s, the "egg cream," an eggless, creamless libation was invented in a New York soda fountain...The annals of time have obscured inventor and the rational and philosophical underpinnings of the drink's name."
---New York Cook Book, Molly O'Neill [Workman Publishing:New York] 1992 (p. 197)
"Egg cream. A New York City soda-fountain confection made from chocolate syrup, milk, and seltzer. The simplicity of the egg cream is deceptive, for its flavor and texture depend entirely on the correct preparation. There is no egg in an egg cream, but if the ingredients are mixed properly, a foamy, egg-white-like head tops the drink. Nevertheless, as David Shulman pointed out in American Speech (1987), there was a confection, called an "egg cream" syrup listed in W.A. Bonham's Modern Guide for Soda Dispensers (1896) that was made with both eggs and cream, but no chocolate. This was probably not the egg cream that gained legendary fame in eastern cities. Also, Lettice Bryan in The Kentucky Housewife (1839) gives a recipe for an orange-flavored custard dessert called "egg cream." There seems no basis to believe the legend the Yiddish actor Boris Thomashefsky brought the idea for the egg cream back from Paris after having tasted a drink called chocolate et creme. Indeed the unchallenged claim for the invention of the egg cream is that Louis Auster, a Jewish immigrant who came to the United States about 1890 and opened a candy store at Stanton and Avenue D. According to Auster's grandson...the egg cream was a matter of happenstance. "My [grandfather] was fooling around, and he started mixing water and cocoa and sugar and so on, and somehow or other, eureka, he hit on something which seemed to be just perfect for him." Auster's egg creams became famous...and were based on a secret formula that has never been revealed...The chocolate syrup used was made in the rear of the store, and windows were blacked out for privacy. "The name of the egg cream was really a misnomer, " recalled Stanley Auster. "People thought there was cream in it, and they would like to think there was egg in it becuase egg meant something that was really good and expensive. There was never any egg, and there never was any cream." Auster also insisted a glass, not a paper cup, and ice-cold milk were basic to the success of a good egg cream. After Louis Auster died...the recipe passed to his family, with the last batch of the secret syrup made up...around 1974. The first printed reference to the egg cream was in 1950. Without accesss to Auster's syrup, other soda fountains and candy stores made the drink with "Fox's u-bet Chocolate Flavor Syrup," Created by Herman Fox some time before 1920 in Brooklyn, now considered the most widely accepted ingredient in the mix."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 120)
"Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Syrup is a classic. You absolutely cannot make an egg cream without [it]...The firm, founded sometime between 1910 and 1920...began in a Brownsville basement...The recipe for U-Bet remains the same: Brooklyn water, sugar, corn sweeteners, cocoa, and some "secret things." The name "U-Bet dates from the late 20s when Fox's grandfather got wildcatting fever and headed to Texas to drill for oil. "You bet" was a friendly term the oilmen used. His oil venture a failure, he returend to the old firm, changing Fox's Chocolate Syrup to Fox's U-Bet...Fox has fan letters form Mel Brooks, Don Rickles...You shouldn't have to ask, but there is no egg or cream in an egg cream. Just milk, seltzer, and U-Bet."
---The Brooklyn Cookbook, Lyn Stallworth and Rod Kennedy Jr [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1994 (p. 358).]
[NOTE: this book contains a recipe for the "correct" Brooklyn egg cream.]
Fox is still in business. Company history here.
"How to Make an Egg Drin.
First break the egg in a 10-ounce soda glass, then pour in the desired syrup or syrups and add sweet cream if required, then beat the ingredients in the electric mixer thoroughly. Now pour this into a shaker, then turn in fine soda stream, then pour bakc and forth from your shaker to your glass two or three times. In pouring back and forth, do not overdo it as it will thin the drink. Pour into galss after mixing and sprinkle a little ground mace or nutmeg over the top. Most fountains now have the electric mixers but if you do not have one, you should use a heavy soda or mixing glass instead of the 10-ounce glass, then after adding cream, add a little crushed ice which will break the egg. Place shaker on top of glass and shake up and down until thoroughly mixed, then remove heavy soda glass and fill shaker with fine soda stream, then mix by pouring back and forth from a 10-ounce soda glass to shaker. Pour last in the glass and sprinkle top with ground mace or nutmeg. Egg drinks are profitable and a large trade on them can be created if care is exercised in their mixture. The following formulas are for the most common egg drinks: Egg Chocolate: One egg, 2 ounces chocolate syrups and 2 ounces sweet cream. Proceed as per directions above."
