SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #504 Ice Cream question...

[Tara Sersen]

In reference to the question about whether or not ice cream is period,  I found this
on the web...

From:      http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/ichist.html


          Ice Cream History and Folklore

    Most of the following material has been extracted from "The History of Ice
Cream", written by the International
    Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers (IAICM), Washington DC, 1978. As you will
note below, however, much of the
    early history of ice cream remains unproven folklore.

    Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago, Charles I of England hosted a sumptous
state banquet for many of his friends
    and family. The meal, consisting of many delicacies of the day, had been simply
superb but the "coup de grace" was yet to
    come.  After much preparation, the King's french chef had concocted an apparently
new dish. It was cold and resembled
    fresh- fallen snow but was much creamier and sweeter than any other after- dinner
dessert. The guests were delighted, as
    was Charles, who summoned the cook and asked him not to divulge the recipe for
his frozen cream. The King wanted the
    delicacy to be served only at the Royal table and offered the cook 500 pounds a
year to keep it that way. Sometime later,
    however, poor Charles fell into disfavour with his people and was beheaded in
1649. But by that time, the secret of the
    frozen cream remained a secret no more. The cook, named DeMirco, had not kept his
promise.

    This story is just one of many of the fascinating tales which surround the
evolution of our country's most popular dessert, ice
    cream. It is likely that ice cream was not invented, but rather came to be over
years of similar efforts. Indeed, the Roman
    Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar is said to have sent slaves to the mountains to
bring snow and ice to cool and freeze the
    fruit drinks he was so fond of. Centuries later, the Italian Marco Polo returned
from his famous journey to the Far East with
    a recipe for making water ices resembling modern day sherbets.

    A newly published book, by Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir, Ices: The Definitive
Guide, publ. by Hodder and Stoughton,
    1993, ISBN 0-340-58335-5, suggests that the historical basis of these tales is
skeptical.

    What follows is from the opening of the first chapter of their book:

    Most books are full of myths about the history of ice cream. According to popular
accounts, Marco Polo (1254-1324)
    saw ice creams being made during his trip to China, and on his return, introduced
them to Italy. The myth continues with
    the Italian chefs of the you Catherine de'Medici taking this magical dish to
France when she went there in 1533 to marry
    the Duc d'Orleans, with Charles I rewarding his own ice-cream maker with a
lifetime pension on condition that he did not
    divulge his secret recipe to anyone, thereby keeping ice cream as a royal
perogative.

    Unfortunately, there is no historical evidence to support any of these stories.
They would appear to be purely the creation of
    imaginative nineteenth-century ice-cream makers and vendors. Indeed, we have
found no mention of any of these stories
    before the nineteenth century.

    They go on to refute the claims about Marco Polo, Catherine de'Medici, and
Charles I (in particular, while the IAICM
    reference credits DeMirco as the Charles I chef, apparently while other various
sources credit 10 different men, there are
    no records of such a pension being paid to any of Charles I's cooks).

    They do go on in their book to discuss history for which there is a record, with
(I think) the earliest written record being
    something made in China.

<Big snip- go to the homepage if you want to see the later history.  This is all
that's pertinant to us :)  >


So, I guess the answer is no, ice cream isn't documentable.  I'm as disappointed as
you are :/  I have, however, often heard about the ices that were made in ancient
Rome, and later in Italy.  I don't know how much more widespread these would have
been.  Does anyone know?  Are they akin to modern Italian Ice, or more like a sorbet
or sherbert, like the legends say? ;)

- --
Marjorie
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http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Towers/1258
For you and I are one-way ticket
Holders on that one-way street
Which lies across a golden valley
Where the waters of joy and hope run deep.


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