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 (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.
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.
Where did they get the ice before we had refrigerators?
"...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."
"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 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."
"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 "crica 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."
First ice cream recipe in America?
Our survey of 18th-early 19th century English and American cookbooks confirms fruit ice creams were probably the most popular. Most cookbooks of the day contained several recipes for
flavored creams, including one recipe especially for ice cream. In theory, any sweet cream recipe could be processed to become ice cream. Most period
cookbooks note that any type of fruit may be used.
Which flavors were available in the 18th century?
[1769]
[1780s] Thomas Jefferson's French ice cream
[1792]
[1824]
RECOMMENDED READING:
ON THE WEB:
Several people over the years have queried us with regards to the illusive Augustus Jackson. This person does not appear any standard reference books about
scientists, inventors, black Americans or white house cooks/chefs. Nor is he referenced in the Library of Congress or US Patent Office records. The only print
contemporary print reference we find is this:
"Inventions of free blacks were...recorded. The first black granted a patent was probably Henry Blair's 1834 seed planter patent. But again, records fail the
historian for the race of patent-seekers was rarely noted...Other black inventions were not patented for various reasons, as was the case with ice cream, invented
by Augustus Jackson of Philadelphia in 1832."
A survey of historic newspaper articles confirms this Mr. Jackson's existence and his ice cream connection. We do not know for certain if his invention is for
Philadelphia-style ice cream.
[1894]
[1928]
[1932]
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:
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
served with cornflake
crusts and Japanese ice cream tempura.
About ice cream,
meringue &
ice cream cake.
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
RECIPES THROUGH TIME:
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translated by Anthea Bell [Barnes &
Noble Books:New York] 1992 (p. 749-50)
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 2002 (p.
167)
---Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History, Alberto Capatti & Massimo Montanari [Columbia
University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 110-1)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
392-3)
---The Great American Ice Cream Book, Paul Dickson [Atheneum:New York] 1972 (p. 18-19)
According to the venerable food historian Karen Hess, the first ice cream recipe published in the United States appeared in The New
Art of Cookery, According to the Present Practice/Richard Briggs, circa 1792. This recipe is almost exactly the same as Mrs. Raffald's (see below). Ms. Hess
observes: "the first American recipe that I know of that features vanilla on its own is one for vanilla ice cream in Mary Randolph's The Virginia Housewife, 1824; similar
recipes had, however been appearing in France, and Jefferson brought back one in 1784, showing once again how tht printed word lags behind usage." Source:
Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery, transcribed by Karen Hess [Columbia University Press:New York] 1981 (p. 13)
[About vanilla.]
People have been adding flavors to ice/ice cream right from the beginning! Ice cream began as
granita (ice). This product was often flavored with fruit or honey. In the 18th century
when the first ice creams (as we know them today) were produced, they were likewise flavored. Period recipes are excellent
indicators of popular flavorings:
[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)
"To make Ice Cream. Pare, stone, and scald twelve ripe apricots, beat them in a fine marble mortar. Put to them six ounces of double-refined sugar, a pint of
scalding cream, work it through a hair sieve. Put it into a tin that has a close cover, when you see your cream grow thick round the edges of your tin, stir it, and set
it again till all grows quite thick. When your cream is to be turned out of, then put on the lid. Have ready another tub with ice and salt in as before, put your mould in
the middle and lay your ice under and over it, let it stand four or five hours. Dip your tin in warm water when you turn it out. If it be summer you must not turn it out
til the moment you want it. You may use any sort of fruit if you nave not apricots, only observe to work it fine."
---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, facsimile 1769 edition with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East
Sussex] 1997 (p. 126) [NOTE: Mrs. Raffald's other fruit cream (non-ice) recipes employ lemon, raspberry, and orange. She also offers recipes for pistachio and
chocolate cream.]
Ice Creams. Take a dozen ripe apricots, pare them very thin and stone them, scald and put them into a mortar, and beat them fine; put to them six ounces of
double refined sugar, a pint of scalding cream, and rub it through a sieve with the back of a spoon; then put it into a tine with a close cover, and set it in a tub of ice
broken small, with four handsful of salt mixt among the ice; when you see your cream get thick round the edges of your tin, stir it well, and put it in again till it becomes quite
thick; when the cream is all froze up, take it out of the tin, and put it into the mould you intend to turn it out of: mind that you put a piece of paper on each end, between the lids
and the ice cream, put on the top lid, and have another tub of ice ready, as before, put the mould in the middle, with the ice under and over it; let it stand four hours, and
do not turn it out before you want it; then dip the mould into cold spring water, take off the lids and paper, and turn it into a plate. You may do any sort of fruit the same way."
Ice Creams. When ice creams are not put into shapes, they should always be served in glasses with handles.
Vanilla Cream. Boil a vanilla bean in a quart of rich milk until it has imparted the flavour sufficently; then take it out, and mix with the milk, eight eggs, yelks
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."
Raspberry Cream. Make a quart of rich boiled custard; when cold, pour it on a quart or ripe red raspberries, mash them tin it, pass it through a sieve, sweeten
and freeze it."