---Rigby's Reliable Candy Teacher, W. O. Rigby, 19th edition 1919 (?) (p. 242)
[NOTE: This book also contains recipes for Egg Flip (vanilla syrup), Egg Calisaya (lemon syuurp & elixir calisaya), Egg Phosphate (lemon & orange syrup & several dashes acid phosphate), Egg Lemonade (juice of one lemon and sugar), Egg Nectar (nectar syrup), Mint Flip (mint syrup), Raspberry Flip (raspberry syrup), Egg Limeade (lime juice & powdered sugar), Egg Pineapple (pineapple syrup), Egg Coffee (coffee syrup), Egg Orgeat (Oregat syrup), Frisco Flip (orange juice & pineapple syrup), Tulip Flip (pineapple syrup, rose syrup & orange syrup).
French vanilla
French-style ice creams descended from medieval custards and creams. Freezing them was an idea made possible by advances in technology. A survey of old French, English, and American cookbooks confirms this recipe was well known, although it was known by many different names.
"About 1700 a pamphlet of ice-cream and sherbet reciepes was published entitled L'Art de Faire des Glaces, and by then the major capitals of Europe were well familiar with the dish...Thomas Jefferson, who wrote extensive notes on making the confection, has been credited with bringing "French-style" ice cream, made with egg yolks, to America. He also had an ice-ream-making machine he called a "sorbetiere" at Monticello, where he followed a recipe that called for a stick of vanilla...two bottles of cream, and an egg-custard mixture, boiled, stirred, reheated, strained, and put in an ice pail'."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 163-4)
Thomas Jefferson's ice cream (included eggs); manuscript recipe
HISTORIC RECIPES
[1828--France]
"Cream a la Vanille.
Take one or two sticks of vanilla, which infuse in some boiling cream; next put in the eggs as you do for other creams. If you are making a fromage a la glace, you must put a smaller quantity of eggs, as isinglass is to be put to stiffen it; and keep constantly stirring the cream on the fire, while the eggs are doing. Mind that the eggs are not overdone. When you perceive the cream is getting thick, put the melted isinglass in, and rub it through a tammy, then put it into a mould and into ice. When you wish to make the cream more delicate, let it get cold; then put it into a vessel over ice, before you put any isinglass into it, and whip it; when quite frozen, put in cold melted isinglass: this method requires less isinglass, and the jelly is much lighter."
---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, facsimile Englished edition [Arco Publishing:New York] 1978 (p. 360-1)
[1828--United States]
"Vanilla Cream.
Boil a Vanilla bean in a quart of rich milk until it has imparted the flavour sufficiently; then take it out, and mix with the milk, eight eggs, yelks [yolks] and whites, beaten well; let it boil a little longer--make it very sweet, for much of the sugar is lost in the operation of freezing."
---The Virginia House-wife, Mary Randolph, facsimile reprint edition with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 174)
[NOTE: Food historian Karen Hess states this is the first recipe for ice cream printed in an American cook book.]
[1890s--England]
"Custard Ice Cream.
2 Quarts New Milk
1-lb White Sugar
6 Fresh Eggs.
2-oz Fresh Butter.
1/4 to 1/2 oz. Vanilla Essence.
Process.--Well whisk the eggs with a fork or whisk, then stir them into the new milk, adding the butter and sugar; put the whole into a clean pan and place on a slow clear fire; keep stirring all the time, well rubbing the bottom of the pan until the mixture comes to the boiling point, when it will get thickish; be careful that it does not quite boil or it will curdle; remove the pan from the fire and strain through a fine hair sieve; stand it aside until cold; when quite cold, put the custard in the freezer, adding the vanilla, and freeze either by hand or machine as directed; a tidge of saffron would make the cream look richer."
---Skuse's Complete Confectioner, [W.J. Bush & Co:London] 1890s(p. 149)
As time and technology progressed, ice cream flavors (Pistachio, Rocky Road, Chunky Monkey) , complicated confections (19th century Neapolitan bricks, English bombes & American cakes), and novelty concoctions (hokey-pokey treats, ice cream bars, popsicles, sundaes, sodas & banana splits), proliferated.
Fried ice cream
While recipes for fried, coated dairy products are ancient, food historians tell us the concept of encasing fozen ice cream in a hot edible shell dates back (at least) to the 19th century. Think baked Alaska.
