image sourceGetty Images
Who made the world’s first ice cream You will find as many answers to this question as there are flavors of ice cream. However, ice cream made from mare’s milk is once again popular among ice cream lovers.
Why we like ice cream so much is also a serious scientific topic.
Researchers have examined the nutritional benefits of ice cream along with its harmful effects on human health.
There is a lot of research on how ice cream changes our mood.
In 2021, a study by the London Institute of Psychology revealed that eating just one bite of ice cream activates the orbitofrontal cortex of our brain (the part that helps us make decisions).
Other research has shown that the protein and fat in ice cream improve our mood and increase our levels of serotonin (the feel-good hormone) in our bodies.
Standard ice cream is high in protein and fat anyway. Evolution also plays an important role in the desire for ice cream. Evolution explains why humans crave sweet things on a regular basis.
Moreover, the sweetness, fat content and its cool temperature in ice cream creates pleasant sensations in the mouth of the eater.
Where and how the history of ice cream began is a matter of debate among food historians.
However, everyone agrees on one thing that ice cream predates electricity and refrigerators. Cultures that lived in snowy areas or enjoyed seasonal snowfall must have invented some form of frozen dessert and syrup. These desserts and drinks are considered to be the precursors of ice cream.
It is said that in the first century, the Roman Emperor Nero used to send his servants to the mountains to collect ice for his drinks.
According to some records in history, the Tang Dynasty of ancient China enjoyed the frozen dish made from milk.
image sourceGetty Images
Ice cream, gelato or sorbet
image sourceGetty Images
Laura B. Wyse, author of Ice Cream: A Global History, a book on the world history of ice cream, says that the ice cream mixture was ‘made by curdling and heating cow, goat or buffalo milk. Flour and camphor were added to it for its texture and taste.’
This mixture was poured into metal pots or molds for solidification. These molds were then dipped in ice water like kulfi is made today.’
Robin Weir, author of Ice Cream, Sorbet and Gelati: The Definitive Guide, says there are two clues we can look to in order to trace the inventors of ice cream.
For this, first of all we have to define what ice cream is.
On a BBC radio program in 2022, Robin Wire stated that ‘simply put, ice cream contains dairy or cream, whereas sorbet does not.’
“Whereas gelato, which comes from Italy, has no mixing at all or very little.” It has to be slowly mixed to make the mixture, due to which it swells less.’
‘I find the topic of ice cream interesting because it requires very few ingredients to make it. It just adds sugar, water, maybe milk or butter, and a little something for taste. It is up to the manufacturer how he mixes these ingredients.’
Another tip from Ruben Wier to find the first invention of ice cream is to find out when humans learned about the ‘endothermic effect’.
Heat from the surroundings is absorbed into an object through the endothermic effect.
Therefore, salt is added to the ice cream to bring its temperature below the freezing point i.e. zero degrees Celsius and prevent it from melting quickly due to the surrounding heat.
The ideal temperature for making ice cream is between minus 10 and minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Author Laura B. Weiss writes in her book that at some point in history, the Chinese, Arabs, and Indians have used the principle of the endothermic effect to their understanding.
However, historians still do not know who adopted this rule when.
In Iran in 400 BC, a dome-shaped space was built with an underground space inside. This particular building is called ‘Ikhchal’ in which the ice was stored.
The number of Yakhchals will be close to a hundred, but the question is why the Persians built Yakhchals to store snow. Did they know about the principle of endothermic effect? Was the ice stored in it used to make frozen desserts?
Kitty Trevora, founder of London’s La Grotta Ices, specializes in creating new ice cream flavors. She creates ice cream flavors that use fruits, vegetables and herbs.
She said that she had experimented with traditional methods of making ice cream that used endothermic principles.
“Years ago I took a course that taught me how to make ice cream using historical methods,” he told the BBC.
‘We were given a wooden bucket lined with ice cubes and salt. In this bucket we placed a jar containing the Pamezan substance. Then we dug into it with our hands.’
‘The process was quicker than my electric machine and the ice cream tasted better. So it can be said that if you have ice cubes available naturally, you don’t need electricity to make ice cream.’
It is well known in Europe that Marco Polo brought frozen desserts from China along with other food ingredients, although whether he himself visited China is still debated.
However, several publications, including the ‘Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets’, point out that Europeans were not aware of the principle of the endothermic effect on food until the 16th century.
In the mid-20th century, when refrigeration became affordable in the East, industrial-scale ice cream businesses flourished.
Locally popular flavors
image sourceYouTube @tapiwaguzhamade
According to the business intelligence platform ‘Statista’, the ice cream industry will generate $103.4 billion in 2024. In comparison, the income from the chocolate business is 1.33 billion dollars while the coffee industry has 93.46 billion dollars.
With the passage of time, the variety of ice cream flavors is also increasing and it has now gone beyond the traditional vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Some ice cream flavors also resemble the local food culture.
In 2022, Topiwa Gazha, who runs a kitchen in South Africa’s capital, Cape Town, became a social media sensation when she made ice cream flavored with dried salted fish.
Along with dried fish, this ice cream was also flavored with chillies. Topiwa Gazha is a biologist by profession and born in Zimbabwe, but calls himself a ‘foodie’ with a scientific mindset.
Speaking to the BBC, he said that ‘I had no intention of making weird or different flavors of ice cream. My only effort was to bring the flavor of the local cuisine of Africa in the flavors of the ice cream.’
‘The food I cook combines the flavors of the cuisines of different tribes in Africa.’
However, the latest ice cream recipe has come from Poland.
Researchers at the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Zachin, Poland, curdled mare’s milk to make ice cream that looked and tasted like ice cream made from cow’s milk.
Polish researchers published their study in August and said mare’s milk is good for the human stomach, but more research is needed.
In Central Asia, mare’s milk has been fermented for a long time, but making ice cream from it is a relatively new experience.
Kitty Travers of London says she followed the Polish researchers’ recipe but found the ice cream to be ‘thin and a little crunchy’.
When the BBC caught up with him in August, he made another mare’s milk ice cream with pear peel and fennel.
A week later, he invited his friends to serve the ice cream he had created, which his friends loved.