Peach Cream. Get fine soft peaches, perfectly ripe, peel them, take out the stones, and put them in a China bowl; sprinkle some sugar on and chop them very
small, with a silver spoon; if the peaches be sufficiently ripe, they will become a smooth pulp; add as much cream or rich milk as you have peaches; put more sugar and
freeze it."
Citron Cream. Cut the finest citron melons, when perfectly ripe, take out the seeds and slice the nicest part into a China bowl, in smal pieces, that will lie
conveniently, cover them with powdered sugar, and let them stand several hours, then drain off the syrup they have made, and add as much cream as it will give a strong
flavour to, and freez it. Pine apples may be used in the same way."
Observations on Ice Cream. It is the practice with some indolent cooks, to set the freezer, containing the cream, in a tub wtih ice and salt, and put it in the ice-house;
it will certainly freeze there, but not until the watery particles have subsided, and by the separation destroyed the cream. A freezer should be twelve or fourteen
inches deep, and eight or ten wide. This facilitates the operation very much, by giving a larger surface for the ice to form, which it always does on the sides of the vessel; a
silver spoon, with a long handle, should be provided for scraping the ice from the sides, as soon as formed, and when the whole is congealed, pack it in moulds (which must be
placed with care, lest they should not be upright,) in ice and salt till sufficiently hard to retain the shape--they should not be turned out till the moment they are to be
served. The freezing tub must be wide enough to leave a margin of four or five inches all around the freezer when placed in the middle, which must be filled up with
small lumps of ice mixed with salt--a larger tub would waste the ice. The freezer must be kept constatnly in motion during the process, and ought to be made of
pewter, which is less liable than tin to be worn in holes and spoil the cream by admitting the salt water."
---The Virginia Houswewife, Mary Randolph, facsimile 1824 edition with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South
Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1984 (p. 174-179)
The Great American Ice Cream Book, Paul Dickson [Atheneum:New York] 1972
"Asparagus Ice Cream, Anyone?," Jeri Quinzio, Gastronomica: Journal of Food and Culture, Spring 2002 []
History of Ice Cream,
International Dairy Foods Association
Ice Cream, University of
Guelph
Augustus Jackson
---The Negro Almanac: A Reference Work on the African American, Harry A. Ploski & James Williams [Gale Research:Detroit] 5th edition 1989 (p. 1077)
"The Origin of Ice Cream. The man who invented ice cream was a Negro by the name of Jackson, and in the early part of the present century kept a small
confectionery store. Cold custards, which were cooled after being made by setting them on a cake of ice, were very fashionable, and Jackson conceived the idea
of freezing them, which he did by placing the ingredients in a tin bucket and completely covered with ice. Each bucket contained a quart, and was sold for $1.
It immediately became popular, and the inventor soon enlarged his store, and when he died left a considerable fortune A good many tried to follow his example,
and ice cream was hawked about the streets, being wheeled along very much as the hokey-pokey carts are now, but none of them succeeded in obtaining the flavor
that Jackson had in his product.--Baker's Helper."
---New York Times, March 11, 1894 (p. 18)
[NOTE: this information was reprinted verbatim in the Grand Union Cook Book, Margaret Compton [Grand Union Tea Co.:New York] 1902 (p. 291)
"Augustus Jackson, a Philadelphia Negro, was the first to make America's favorite frozen confection--ice cream--according to the records in the possession of
citizens living in the City of Brotherly Love. In 1832 there were five Negro confectioners in Philadelphia. One of them was Jackson, know in his day and time as
'the man who invented ice cream.' He also was a caterer. For an extended period he enjoyed a monopoly of the sale of this dessert. He demanded $1 a quart,
and had no difficulty selling all he made...The Jackson establishment was in what was then known as Goodwater Street, now St. James, between Seventh and
Eight streets. After his death his daughter continue the business for several years on Walnut street, near Tenth street. Members of the Jackson family, with their
limited facilities, were unable to meet the public demand for ice cream, and other confectioners and caterers, principally Negroes, began making it to their financial
advantage."
---"Phily Citizen Was First Maker of Ice Cream," Lester A. Walton, The Pittsburgh Courier, May 19, 1928 (p. 12)
"Ice cream, a more universally distinctive American dish than many others which through of earlier introduction are sectional in character, was invented by Augustus
Jackson, a Negro confectioner, who was prominent here during the latter half of the 19th century."
---"Social Worker Cites Contributions of Negro to
Philadelphia's Progress," Wayne Hopkins, Philadelphia Tribune, June 2, 1932 (p. 9)
Baked Alaska
---unnamed, in Paris, no references made to his professional training or this being a Chinese dish.
Pastry shell is used.
---aka Count Rumford, in Monaco, claim to fame is discovering meringue doesn't melt
---Delmonico's most famous chef, New York City, said to have served this to mark the occasion
of Seward's Alaska purchase.
---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. ]
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 2002 (p.
16)
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated Edition [Clarkson
Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 65)
---Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren [MacMillan:New
York] 1995 (p. 200-1)
[1894]
"Alaska,
Florida"
[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.
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)
Food 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:
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 fountains 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).]
[NOTES: (1)This book contains a recipe for the "correct" Brooklyn egg cream. (2)Fox's is still in business.
"How to Make an Egg Drin.
"Egg Chocolate
French ice cream
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 recipes 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-cream-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'."