Fried ice cream does not appear in Mexican cookbooks, posssibly meaning it is not a "traditional" Mexican recipe. Most likely? It is a contemporary ethnic interpretation of Baked Alaska, a popular upscale hot/cold ice cream dessert developed in the last quarter of the 19th century. This dessert employed meringue as the insulating agent between hot and cold. References to fried ice cream begin to appear in the second half of the 20th century. The insulating agent is (All-American) corn flakes. Perhaps this dish is TexMex?
Helen Brown's West Coast Cook Book [1952] contains a recipe for fried cream which discusses the concept of hot cream coated in cracker crumbs.
"Fried cream.
Gourmets who visit San Francisco enthuse about this dessert, which is to be found at a few of the best hotels and restaurants. It's not ovent served at home, apparentlyy becuase most cooks don't dare risk it, but it's really very simplet ot make. It turns up in a San Diego cook book, under then name of "Bonfire Entre." It was called that becuase the fried cream was cut in sticklike pieces and stacked up on individual plates like miniature and roofless log cabins. A couple of lumps of sugar, brandy-soaked, went into the center of each pile of "logs," and matches graced the side of each plate."
---West Coast Cook Book, Helen Evans Brown [Cookbook Collectors Library reprint edition] (p. 66)
[NOTE: Recipe follows this description. It includes Jamaica rum.]
Some Japanese-American restaurants offer a similar dessert...ice cream tempura. Likewise, this is not a traditional Asian meal item. It is the product of saavy restauranteurs adjust menus seeking to meet to American expectations.
The first reference to fried ice cream in The New York Times was an article on food offerings of the resort town of Cape May, New Jersey ("In Cape May, the Summer Stroller May Shop and Snack, Away from Traffic," Fred Ferrettis, July 3, 1972 (p. 6)). This article refers specifically to "French fried ice cream (vanilla, frozen, dipped in batter, rolled in crushed corn flake crumbs, then fried to order.) This article does not connect fried ice cream with Latin American cuisine. A letter to the NYT editor published August 2, 1981 (p. XX24) notes a recipe for this item was published in the Los Angeles Times California Cookbook [1981], and reprints the recipe.
Hokey pokey
Food historians generally agree the origin of the term "hokey pokey" as it relates to food is traced to Italian street vendors who sold inexpensive goods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. "Hokey pokey" is an English interpretation of the Italian phrase "O che poco," meaning how Oh, how little." This "little" in this phrase related to price, as these street goods (ice cream treats of all kinds in America/England, toffee flavored ice cream treats in New Zealand) were tasty and cheap. As such, they held great appeal to children and working class people.
The Oxford English Dictionary traces the term "hokey-pokey" in print as it relates to ice cream to 1884. They oldest mention it cites for a toffee-like sweet (as it is known in New Zealand) is 1939: Katherine Mansfield Scrapbook 3 "We always gave him the same presents...three cakes of hoky-poky." Of course, spoken words often predate their printed cousins by several years.
"Hokey-pokey
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries hokey-pokey was a British English term for a cheap sort of ice cream sold by street vendors ("Three hokey-pokey ice-cream hand-carts, one aftern another, turned the corner of 'Trafalgar Road,' Arnold Bennett, Clayhanger, 1910). It presumably came from the cry with which the vendors hawked it, although what this originally was is not known (one suggestion put forward in the 1880s was Italian O che poco! 'Oh how little!'--a reference to price, presumably, rather than quantity--which is given some plausibility by the fact that many ice-cream sellers at that time were Italian). Nowadays the word is used in New Zealand for a sort of crunchy toffee bar, and also for ice cream containing liggle pieces of such toffee."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 160)
About toffee (a candy with English roots)
(a candy with English roots)HOKEY POKEY & ICE CREAM TREATS
Ice cream, ices and other frosty treats were sold in cities, amusement parks, boardwalks and and resort areas in the late 19th/early 20th centuries by a number of portable vehicles. These ranged from hand-pushed carts to goat-pulled mini-wagons to bicycle-propelled carts to horsedrawn/electric trucks. Folks who make a living selling ice treats from carts were known as "hokey pokey" men.
"A good deal of American ice cream was sold by street vendors in large cities. The slang term for their product as of the 1880s was "hokey pokey," which may derive from the Italian "O che poco!" ("Oh, here's a little!") or occi-pocci (mixed colors or flavors) because the "hokey-pokey man" who sold this cheap ice cream was often of Italian descent."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 165)
Related foods? Ice cream novelties.
