Ice cream history

Ice cream is a very ancient delicacy. The history of the invention of the most popular dessert goes back to the time of the most ancient civilizations of Asia - China and Mesopotamia. Ice cream was admired by Alexander the Great, Napoleon and George Washington, and several people patented it at once.

ice cream

It is believed that the history of ice cream goes back over 5000 years.

Back in 3000 BC, in the rich houses of China, desserts vaguely resembling ice cream were served to the table - rich Chinese feasted on snow and ice mixed with slices of oranges, lemons and pomegranate seeds. The Chinese Emperor Tanggu even came up with his own recipe for making ice and milk mixtures. The recipes and storage methods were kept secret and were declassified only in the 11th century BC in the book "Shi-king" - the canonical collection of ancient songs.

Another ancient source describing the use of chilled juices during the harvest is the letters of Solomon, king of Israel. The ancient Arabs also adopted the tradition of consuming ice cream. And also chilled wines, juices and dairy products were consumed by the ancient Greeks, and after them by other civilizations. The famous ancient physician Hippocrates also recommended ice cream for health promotion.

Ice cream was treated to the greatest military leader of antiquity, Alexander the Great, during his campaigns in India and Persia. In his time, they came up with the idea of ​​freezing berries in the snow. Slaves were sent to the mountains for snow, and so that it would not melt, they organized special relay races. By the way, it was his soldiers who came up with the idea of ​​adding wine, honey and milk to the water with fruit.

Snow and ice have been used to make fruit drinks since ancient Rome. In his book "On the Culinary Arts", the famous Italian culinary specialist Apicius first shared his experience of making soft drinks.

Cold desserts ended meals at the court of Emperor Nero, who ordered that he be brought mountain ice and mixed with fruit additives. In his era (1st century AD), chilled and sweetened juices were already widely used. It is noteworthy that snow for their preparation was delivered from distant Alpine glaciers, and capacious ice cellars were built for long-term storage of snow.

There are many interesting ice cream stories associated with ice cream. For example, in 780 A.D. e. Caliph Al Mahdi managed to deliver a whole caravan of camels loaded with mountain snow to Mecca. Another no less striking fact, cited in the writings of the Persian traveler Nassiri-Khozrau, says that in 1040 AD. e. snow for making drinks and ice cream was brought to the table of the Cairo Sultan every day from the mountainous regions of Syria.

It is obvious that ice cream was invented where, as in China, exhausting hot places coexist with sub-zero areas. This combination is inherent in southern countries that have mountain ranges. For example, Iran, where mountains occupy more than half of the territory.

It is known that since ancient times they learned to use ice and snow rationally. In desert areas, where the daytime temperature can reach 40 ° C, it was necessary to somehow cool the food, otherwise it would spoil very quickly. For this, the Persians built the so-called Yakkhchals - deep cellars, the ceiling, walls and floor of which they covered with a thick layer of heat-insulating mixture. It included egg whites, sand, clay, goat hair, ash, lime. When this substance dried out, it also became waterproof. To minimize heat loss, the entrance to the Yakkhchal was located in the north, in a dark, cool place.Such storage facilities were filled with icy blocks of snow brought from the mountains. They were also used to prepare a semblance of ice cream, faludeh - a mixture of noodles, fruits, pistachios, pink or lemon syrup with finely chopped ice.

Europe

Ice cream in Italy

The famous traveler Marco Polo apparently introduced Europeans to ice cream again at the beginning of the 14th century. The dish was first described in travel journals at the very beginning of the 14th century. The famous traveler, having visited China, fell in love with ice cream so much that upon returning to his homeland - to Italy - he did not hesitate to share some recipes for its preparation with domestic chefs.

According to legend, Marco Polo brought back from his trip to the East a recipe for a delicacy, for which they used not only snow, but also saltpeter to cool it. And since then, a dish similar to sherbet has certainly been on the menu of aristocrats.

It was then that ice cream turned out to be at the center of intrigue: the chefs kept the recipe in the strictest confidence, and for the uninitiated, its production was akin to a miracle. At first, ice was stored in special closed places and was served only for royal families and popes. Gradually, ice production became cheaper.

The recipe for ice cream, the closest to the modern one, was also born in Italy. More precisely, in Sicily. The largest island in the Mediterranean had everything needed to create a cooling dessert. First of all - sugar cane, which is not common in other parts of Europe, from which sugar was made.

The sweetener known since ancient times - honey is not very suitable for making ice cream, because when it freezes, it crystallizes (and this is just not required, the problem that liquid turns into crystals is enough). In addition, poultry and cattle have always been breeding in Sicily, which means that eggs and milk - the main ingredients for an ice cream dessert - were always at hand. But one of the most important conditions is that there is ice (on the mountain ranges of Ibley, Nebrodi, Le Madonie, on the Peloritan mountains). Sicilian ice was shipped all over Italy and exported to Malta. Finally, the inhabitants of this island have long mined sea salt. Until refrigerators and electric ice cream makers were invented, it was indispensable.