Thomas Jefferson's ice cream
(included eggs); manuscript
recipe
HISTORIC RECIPES
[1828--France]
[1828--United States]
[1890s--England]
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.
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 savvy 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
About toffee (a candy with English roots)
HOKEY POKEY & ICE CREAM TREATS
"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."
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:
[1877]
ABOUT ICE CREAM MOLDS
The history of the ice cream sandwich can be traced to Renaissance-era English trifles and 18th century Charlottes, rich
compositions of sweet cream and biscuits. Advances in freezer technology made ice cream
available to many Europeans and Americans by the 18th century. Old favorites were transformed.
Victorian-era cooks/chefs crafted fancy ice cream
(molded ice creams with or without cake). They also specialized in cream-filled Victorias sandwich cakes. Freeze a
sandwich cake and what do you get?
Ice cream sandwiches, as we Americans know them today, fall into the category of "novelties."
According to the food historians, ice cream novelties were introduced in the late 19th/early 20th
century. These were the treats of the "common folk." Cheaply priced items hawked by street
vendors in cities, resorts & fairs. The origin of several popular period ice cream treats (ice cream
cones, ice cream sundaes, banana splits, popsicles) are readily claimed by several people and
places. Not so, the ice cream sandwich.
About the ice cream sandwich
"Ice cream sandwich (slabs of ice cream sandwiched between cakelike cookies)...began appearing
in the late 1890s on New York street vendors' carts. In San Francisco the It's It ice-cream bar
was a similar item made with oatmeal cookie layers."
We checked several ice cream stories in the New York Times from 1886-1929 and the
earliest reference we found to ice cream sandwiches by name was an editorial titled "New
Hot-Weather Refreshments" published August 31, 1928 (page 18, column 6) "...ice cream cones,
danties' and sandwiches still hold their own with the new ices."
According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, the
Anderson ice cream sandwich making machine was registered with the government February 1,
1926 registration number 0615682. The USPTO record does not indicate whether or not this
particular device was made/manufactured or ever produced its intended product.
Blue Earth, Minnesota? If you search the Internet you'll find plenty of Web sites claiming this
town is the birthplace of the ice cream sandwich. None of these cite specific attribution.
Recent developments
Freeze-dried Space Bar ice cream sandwiches were invented in 1989 by U.S. scientists connected
with the Smithsonian Institution. Trademark registration number is 1576642.
American marketers are currently capitalizing on brand recognition/nostalgia when it comes to
developing new ice cream sandwich products. Our local supermarket sells ice cream sandwiches
featuring Nestle Toll House cookies and Oreos. Sandwich minis (we buy small things because we
can eat more of them?) are also popular. You can identify new products and consumer trends with
magazine/trade journal/newspaper articles (your librarian can help you access) and company Web
sites (product lists and press releases).
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..."
"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."
"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 refreshment, 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."
Essentially, sherbet and sorbet are similar products. Recipes evolved through the years. In
England, the word sherbet also came to denote a powdered fizzy candy. In the USA the term
'sherbet' is commonly used for 'sorbet', except for in fine restaurants. About the words:
"English acquired the word sherbet via Turkish or Persian serbet from Arabic shabah, 'beverage,
drink', and at first (in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) it was used, logically enough, for a
Middle Eastern drink--specifically a cooling drink made from water, fruit juice, and sugar or
honey, and often chilled with snow. Then in the nineteenth century and effervescent white powder
was devised, composed of bicarbonate of sida, tartaric acid, sugar, and various flavourings, with
which to make fizzy drinks that supposedly resembled the original Oriental sherbet. Children
quickly discovered that it was if anything nicer to eat the sherbet powder than to make drinks with
it, and so were born the sherbet dabs and sherbet fountains of yesteryear (the former was a
lollipop that could be dipped into a bag of sherbet, the latter a cylindrical packet of sherbet with ta
liquorice straw for sucking it up). Sherbet is closely related etymolocially to shrub (the dirnk),
sorbet (in American English sherbet is often used for 'sorbet'), and syrup."
"A sherbet, basically and historically, is a cold, sweetened, non-alcoholic drink, usually based on a fruit juice. The earliest recorded word for it seems to be sharab,
the classical Arab term from a sweetened drink. However, in the late Middle Ages this word developed its current Arabic sense...The later Arabic word sharbat
also entered European languages. In the late 16th century it appeared in Italian as the name of a beverage drunk in Turkey. Then the beverage itself entered Italian
cuisine, under the name sorbetto. It took this form because the Italians assimiliated it into their verb sorbire, meaning to sip. The Italian sorbetto gave rise to the
French sorbet, the Spanish sorbete, etc. All these words begin with 's' not with 'sh'. English seems to be the only language which took the word sherbet directly
from the Turkish, complete with its 'h'...Acccording to the dictionary compiled by Fortiere in the late 17th cnetury, a sorbet in France at that time was also a drink,
of sugar and lemon pulp. Diderot's great encyclopedia of the 1750s suggests that it remained so during the 18th century. During the 19th century...a sorbet could
be either a drink or a sort of ice more suitable for drinking than eating, and in the latter case had an alcoholic content."
"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 additional 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..."
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.
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."