Ice cream cake
The idea of ice cream and cake evolved from Renaissance-era desserts composed of cream and biscuits. These were called trifles. These fancy desserts were enjoyed by middle class and wealthy people. Food historians tell us ice cream, as we know it, was "invented" in the 17th century and proliferated in the 18th. These early recipes were generally based on the same creams used for trifles. The difference? Freezing technique. Victorians prided themselves on fancy ice cream "bombes" (ice cream molded into special shapes). A survey of old cookbooks confirms biscuits (Savoy, sponge) were sometimes used to line the mold that held the ice cream. Voila! Ice cream cake.16th century English trifle, although not frozen, presents the same basic concept of laying sweet foods of different textures and tastes. About English trifle.
In the 1800s ice cream served at fancy parties was often molded into festive shapes. This was a borrowed tradition from molded puddings and custards. By the Victorian era, ice cream was often pressed into molds which produced elegant, elaborate frozen desserts. Some of the ice cream creations (bombes, etc.) had fillings, usually fruit. Many of these combined biscuits and other cakes. In 19th century American cookbooks, "ice cream cake" had several definitions.
Compare these recipes from the 1870s:
[1871]
"Ice Cream Cakes
Half a cupful each of milk and bitter, one cupful of sugar, two cupsful of flour, three eggs beaten, whites and yolks separately, one teaspoonful of cream of tartar, half a teaspoonful of soda, and flavor with vanilla."
---Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery Book, Mrs. M.E. Porter, reprint of 1871 editon [Promontory Press:New York] 1974 (p. 259)
[1877]
Ice Cream Cakes, Buckeye Cookery Book
ABOUT ICE CREAM MOLDS
"Most ice cream molds are somewhat soft, gray, heavy metal called "pewter," although it's not the same proportionate mix of metals used in the eighteenth century for plates and hollowware...The molds are mostly two-part, hinged and heavy, or relatively thick, so that they would hold the cold temperature longer while unmolding the ice cream...Some molds achieved their full effect only when accompanied by "decorations" of composition, printed paper or wire--such as leaves, stems, hats, golf clubs, flags, sails and tablewares. Krauss and also Jo-Lo offer these in their 1930s catalogs..."
---300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles, Linda Campbell Franklin, 4th edition (p. 219-231) [NOTE: This book offers a wealth of information on the history of ice cream molds, including pictures]
Italian ice & granita
Italian water ice (also known as granita and sorbetto) has a long and ancient history:
"The Greeks and Romans employed lumps of Etna's snow to chill their wine; the Arabs used it instead to chill their sarbat. The Italian word sorbetto and the English sherbert come from these sweet fruit syrups that the Arabs once drank diluted with ice water. The passage from sarbat and water, chilled in a container of ice, to granita was only a question of time, perhaps the chance invention of a housewife distracted by a passing vendor or a crying child. Sicilians always claim an Arabic origin for their ices, although in her book on Middle Eastern food Claudia Roden cites neither an Arabic name nor a Levantine history for the granita recipes she gives. In any case, whether it was in Damascus or in Catania that the sarbat stayed too long on ice, Sicily is the home of ices as far as the Western world is concerned, and Araby their inspiration. The flavors most common to the western part of Sicily are those that by now are most famous elsewhere in Italy and in America as well, lemon and coffee..."
---Pomp and Sustenance:Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food, Mary Taylor Simeti [Ecco Press:Hopewell NJ] 1989 (p. 283-4)
"For thousands of years people saved ice to satisfy their desire for cool drinks. The earliest icehouses existed in Mesopotamia, beside the Euphrates River, about 4,000 years ago. The rich used the ice in these puts to cool their wines. Alexander the Great dug pits and filled them with snow so that his army could have cool wine in the summer. Roman emperors had ice brought from the mountains, and the kings of Egypt had snow shipped to them from Lebanon...Easterners, especially in the Turkish Empire, frequently consumed iced fruit drinks, and the people of Greece sold snow in the markets of Athens from as early as the fifth century BC. Today's sherberts and wine coolers likely originated with the wine-flavored ices consumed by early peoples, and today's snow cones likely originated with the ices made long ago form real snow mixed with honey and fruit."
