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 (made with egg yolks) and its American counterpart, “Philadelphia-style,” are (no eggs, or egg whites only) enriched products made with the finest ingredients. 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.

Where did they get the ice before we had refrigerators?

European introduction & evolution

“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.”

“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.”

“The first ice creams, in the sense of an iced and flavored 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.”

“The first substantial piece of writing on ice cream was an anonymous 84-page manuscript entitled L’Art de faire des Glaces which, through watermarks in the paper, has been dated “circa 1700.” It is a “how to” work of some sophistication, giving detailed instructions for the preparation of such delights as apricot, voilet, rose, chocolate, and a caramel ice creams and water ices. A number of British cookbooks of the eighteenth century contain ice cream formulas. One such work is Mrs. Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Easy (1747)-considered by scholars to be the first major cookbook written by a woman in what was until then an almost exclusively male domain. In 1768 there appeared in Paris what is undoubtedly the most outlandish treatise on the subject ever to be published. Called The Art of Making Frozen Desserts, it is a 240-page offering by one M. Emy, who not only gives formulas for “food fit for the gods,” but offers theological and philosophical explanations for such phenomena as the freezing of water. The tone of the book is set by its frontispiece, which depicts a brace of angels delivering ice cream to earth from heaven. Although frozen desserts were becoming common in regal circles, not until 1670 when the Cafe Procope opened in Paris did “iced creams” and sherbets pread to the masses.”

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