"Malted milk was a trade name registered by William Horlick of Racine, Wisconsin. Horlick supposedly coined the name "malted milk,"
but his formula resembled one already being marketed in England. He promoted his mixture of dried milk extracts of malted
barley and wheat as a food supplement for infants and invalids. As such, it was widely availalbe in drugstores, both as as
powder and as a tablet. Enterprising druggists soon discovered that they could use powdered malted milk to make a cheap
syurp to flavor drinks. When ice cream was added, a malted was both tasty and filling, since the dried milk and the ice cream
had a high fat content. Druggists promoted the drink as a complete meal and charged a premium price. Horlick's malted milk was
the first in the United States but it was widely imitated by other manufacturers, including Carnation and Borden's. Although
Horlick protested that thes other companies were infringing on his rights, his competitors cited legal precedents in their
favor. Horlick persuaded some state associations of drugstore owners to boycott his rivals' products, and there was much
animosity among the malted milk manufacturers....Malted milk sold steadily for decades than then became a fad in the 1920s, largely
due to an electric blender invented by Fred Osius. Osius, who lived in Racine, prefected a mixer that blended a smooth,
thick drink. At first, he tried to interest Horlick in his invention, but the malted milk magnate ridiculed him. In 1910,
Osseus made a trip to New York City, tring to find investors but was unsuccessful and ran out of money. In order to pay his
way back to Wisconsin, he persuaded the owner of the Caswell-Massey store on Broadway to take a blender as collateral for
a loan. This blender was a big hit with Caswell-Massey's customers, who were fascinated by the way it worked. The sales
manager for a leading manufacturer of milk products saw this blender at Caswell-Massey and immediately grasped its
potentia. Subsequently, his company arranged to buy blenders from Ossius and give them to soda fountain operators who bought 100
pounds of its malted milk. Bulk malted milk sales increased from less than one million pounds annually in 1910 to more than
35 million in 1926. The drinks were so popular that several chains of malted milk shops sprang up on the West Coast in the
1920s."
"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...."
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."
"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."
"It is not known exactly when milkshakes were introduced at soda fountains, but they were popular by the mid-1880s. Tufts
patented his Lightning Shaker for mixing milkshakes in 1884, and trade publications printed numerous ads for shakers in the 1890s.
These handcrafted machines agitated glasses filled with liquid, producing smooth, thick drinks...Tufts' 1890 trade catalog said
that the milkshake "has sprung into great popularity in the South in a surprisingly short time...It can be made of any flaor, but
vanilla and chocolate are the most desirable flavors. This catalog included a milkshake recipe, which instructed the
dispenser to fill a tumbler half-full of shaved ice, add 1.5 ounces of syrup, finish filling the glass with milk, and shake well.
For a little extra punch, the recipe said to add port wine. In order to make a richer shake, upscale fountains used a
combination of heavy cream or ice cream and milk. While most milkshakes sold for a nickel, these creamier shakes cost 10 to 15
cents. Saxe's New Guide, or Hints to Soda Dispensers warned against giving the customer a wide choice of milkshake flavors
because it slowed down service while the dispenser waited for the patron to decide."
If you need additional information on the history of soda fountains
ask your librarian to help you find this book:
Neapolitan ice cream
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:
"[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."
"Neapolitan ice cream, different flavored layers frozen together....[was] being first being talked
about in the 1870s."
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."
Some old recipes:
[1884]
[1885]
[1894]
[1896]
[1919]
[1920?]
Neapolitan Ice Cream
[1924]
[1940]
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.
Parfait
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."
"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."
The oldest recipe we have with the name parfait is from a French cookbook dated 1869. It is for a
coffee-ice confection.
The Book of Ices, A.B. Marshall [London:Marshall's School of Cookery] 1884 includes a
recipe (though not named parfait) is quite similar:
Mrs. D. A. Lincoln's
recipe for
parfait...also a coffee concoction (Boston, 1884)
Philadelphia style ice cream
What is Philadelphia-style ice cream? Excellent question. Generalists claim it is the "finest quality" American frozen confection. Cookbooks and professional
industry texts confirm Philadelphia-style ice cream is uncooked. It does not contain whole eggs, though it sometimes contains egg whites.
French ice cream, on the
other hand, is a cooked product containing whole eggs.
PHILADELPHIA, HOME OF AMERICAN ICE CREAM
"Philadelphia ice cream is a term synonymous with the best in frozen confections. Though not invented here (forms of ice creams have been around since the 13th
century) Philadelphians developed an impeccable reputation for ice cream by the end of the 18th century. Victor Collet and James Parkinson built their businesses
on elegant glaces and ices impossibly molded into unusual ornaments."
"What is this Philadelphia ice cream? It means ice cream "Simon pure," made of the richest ingredients. When American was young and ice cream was
"that new dessert." the very best of it was made by the Quakers. So it was that when anyone anywhere wanted to claim high honor for his ice cream he prefixed it
with the name Philadelphia. This real-thing ice cream has but three ingredients in its basic recipe: cream, sugar and a touch of the vanilla bean. Fruits and other
flavors can be added as you will..."