---Nectar and Ambrosia:An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews [ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara] 2000 (p. 121)
"Water ices seem to have come into being, in Europe, at about the same time in the second half of the 17th century as ice cream. The same technique is used for both products...It has been suggested that ices (whether water ices or ice cream) were made much earlier in China. This seems not impossible, and would be difficult to disprove. However, the further idea that they were introduced to Europe by Marco Polo, returning to Venice from China in the 13th century, is unsupported and is best counted as a piece of culinary mythology...As for precedence in Europe...no one can say whether true water ices were first prepared in Italy of France or Spain. Whatever the point of origin, their use spread quickly between the more sophisticated cities of Europe, although there is no sure evidence of then they first crossed the Channel to London...Water ices may be served as a stand-alone refereshment, as a dessert, or as a means of refreshing the palate about halfway through a meal of many courses...Italian sorbetto, and Spanish sorbete, belong to the sherbet group. Antoher Italian term, granita, refers to a water ice with a more granular texture than the standard kind."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 838)
"Sorbet. A type of water ice that is softer and more granular than ice cream as it does not contain any fat or egg yolk. The basic ingredient of a sorbet is fruit juice or puree, wine, spirit or liqueur, or an infusion (tea or mint). A sugar syrup, sometimes with addtional glucose or one or two invert sugars is added. The mixture should not be beaten during freezing. When it has set, some Italian meringue can be added to give it volume. Historically, sorbets were the first iced desserts (ice creams did not appear until ith 18th century). The Chinese introduced them to the Persians and Arabs who introduced them to the Italians. The word sorbet is a gallicazation of the Italian sorbetto, derived from Turkish chobet and Arab charah, which simply meant drink. Sorbets were originally made of fruit, honey, aromatic substances and snow. Today, the sorbet is served as a dessert or as a refreshment between courses; at large formal dinners in France, sorbets with an alcoholic base are served between the main courses, taking the place of the liqueur...formerly served in the middle of the meal..."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 1108)
Sorbet today? Notes from the National Restaurant Association:
Would like to see 19th century recipes and/or try making your own water ice? Ask your librarian to help you find this book: Victorian Ices & Ice Cream: 117 delicious and unusual recipes updated for the modern kitchen. This facsimile cookbook was reprinted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art & Charles Scribner's Sons in 1976. The original book was titled The Book of Ices, A.B. Marshall, London, 1885.
Malted milk & milk shakes
Did you know that malteds, milk shakes and other soda fountain treats were originally concocted as health foods? The history of malted milk and milk shakes are interesting and interconnected:
"Malted milk...Originally created in 1887 as an easily digested infant's food made from an extract of wheat and malted barley combined with milk and made into a powder called "diastoid" by James and William Horlick of Racine, Wisconsin, this item, under the name "Horlick's Malted Milk," was featured by the Walgreen drugstore chain as part of a chocolate milk shake, which itself became known as a "malted" and became one of the most popular soda-fountain drinks."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 196-197)
"1883...English-American inventor William Horlick, 37, produces the first "malted milk" (he will coin the phrase in 1886) at Racine, Wis. He has combined dried whole milk with extract of wheat and malted barley in powder and tablet form, and his "diastoid" is the first dried whole milk that will keep...."
---The Food Chronology, James L.Trager [Henry Holt:New York] 1995 (p. 317)
What about milk shakes?
"Milk shake...When the term first appeared in print in 1885, milk shakes may have contained whiskey of some kind, but by the turn of the century they were considered wholesome drinks made with chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla syrups. In different parts of the country they went by different names...A "malted" is made with malted milk powder-invented in 1887 by William Horlick of Racine Wisconsin, and made from dried milk, malted barley, and wheat flour-promoted at first as a drink for invalids and children. By the 1930s a malt shop' was a soda fountain not attached to a pharmacy."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 206)
"Milk shake also appeared in the late 1880s, but the term then usually meant a sturdy, healthful eggnog type of drink, with eggs, whiskey, etc., served as a tonic as well as a treat. Since malted milk was also considered a tonic, the combined malted milk shake was a logical step and in the early 1900s people were asking for the new treat, often with ice cream, and before 1910 were using the shorter terms shake and malt (the longer word malted being somewhat more common in the Eastern states). Malt shop was a term of the late 1930s, usually being a typical soda fountain of the period, especially one used by students as a meeting place or hangout."
---Listening to America, Stuart Berg Flexner [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1982 (p. 178)
If you need additional information on the history of soda fountains & other ice cream products ask your librarian to help you find this book:
The Great American Ice Cream Book, Paul Dickson
& check out: The history of soft drinks (ie soda fountains!)
Neapolitan ice cream
Although Italian ice and granita trace their roots to ancient times, Neapolitan ice cream seems to be a 19th century phenomenon. Recipes for the fancy molds (bombes) or bricks of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry (sometimes pistachio) were often included in 19th century European and American cook books. This was a function of technology (refrigeration advancements) and collective gastronomy (preference for complicated presentations). Why "Neapolitan?" The peoples of Napoli are credited for introducing their famous ice creams to the world in the 19th century. At that time, pressed blocks composed of special flavors were trendy. The best ones were made with "Neapolitan-style" ice creams.
