What are your thoughts when We suggest ice cream, your favorite flavor in a tub or on a stick, the jolly jingle of an ice cream truck, or just long hot summer days full of pleasant things. Well, ice cream is all of that and more, so let’s begin with where it all started.
Table of Contents
The Initial Appearance of Ice Cream & Concept of Ice Houses
Ice cream launched in Italy as a table trick, with the wonder of watching a creamy custard transform into a frozen delicacy right in front of your eyes. It appeared in Britain in the early 17th century, and you can follow its progress through the construction of ice houses. The first were Royal at Greenwich in 1619, followed by Hampton Court, and by the 18th century, ice houses could be found in any country house worth its salt, although ice cream was mostly for the rich and powerful.
Ice houses were incredibly basic, consisting of a large hole in the ground. The hole in the ground would be filled with frozen ice from lakes and rivers that had been drained during the extremely cold winters. Above the opening in the ground would be a small brick structure, similar to an igloo, with two firmly sealed doors to prevent hot air from entering. For example, underground where it was extremely cold, ice would remain solid for several years before being transported to the kitchen and carved into little pieces for ice cream.
Marshfield Farm‘s ice cream is prepared under modern sanitary conditions in a small-scale factory. Previously, it was a little different but extremely simple: all you needed was a bucket, a freezing pail (also known as a sorbettiere), and a spaddle to properly stir your ice cream process. You took some ice, smashed it, put it in a pail, and added loads and loads of salt. You’d then place the freezing pail in the centre so that the ice and salt caused an exothermic reaction, lowering the temperature to roughly -22 minus 25 Celsius, which is far colder than the average modern freezer.
You would place the mixture in your freezing bucket and scrape, stir, and spin it alternately. It took about 45 minutes to make excellent, well-churned ice cream. The technique was so simple and effective that it survived until the 1950s, and you can still find photographs of nomadic street vendors with wheelbarrows full of ice and salt with the telltale handle of a sorbettiere jutting out of the top.
The Initial Ice Cream Recipes
The initial ice cream recipes have been discovered in manuscript books, such as Lady Anne Fanshawe’s Ice Cream in the 1670s. By the 18th century, you could acquire printed books that contained a large number of recipes. Artisan producers, such as Marshfield Farm, offer a wide variety of flavours, but nothing compares to the 18th century. If you were to choose any flavor, you might choose Tamarind or Bergamot tea, coffee, Rosemary, or Parmesan.
Ice cream was traditionally served as a dessert after dinner, typically moulded in elaborate moulds, but by the end of the century, you could also go to your local confectioner’s store and purchase a frozen pick-me-up. There were three sorts of ice cream: ice water, which we now call sorbet, and sorbetto, which typically contained alcohol.
Ice Cream in the Modern time
During the Victorian period of time, Ice cream were no longer exclusively for the wealthy; ice cream was being obtained from massive ice flows in North America and housed in commercial ice houses throughout Britain. Meanwhile, Italian immigrants delivered street ice cream to an appreciative public, including the brightly colored Hokey Pokey and the penny lick, which was a glass cone.
It would be handed to you, and you would lick your ice cream out of it before returning it to the vendor, who would rinse it in more filthy water before refilling it and passing it on to the next client. Meanwhile, for the wealthy, the variety of flavours continued to expand, including marmalade, melon, cranberry, cucumber, biscuits, and white wine.
Then came the twentieth century’s two world wars, which made it nearly difficult to obtain ice cream. However, it remained popular, and in the 1930s, walls had a large fleet of stoppage and tricycles, all of which were requisitioned during WWII. During this time, the wafer cone and ice lolly were also introduced. In the 1950s, both our food production techniques and the manner in which we produced. Food grew more industrialised and standardised, which unavoidably led us to where we are now. English Heritage collaborated with Marshfield Farm to create brown bread ice cream, which will be available at certain locations.