"Everyone knows Philadelphia as the city of brotherly love where our independence was declared in 1776, but how may of you are aware that it is the ice cream
capital of the country, maybe of the world? When Philadelphia became the seat of government and George Washington the first President, "iced creams" as they
were then called were often served at the presidential Thursday dinners. We believe they were not quite the same as our luscious delights made commercially or at
home in an ice cream freezer, but were mixtures of cream, sugar and eggs beaten in metal bowls over ice so that they had more the texture of the soft ice cream
sold in certain places today. After the great exposition of 1876 Philadelphia became known across the country for the excellence of its ice cream, by then a
popular American delicacy, and to this day the words "Philadelphia ice cream" connote the highest quality. Philadelphia confectioners were famed for their ice
cream."
LEGAL DEFINITIONS
"The ice cream of commerce is not iced or frozen cream. It is a frozen confection-a compound. The ingredients of this compound may vary widely in character, in
the number used, and in the proportions in which they are used. These variations are dependent upon the ingenuity, skill, and judgment of the maker, the relative
cost at a particular time or at a particular place of the possible ingredients, and the requirements of the market in respect to taste or selling price. Thus, some
Philadelphia ice cream is made of only cream, sugar, and a vanilla flavor. In making other Philadelphia ice cream the whites of eggs are added; and according to
some formulas vanilla ice cream may be made without any cream or milk whatsoever; for instance, by proper manipulation of the yolks of eggs, the whites of eggs,
sugar, syrup, and the vanilla bean. All of these different compounds are commonly sold as ice cream; and none of them is necessarily unwholesome."
"Our tariffs have supplied diverting examples showing that laws are not always what they seem, and not always passed for the assigned motive, whether personal or
partisan. But these examples usually are too obscure for popular understanding. Generally, such incidents pertain to the higher circles into which the common people
are intruders...The highest court in the land has within a few weeks pondered over the problem of what is ice cream, and whether there can be such a thing as ice
cream without a drop of cream..."Some Philadelphia ice cream"--only "some"--is made of only cream, sugar, and a vanilla flavor." Happy those who get it. But
observe, either Philadelphia ice creams, number unstated, "may be made without any milk or cream whatsoever; for instance, by proper manipulation of the yolks of
eggs, the whites of eggs sugar, syurp and the vanilla bean. All of these different compounds are commonly sold as ice cream, and none of them is necessarily
unwholesome. The people's prosecutor claimed that it was a fraud and a crime to sell ice cream without at least a specified percentage of cream. The sellers of the
miscellanous and mysterious compound defended on the ground that one man has a good a right as another to say what he shall put into his ice cream formula. But
the Supreme Court found that the buyer also has his rights. He had the right to know what he is buying, and he cannot know without laws implementing standards
on the point to which he attaches most importance, that at least some milk and butter shall be included in what he buys as ice cream."
Current US definitions are set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations: TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS CHAPTER I--FOOD AND DRUG
ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) PART 135_FROZEN DESSERTS. There is no specific
reference to "Philadelphia" in the current regulations. There are references to "French" ice cream, contain egg yolks.
"(f) Nomenclature. (1) The name of the food is ``ice cream''; except that when the egg yolk solids content of the food is in excess of that specified for ice cream by
paragraph (a) of this section, the name of the food is ``frozen custard'' or ``french ice cream'' or ``french custard ice cream''."
SURVEY OF HISTORIC RECIPES
[1846]
[1849]
[1884]
[1886]
[1924]
[1925]
[1963]
[1970]
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.
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."
"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.)"
Sundaes
"As for the specfic birthplace of the dish, two possibilities emerge as the most likely among many
contenders. Neither place can offer conclusive dates, so one can pick between, "Heavenston"
(favored by the National Dairy Council, among others) and Two Rivers (championed by such
divers sources as the old Ice Cream Review and H.L. Mencken in his American Language).
The first claim goes back to the 1890s in Evanston, Illinois (then widely known as "Chicago's
Heaven" or "Heavenston"), where civic piety had reached such a state that it became the first
Ameircan community to recognize and legislate against the "Sunday Soda Menace." This
prompted confectioners to create Sundays so that they could do business on the Sabbath.
Ironically the soda was later given a strong boost from this community when the Evanston-based
Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) championed it as a pleasant alternative to
alcoholic drinks.
The Two Rivers, Wisconsin, claim goes back to the same era...was created when a youth
named George Hallauer went to Ed Berner's soda fountain for a rich of ice cream. As the ice
cream was being scooped, the daring Hallauer spied a bottle of chocolate syrup normally used in
sodas and asked Berner to pour some of it over his ice cream. Berner sampled the concoction
and liked it enough to begin featuring "ice cream with syrup" in his shop fo rthea same price as a
dish of ice cream. The name sundae was give to the dish when George Giffy, an ice cream parlor
proprietor in nearby Manitowoc, was forced by customer demand to serve the popular Berner
concoction. Giffy was convinced that the nickel dish would put him out of business and at first
served it only as a Sunday loss leader. In Manitowoc it soon became known as "the Sunday." Giffy
found that he was making money on the dish and began advertising his "Ice Cream Sundaes,"
with the spelling changed so that it would lose its Sunday-only association.
Regardless of the origin, by 1900, midwestern soda-fountain supply salesmen were carrying
samples of tulip-shaped "Sundae Specials."