A survey of historic cookbooks confirms the term "Neapolitan," as it relates to ice cream, denotes both a recipe (for ice cream) and method (combining several flavors in a mold). It also reveals there is no "official" triumvirate of flavors. Most often cited are vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and pistachio. It is not unusual to include a sherbet or fruit-flavored ice as well.
This is what the food historians have to say:
"Neapolitan slice. A slice of ice-cream cake made with mousse mixture and ordinary ice cream, presented in a small pleated paper case. Neapolitan ice cream consists of three layers, each of a different color and flavor (chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla), moulded into a block and cut into slices. Neapolitan ice-cream makers were famous in Paris at the beginning of the 19th century, especially Tortoni, creator of numerous ice-cream cakes."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Jenifer Harvey Lang [Crown:New York] 1988 (p. 718)
"[18th century] confectioners's shops [were] very often run by Italians. Consequently ice creams were often called "Italian ice creams" or "Neapolitan ice creams" throughout the nineteenth century, and the purveying of such confections became associated with Italian immigrants."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 163)
"Neapolitan ice cream, different flavored layers frozen together....[was] being first being talked about in the 1870s."
---I Hear America Talking, Stuart Berg Flexner [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1979 (p. 191)
The oldest reference to Neapolitan ice cream in The New York Times appeared in 1887. The context? A costume description. While is does not shed light on the origins of the dessert, it does prove the term was understood by the people of the day:
"...in a dress of pink and white stripes, strongly resembling Neapolitan ice cream."
---"Thespians on a Frolic," The New York Times, June 27, 1887 (p. 8)
Some old recipes:
[1883]
"Napolitaine Cream.
To make a form of three colors: Vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice-creams are frozen in three different freezers, and filled in a mold the form of a brick in three smooth layers of equal size."
---Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving, Mrs. Mary F. Henderson [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1883 (p. 309)
[1884]
Neapolitan Ice-Cream
---Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book, Mrs. D.A. Lincoln
[NOTE: there is no mention of molds or using two/three flavors to compose a brick of ice cream.]
[1885]
"Neapolitan or Pinachee Cream Ice.
You must have a Neapolitan box for this ice and fill it up in 3 or 4 layers with different coloured and flavoured ice creams (a water ice may be used with the custards); for instance, lemon, vanilla, chocolate, and pistachio. Mould in the patent ice cave for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, turn it out, cut it in slices, and arrange neatly on the dish on a napkin or dish-paper."
---The Book of Ices, A. B. Marshall [1885] (p. 18) (Reprinted in Victorian Ices and Ice Cream, Barbara Ketcham Wheaton--includes a picture of Mrs. Marshall's patented ice cave' on page 57, Neapolitan boxes on page 53)
[1894]
"Neapolitan Ices.
These are prepared by putting ices of various kinds and colours into a mould known as a Neapolitan ice box, which, when set and turned out, is cut into slices suitable for serving. However small the pieces, the block should be cut so that each person gets a little of each kind; to do this, slice downwards first, then cut the slices thorugh once or twice in the contrary direction. They are generally laid on a lace paper on an ice plate. Four or five kinds are usually put in the mould, though three sorts will do. The following will serve as a guide in arranging: First, vanilla cream, then raspberry or cherry or currant water; coffee or chocoalte in the middle; the strawberry cream, with lemon or orange or pine-apple water to finish. A cream ice, flavoured with any liqueur, a brown bread cream flavoured with brandy, with a couple of bright-coloured water ices, form another agreeable mixture. Tea cream may be introduced into almost any combination unless coffee be used. Banana cream, pistachio or almond cream, with cherry water and damson or strawberry water, will be found very good. The spoon shown [Neapolitan Ice Spoon] has a double use; the bowl is for putting the mixture into the mould, and the handle is for levelling it; naturally, it is equally useful for other ices. The boxes may be had in tin at much less cost than pewter;they are also sold small enought to make single ices, but these are much more troublesome to prepare. After filling the moulds, if no cave, "bed" in ice in the usual way."
---Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book, Lizzie Heritage [Cassell and Company:London] 1894 (p. 967) [NOTE: this book also contains a drawing of a Neapoltian Ice Box.]
[1896]
"Neapolitan or Harlequin Ice Cream.
