SC - Ice Cream and Martha Washington

[margali]

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> Apart from the odd mentions of sherbet in Islamic sources, which refer
>
> to fruit purees and/or juices sweetened with honey and cooled by
> evaporation (ever see those unglazed terracotta wine cooler
> thingummies?), but nowhere near close to freezing, I'm aware that the
> Romans did various things with ice imported from the Alps and similar
> places. Again, freezing food with ice requires an endothermic
> reaction,
> the technology for which was, I believe, unknown in period. A given
> mass
> of ice, at 0 degrees C., plus a given mass of food, at some
> temperature
> above that, cannot equal an aggregate mass at a temperature of 0
> degrees
> C. or below. For that, you have to do the thing with the salt. So,
> basically, the Romans and other folks, like Roger Bacon, IIRC, knew
> that
> food could be refrigerated with snow and/or ice, but I don't think
> they
> could have done much freezing without the help of Ol' Man Winter
> hisself.
>
> My guess (and it's only a guess) is that you won't find recognizable
> ice
> cream until 16th or 17th century Italy.
>
> Adamantius, who also once served melon sorbet at a Middle Eastern
> feast,
> in July. We brought it in the night before, and discovered, to our
> horror, that it had mysteriously grown very cold, and somewhat solid.
> Perfectly good sherbet, though, for all that. A shame to waste it.
> Everyone was vastly disappointed, as you can tell ;  )

As per Ancient Inventions by Peter James and Nick Thorpe, Athenaeus
describes how water was being chilled in Egypt in 200 ad- radiating the
heat off at night by placing the water in the sun to heat it quite hot,
then at night wet down the clay jars and set them out in the open. A
similar way was noted in India using salt to help in 400 bc. a similar
one to the indian method was reported in estonia in 800 ad. Ice houses
were known as far back as 1700 bc used by zimri-lin of mari/northwest
iraq when he reported the making of one, and the importation of ice as
well.
margali

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