"Little is known with certainty about the sundae's birth: it originated in the late 1880s or early 1890s; one of the
first published sundae recipes appeared in Modern Guide for Soda Dispensers in 1897; and sundaes were very popular by
1900. Many accounts of the sundae's invention have been published, but there is no definative evidence about it. The best-known
explanation for the sundae is that it was created to circumvent Blue Laws banning the sale of ice cream sodas on Sunday.
Beginning in the colonial era, Blue Laws were promulgated to prohibit certain activities on the Sabbath...Over the years, Blue Laws
banned many activities, but enforcement was very lax and sporadic...In 1890, only a few Blue Laws expressly mentioned
confectionery or soda water. Maryland banned Sunday sales of soda and mineral waters along with tobacco, candy, and
alcoholic beverages. Louisiana specifically permitted Sunday sales at drugstores, apothecary shops, bakeries, restaurants,
theaters and other places of amusement as long as no intoxicating drinks were sold. Minnesota allowed the sale of
confectioenry, drugs, and medicines "in a quiet and orderly manner." Texas law permitted drugstores to open on Sunday and specified
ice cream among the articles that could be sold on the Sabbath. Utah's Blue Laws banned a long list of activities on Sunday,
but they permitted many businesses, including drugstores and restaurants, to open. Given the number and scope of the Blue Laws, it is
not surprising that the invention of the sundae is often attributed to a druggist trying to circumvent the law against serving
soda on Sunday. In one version, President Theodore Roosevelt was responsible for the sundae because he banned ice cream
sodas on Sunday and fountain operators responded by creating the new soda-less treat. This tale probably originated because
Roosevelt, while serving as head of New York City's Police Board, made well-publicized attempts to enforce the Sunday closing law for
saloons. However, it is unlikely that Roosevelt was the father of the ice cream sundae because the New York State legal code specifically
permitted the sale of confectionery and drugs on Sunday. The best-known Blue Laws story concerns Evanston, Illinois...
Evanston's pious town fathers passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale fo ice cream sodas on the Sabbath. Some ingenious druggist
decided to serve ice cream with syrup but no soda, there by complying with the letter of the law, if not the spirit.
Evanston's local historians hae identified this clever druggist as either William C. "Deacon" Garwood or Newton P. Williams...
In a variation on this theme, Cleveland, Ohio, also claimed to be the birthplace of the sundae...one druggist with a flourishing
Sunday trade started serving ice cream topped with fruit. He advertised this treat as a "fruit Sunday," but his regular
customers started ordering it on weekdays, too. So he changed the spelling to "sundae."...In another version of the sundae's origin
a necessity was the mother invention. A New Orleans druggist had a brisk soda water trade, but one hot day he discovered
that his fountain wasn't working properly and he was unable to draw andy soda. However, he had plenty of syrups and ice
cream on hand. After hastily conferring with his clerks, he decided to serve ice cream with syrup on top...A similar tale
of necessity places the birth of the ice cream sundae at Stoddard Brothers drugstore in Buffalo, New York...Ithaca [NY]
also claimed that distinction, and there are two accounts...The Red Cross Pharmacy was located directly across the street from the
barroom of the Ithaca Hotel. Because the bar was closed on the Sabbath, the druggist decided to offer a special
Sunday treat to attract the bar's displaced clientele to his fountain...The second Ithaca legend involves a young
clergyman who regularly stopped at the Christiance and Dofflemeyer Drugstore for a dish of ice cream after his Sunday
sermon. One hot Sunday, neither ice cream nor soda water appealed to him because he was in the mood for something different. So
he asked the fountain operator to pour cherry syrup over a dish of ice cream. He was delighted with the new treat and named
it "Sunday."...Another legend about the sundae's birth recognizes Geroge Hallauer as the father and E.C. Berners as the midwife [Two Rivers, WI]..."
---Sundae Best: A History of Soda Fountains, Anne Cooper Funderburg [Bowling Greeen State University Popular Press:Bowling
Green, OH] 2002 (p.61-64)
Why call it "sundae?"
"Since there is no definative answer as to who invented the sundae, it's not surprising that the spelling is also a mystery.
However, it is certain that the spelling was not standardized for many decades. Early spelling include sunday, sondie, sundi,
sundhi, sundae, and sundaye. Linguists have suggested that sundae ultimately became the standard spelling because religious
leaders felt that the word Sunday was sacred and should not be commercialized. They have also theorized that the name was
chosen because the dessert was only sold on Sunday or because the Sabbath required a special dessert. According to
The Washington Star, the treat was originaly called Friday but was changed to Sunday because Friday was thought to be
unlucky."
The Dispenser's Formulary [Soda Fountain Publications:New York] 1925 lists 275 sundae recipes! Among the more creative
names are: Automobile, Brooklyn Bridge, Bull Mooose, Chaucerian, Chop Suey Mix, Co-ed, Cubanola, Date-with-a peach, Dove of Peace,
Fandango Sandwich, Free Lunch, Frou Frou, Gold Dust Twins, Kansas City Sunflower, Malted Grape, Mystery Mix, Panama Surprise,
Pike's Peak, Rubaiyat, Tasty Toasty, Uncle Jake, U-Wana and Yama Yama. This book provides guidance on names:
"Words of warning can advantageously be sounded in the matter of naming sundaes. The names in the following pages are standard
in many cases. A great number of the following formulas are prize winners in the Soda Fountain's monthly contests and as such, have
a wide reputation. There is a always a danger in carrying the fancy name idea too far--for a fine name does not of necesstiy mean
a fine sundae, while the too fancy names are apt to be fantastic and even funny to one who possesses a sense of humor. Stick to
original names of the sundaes and help to make them more and more standard and uniform...A decidedly local event or an intimate
personal touch is the only reasonable excuse that can be advanced for the use of a specially coined name." (p. 105)
Why put cherries on top?