Two kinds of ice cream and an ice moulded in a brick."
---Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer, facsimile first edition 1896 [Weathervane Books:New York] 1974 (p. 375)
[NOTE: these instructions do not specific flavors.]
[1919]
"Neapolitan ice cream. ---The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book, Victor Hirtzler [Hotel Monthly Press:Chicago] 1919 (p. 95)
[1920?]
Neapolitan Ice Cream
1 cup sugar
2 quarts thin cream
3 egg yolks
1 cup pecan meats
1/2 cup cherries
1/2 cup pineapple
Heat cream. Caramelize sugar and dissolve it in the cream. Add the beaten egg yolks. Cool and partly freeze. Add the cherries, pineapple, and nuts. Mix well. Finish the freezing."
---The International Cook Book, Margaret Weimer Haywood [1920?] (p. 201)
[1924]
"Neapolitan Ice Cream
This is popularly known as a mixture of creams moulded together , as vanilla, strawberry, and pistachio; as a matter of fact, the term really means a cooked rich custard cream."
---Mrs. Allen on Cooking, Menus, Service, Ida C. Bailey Allen c. 1924 [Doubleday, Doran & Company:Garden City NY] 1929 (p. 691)
[1940]
"Neapolitan Ice Cream
1 pint strawberry ice-cream
1 pint pistachio ice-cream
1 pint orange ice
(Any preferred combination of flavors may be used instead of these)
Pack a mold in salt and ice and spread the strawberry ice cream smothly over the bottom. If it is not very firm, cover and let it stand for a few minutes. Spread a good layer of orange ice upon it, and as soon as this hardens, spread over it the pistachio ice-cream. Cover and freeze."
---The American Woman's Cook Book, editoed and revised by Ruth Berolzheimer [Consolidated Book Publishers:Chicago IL] 1940 (p. 569)
Novelties
In America, the term "novelty" as it applies to food, is often connected with manufactured portable/individual ice cream treats. Ice cream bars and popsicles were intoduced in the 1920s. They were "novel" (dictionary definition is "new") because they were pre-made. Prior to this time, ice cream was scooped fresh by street/fair vendors, hokey pokey men, soda jerks, and restauranteurs.
The Frozen Sucker War: Good Humor v. Popsicle Jeffeson M. Moak, National Archives
Jeffeson M. Moak, National ArchivesParfait
The orginal parfait was 19th century frozen coffee-flavoured French ice dessert constructed in parfait-shaped (tall and thin) ice cream molds. This dessert was not served in tall, thin glassware as we know today. It was extracted from the mold (of similar shape) and served on decorated plates.
Layered, molded ice cream treats (with fruits, syrups & liqueurs) were quite popular by the mid-19th century both in Europe and America. They were presented in many fabulous shapes much to the delight of diners of all ages. Parfait, as is currently known by Americans is a multi-layered ice cream treat presented in "parfait" glasses. These glasses are typically thin and tall. The parfait is usually made with rich vanilla ice cream accented with liqueur or other other syrup (chocolate, strawberry) . The most notable difference between an American parfait and the ever popular Ice Cream Sundae is the dish. The parfait is presented tall & thin; the sundae is most often served in a wide-mouth glass that may or may not have a stem. The use of liqueur is generally relegated to the parfait. Did you know? Parfait is the French word for "perfect."
"Parfait. An iced dessert made with double (heavy) cream, which gives it smoothness, prevents it from melting too quickly and enables it to be cut into slices. Originally the parfait was a coffee-flavoured ice cream; today, the basic mixture is a flavoured custard-cream, a flavoured syrup mixed with egg yolks or a fruit puree, which is blended with whipped ccream and then frozen. There is a special parfait mould in the shape of a cylindar with one slightly rounded end...In Britain and the United States a parfait is also the name of a whipped dessert."
--Larousse Gastonomique, Completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 840)
"Parfait. A name properly used of a rich frozen dessert, similar to a bombe and often made in a bombe mold. A typical parfait is composed of two or several elements (a lining for the mould and a filling, which may itself be layered) and is flavoured with a liqueur, or with coffee, chocolate, praline, etc. In North America, the term has come to mean something different, namely a combination of fruit and ice cream, served in a tall narrow glass which exposes to view the various layers of the confection. This sort of parfait is not a frozen dessert. However, the frozen dessert version can be frozen in individual parfait glasses, rather than in a single mould, so there is a relationship between the two different things."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 575)
The oldest recipe we have with the name parfait is from a French cookbook dated 1869. It is for a coffee-ice confection.