"In serving sundaes it is important that the appeal shoudl be made to the eye as well as to the palate. It is poor policy to slap
together a messy concoction. Never let the syrups run over the edge of the sundae glass. See that the handle of the spoon is not
sticky with syrup. Place nuts, cherries, or knobs of whipped cream carefully on the sundae so that the effect may be pleasing."
"Sundaes and Fancy Ice Cream Dishes.
Cherry Sunday
Recommended reading: A Month of Sundaes, Michael Turback
About culinary research & about copyright.
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 glass 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).
Chocolate syrup...1 ounce
White and yolk of 1 egg
Crushed ice, small quantity
Shake well, then add plain carbonated water sufficient to fill tumbler. Stir with twist bar spoon, strain, then pour alternately
from tumbler to shaker, and serve. This drink is rather thin and should not be priced at more than 10 cents."
---The Dispenser's Formulary, Compiled by the Soda Fountain [Trade Magazine], fourth edition [Soda Fountain Publications:Nw York] 1925 (p. 77)
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 163-4)
"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)
"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.]
"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)
"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 because most cooks don't
dare risk it, but it's really very simple to make. It turns up in a San Diego cook book, under then
name of "Bonfire Entre." It was called that because 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.]
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)
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.
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 165)
[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)
Ice
Cream
Cakes, Buckeye Cookery Book
"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]
Ice cream sandwiches
---Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 165)
The Chipwich was invented in
1977 by Richard E. Lamotta. His trademark is registered with the U.S. Patent & Trademark
Office (registration #73159560).
Italian ice, granita, sorbet & sherbet
---Pomp and Sustenance:Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food, Mary Taylor Simeti
[Ecco
Press:Hopewell NJ] 1989 (p. 283-4)
---Nectar and Ambrosia:An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews
[ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara] 2000 (p. 121)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
838)
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxcford] 2002 (p.
309-310)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson, 2nd edition edited by Tom Jaine [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2006 (p. 717)
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York]
2001
(p. 1108)
Malted milk & milk shakes
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani
[Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 196-197)
---Sundae Best: A History of Soda Fountains, Anne Cooper Funderburg [Bowling Greeen State University Popular Press:Bowling
Green, OH] 2002 (p. 50-51)
[Fred Osius' patent #D104,289, granted April 27, 1937,
here. NOTE: Osius is not credited for inventing the first
blender. That honor belongs to Stephen J. Poplawski in 1922.
About blenders.]
---The Food Chronology, James L.Trager [Henry Holt:New York] 1995 (p. 317)
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani
[Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 206)
---Listening to America, Stuart Berg Flexner [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1982 (p.
178)
---Sundae Best: A History of Soda Fountains, Anne Cooper Funderburg [Bowling Greeen State University Popular Press:Bowling
Green, OH] 2002 (p. 51-52)
The Great American Ice Cream Book, Paul Dickson
& check out: The Drug Store Museum.
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.
"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)
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani
[Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 163)
---I Hear America Talking, Stuart Berg Flexner [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1979 (p.
191)
---"Thespians on a Frolic," The New York Times, June 27, 1887 (p. 8)
[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)
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.]
"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)
"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.]
"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.]
"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)
"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)
"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)
--Larousse Gastonomique, Completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York]
2001 (p. 840)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
575)
"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 Baume); 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)
"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
"Philadelphia became renowned for its ice cream, and the phrase 'Philadelphia ice cream,' used since the early nineteenth century, came to mean a specifically
American style of rich ice cream. One proud Philadelphia confectioner of the nineteenth century James W. Parkinson,...wrote of the prejudicial distinction made
between American and French frozen desserts."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 163)
---The Larder Invaded: Reflections on Three Centuries of Philadelphia Food and Drink, Mary Anne Hines, Gordon Marshall, William Woys Weaver
[Library Company of Philadelphia:Philadelphia PA] 1987 (p. 57)
---"How America Eats," Clementine Paddleford, Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1949 (p. F36)
---"Philly the Ice Cream Capital," James A. Beard, Los Angeles Times, August 5, 1971 (p. J4)
In the early 20th century, Pure Food and Drug laws were enacted to ensure standardized quality for the American consumer. The legal definition of ice cream,
including Philadelphia style, was the topic of hot debate. In 1916, the US Supreme Court acknowledged two definitions for Philadelphia ice cream:
Hutchinson Ice Cream V. Iowa (242 US) 153 [1916]:
SOURCE: Findlaw, US Supreme Court Cases
---"How Taxation and Regulation of Food Works," Edward A. Bradford, New York Times, March 4, 1917 (p. SM6)
SOURCE: CFR/GPO
Ice Cream (recipe published in Philadelphia)
"Ice Creams. Take a dozen ripe apricots, pare them very thin and stone them, scald and put them into a mortar, and beat them fine; put to them six ounces of
double refined sugar, a pint of scalding cream, and rub it through a sieve with the back of a spoon; then put it into a tine with a close cover, and set it in a tub of ice
broken small, with four handsful of salt mixt among the ice; when you see your cream get thick round the edges of your tin, stir it well, and put it in again till it
becomes quite thick; when the cream is all froze up, take it out of the tin, and put it into the mould you intend to turn it out of: mind that you put a piece of paper on
each end, between the lids and the ice cream, put on the top lid, and have another tub of ice ready, as before, put the mould in the middle, with the ice under and
over it; let it stand four hours, and do not turn it out before you want it; then dip the mould into cold spring water, take off the lids and paper, and turn it into a
plate. You may do any sort of fruit the same way.
---The New Art of Cookery, According to the Present Practice, Richard Briggs [W. Spotswood, R. Campbell, and B. Jonhson:Philadelphia PA] 1792 (p. 399-400)
Philadelphia Ice Cream (egg whites only):
Cream Ice (from Parkinson's Complete
Confectioner, Philadelphia)
Ice Cream, No. 1, Philadelphia (no eggs)
Philadelphia Ice Cream (no eggs, editorial comment unfavorable):
[1896]
Vanilla Ice Cream: Philadelphia (no eggs)
"Philadelphia Ice cream. Three pints of cream, one pint of milk, three-fourths pound confectionery sugar, whites of two eggs, one and one-half tablespoonfuls
of vanilla. Mix uncooked, stand in freezer until thoroughly chilled, then freeze."
---The Carbondale Cook Book, prepared by the Young Lady Workers of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Carbondale, PA [International Textbook Press:Scranton PA], Seventh edition, revised and enlarged, 1924 (p. 111)
"Trade Definitions Perfected by Usage. All ice creams are clasiffed by the ice-cream trade according to both ingredients and methods of preparation.
Philadelphia ice cream is made without eggs. Neapolitan, Delmonico and French ice cream call for eggs, and include cream with a cooked body. But cooked body
creams, made with eggs, flour or cornstarch, and cream or milk, are more properly designated Frozen Custards."
---The Dispenser's Formulary, compiled by The Soda Fountain, [Soda Fountain Publications:New York] 1925, 4th edition (p. 25)
Anna Wetherill Reed's The Philadelphia Cook Book of Town and Country [Bramhall House:NY] 1963 offers several ice cream recipes. None of them are specificially titled "Philadelphia." Nor do any of them include eggs or egg yolks.
"Philadelphia Ice Cream
2 pt. half and half or heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. vanilla
Scald cream, add sugar and salt and stir until dissolved. Cool, then stir in vanilla. Chill in refrigerator at least 2 hr. Freeze in churn freezer, turing slowly until crank
turns hard, then increase speed and turn rapidly about 10 min. longer to whip. Ice cream should be very stiff. Remove dasher and repack ice cream to ripen 2 to
3 hr. Makes about 2 quarts."
---"Recipes for Your Ice Cream Churn," Los Angeles Times, July 16, 1970 (p. E8)
---Great American Ice Cream Book, Paul Dickson [Atheneum:New York] 1972 (p. 83)
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman] 1999
(p. 165-6)
---The Great American Ice Cream Book, Paul Dickson [Atheneum:New York] 1972 (p. 64-6)
---Sundae Best, (p. 64-65)
Simple. They look good!
---Dispenser's Formulary (p. 104)
Before the idea of topping ice cream with nuts, fruits and fancy dressings originated, soda
dispensers were more or less handicapped to show distinct forms of originiality. Now the mixture
of ice creams, and the arrangements of fancy dishes not only furnishes the dispenser an outlet for
his ideas, but they produce a big revenue for the modern soda fountain. In serving ice cream, it is
suggested that a china or silver cup be used. Wafers, mints, and other tidbits are very nice to
serve along with the ice cream. A small glass of ice water should always be served with each order.
The following formulas are for plain and fancy sundaes or eclairs:
1 disher of vanilla ice cream
Ladle of cherries and top with a large red cherry
...
White Cherry Sundae
1 disher of vanilla ice cream
Ladle of white cherries. Top with a large white cherry
...
French Violet Sunday
Place a disher of vanilla ice cream in a sundae cup and over it pour a ladle of French violet
bisque... Top with a red cherry
...
Chong special
Into a tall slender frappe glass place a small disher of strawberry ice cream, enough to fill about
one-half of the glass. Over this pour a little caramel syrup, then in the remainder of the glass place
a disher of chocolate ice cream. Over this pour a ladle of marshmallow dressing, sprinkle with
ground nuts, and top with a whole cherry.
...
Fountain special
Into a tall slender frappe glass place a small disher of vanilla ice cream. Pour a little marshmallow
dressing over this. Fill remainder of glass with small disher of strawberry ice cream. Top with
butterscotch dressing, and over this sprinkle toasted
---Rigby's Reliable Candy Teacher, W. O. Rigby [1916?] (p. 229-231)
[NOTE: a "disher" is an ice cream scoop.]
About these notes: Food history can be a complicated topic. These notes are not meant
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evidence. If you
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