"Parfait au cafe
Roast 1/2 lb. of coffee in a copper pan;
Boil 3 pints of double cream; put the coffee in it; cover the stewpan, and let the coffee steep for an hour;
Put 12 yolks of eggs in a stewpan, with 1/2 lb. of pounded sugar;
Strain the cream; add it to the egg, in the stewpan; stir over the fire, without boiling, until it thickens, and strain it through a tammy cloth;
Set a freezing-pot and a parfait-mould in some pounded ice, and bay salt;
Put the cream in the freezing-pot, and work itwith the spatula;
When the cream is partly frozen, add 1/2 gill of syrup at 32 degrees (probably F.); continue working the cream, and, when the syrup is well mixed, add another 1/2 gill of syrup, and 1 quart of well-whipped cream; Fill the mould with the iced cream; close it hermetically, and embed it in the ice for two hours; Turn the parfait out of the mould on to a napkin, on a dish; and serve."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe [Chef of the Paris Jockey Club] translated and adapted for English use by Alphonse Gouffe [London: Sampson, Low, Son & Marston] 1869 (p. 562-3)
The Book of Ices, A.B. Marshall [London:Marshall's School of Cookery] 1884 includes a recipe (though not named parfait) is quite similar:
, A.B. Marshall [London:Marshall's School of Cookery] 1884 includes a recipe (though not named parfait) is quite similar:"White coffee cream ice: very delicate
Take a quarter of a pound of fresh roasted Mocha coffee berries, and add them to a pint of cream or milk; let them stand on the stove for an hour, but do not let them boil; strain through tammy; sweeten with 3 ounces of sugar. Freeze and finish as for vanilla ice cream."
---Recipe number 25
Mrs. D. A. Lincoln's recipe for parfait...also a coffee concoction (Boston, 1884)
Popsicles
Ice cream, ices and other frosty treats were sold in cities, amusement parks, boardwalks and and resort areas in the during WWI by a number of portable vehicles. These ranged from hand-pushed carts to goat-pulled mini-wagons to bicycle-propelled carts to horsedrawn/electric trucks. Folks who make a living selling ice treats from carts were known as "hokey pokey" men. How long before these treats would melt? That would be determined by the quality of the cart and the temperature of the day. The history of the popsicle is a fascnating topic unto itself. Like the history of many popular frozen treats, it is full of conflicting claims and culinary folklore. While Frank Epperson is generally credited for "inventing" the popsicle (first called the Epsicle, after himself), there is ample evidence that frozen fruit treats and juice bars existed in the late 19th century. These treats were often hawked by people of Italian descent, who were versed in the fine art of granita. Even the Epperson story has many "versions." The Epperson story sticks not because he was the first, but because he was the first to mass market this product.
About Frank Epperson's popsicle
"The third member of the great novelty trimuvirate of the 1920s was born on a cold eureka-shouting morning in New Jersey in 1923. The inventor was Frank Epperson, who made lemonade from a specially prepared powder that he sold at an Oakland, California, amusement park. While visiting friends in New Jersey, he prepared a batch of special lemonade and inadvertantly left a glass of it on a windowsill with a spoon in it. The temperature went down below zero during the night and in the morning Epperson saw the glass. He picked it up by the spoon handle and ran hot water over the glass freeing the frozen mass. In his hand was the first Epsicle, later to be known as the Popsicle. Epperson saw immediately the potential of what he held in his hand and applied for a patent, which was granted in 1924. He was fortunate, because research conducted by The Ice Cream Review in 1925 revealed that a major ice cream company was experimenting with "frozen suckers" at the time of the windowsill incident, and as far back as 1872 two men doing business as Ross and Robbins sold a frozen-fruit confection on a stick, which they called the Hokey-Pokey."
---Great American Ice Cream Book, Paul Dickson [Atheneum:New York] 1972 (p. 83)
"In 1905 an eleven-year-old boy named Frank Epperson, of Oakland, California, accientally left a mixing stick in a glass of juice on a windowsill while visiting friends in New Jersey. The juice froze with the stick in it, enabling the ice to be held in the hand and licked.In 1922 Epperson introduced this new "icelollipop" at a fireman's ball in Oakland, California, and called it an "Epsicle," then later "Popsicle." (Frozen "juice bars" had been known in the nineteenth century, including one called the "Hokey Pokey," but none was marketed well until the Popsicle in 1923.)"
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman] 1999 (p. 165-6)
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30 April 2006