To understand why salt is needed in preparing a sweet dish, it should be explained how ice cream differs from other cold desserts - from the aforementioned Persian faloudah or from frozen milk, from which in Siberian villages they scraped off shavings with a knife and ate with honey, jam or sugar.

The difference is in consistency: ice cream, even if it contains pieces of nuts, fruits or cookies, is a homogeneous, smooth, creamy mass. Such uniformity can be achieved only by continuously stirring the cooling substance so that crystals do not form in it. It is difficult to combine cooling and stirring without the aid of electricity: ice melts slowly, and ice cream solidifies just as slowly. It will have to be stirred continuously for many hours in a row. Salt, on the other hand, makes the ice melt much faster, and at the same time it takes heat from the environment, in particular from the mixture intended for freezing.

So, here is the simplest ice cream production technology that has been successfully used for several centuries: a container with ingredients was placed in a bowl filled with ice and salt, and the milk mass was whipped. The melted water was periodically drained by adding new ice and a portion of salt. And after a couple of hours the dessert was ready.

However, all the secret sooner or later becomes clear. And so it happened when the young Catherine de Medici, having married the French king Henry II, brought her chef from Italy to France - the famous Bentalenti, a recognized authority in the preparation of ice cream and soft drinks.

For the first time, he treated ice cream on October 28, 1533 at a feast in honor of the wedding of the 14-year-old bride Catherine de Medici, best known for the novel "Queen Margot" by Alexandre Dumas father. The ice cream consisted of ice balls filled with fruit. In the future, the Medici often began to treat them to guests at gala dinners and pamper her son Henry III with a treat.

The new dessert instantly won the sympathy of the French court. The king's advisers even demanded that the Italian prepare ice cream in their presence, and, having familiarized themselves with the process, decided to consider the technology and the recipe a state secret, which should be properly protected, especially from commoners.

Quite quickly, ice cream from Versailles migrated to the estates of French nobles - despite the most severe prohibitions on the disclosure of the recipe, which was considered a state secret.

Since then, in the French court, ice cream has been eaten in myriad quantities. Even a gourmet like Louis XIV did not refuse it. In 1649, the French culinary expert Gerard Tissain came up with an original recipe for frozen vanilla cream - from milk and cream. The novelty was called "Neapolitan ice cream". After that, the recipe for the ice dessert was constantly updated.

In 1625, the granddaughter of Catherine de Medici, Henrietta Maria, married King Charles I of England. Together with the French princess, her personal chef and pastry chef Gerard Tissain, who knew many of the secrets of making ice cream, came to England. It is noteworthy that Thiessein dared to share his "secrets" only after the execution of Charles I in 1649. So England also mastered the secrets of making ice cream.

Many new varieties of this dessert were invented in France during the reign of Queen Anne of Austria. Once, at one of the banquets in honor of her son Louis XIV, each guest was served an ostrich egg in a gilded glass, which in fact turned out to be delicious ice cream.

The recipes for the preparation of this delicacy came to America, apparently, in the 18th century, together with the English settlers. At the receptions hosted during those years by the Governor of Maryland, William Blade, guests were treated to popsicles and soft drinks. Many US presidents were also fond of cold dessert, for example, George Washington, who personally made ice cream on his ranch on the outskirts of Mount Vernon.

And the culinary entrepreneur Philip Lenzi, who arrived in the New World, even advertised in New York newspapers that he had brought recipes for various sweets, including ice cream, from London, and soon many fans of the new delicacy appeared among the population of the American east coast.

And ice cream became generally available thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of the Italians. In 1660, Francesco Procopio Di Coltelli (1651–1727) opened the first ice cream parlor in Paris opposite the Comédie Francaise theater. In his homeland, in Palermo, he was a fisherman. In France he decided to try his luck in the "sweet" field, especially since he inherited from his grandfather a machine for churning ice cream. As far as can be judged, it was a primitive device: two pans, inserted one into the other, a handle with stirring blades was attached to the top lid.

In 1782, this cafe, renamed Prokop in French, offered customers up to eighty types of ice cream. The institution is flourishing to this day.

This cafe with this "Russian" name still exists today. A long-standing menu has also survived, where you can read what was cooked within the walls of this institution in the 18th century: “frozen waters” with various syrups (apparently, something like modern Italian granita), cold berry sorbets, popsicles. The popularity of the Prokop cafe was also added by the fact that the owner received royal patents for many delicacies that were served only there.As a result, many famous figures of the 18th-19th centuries visited the cafe: Diderot, Rousseau, Marat, Robespierre, Doctor Guillotin, Georges Sand, Balzac, Danton.

Napoleon Bonaparte was among the regulars of the Prokop cafe. He fell in love with ice sweets so much that even in exile to the island of St. Helena he ordered himself an apparatus for making them, which one compassionate Englishwoman was not slow to send him.

Continuation:

Coltelli found many followers: soon small restaurants specializing in ice cream filled the whole of Paris. There were especially many of them in the Palais Royal quarter. And already in 1676, 250 Parisian confectioners united in the corporation of ice cream makers, during these years they began to produce ice cream all year round.

Under Napoleon III (1852 - 1870), ice cream in cups and ice cream were first produced in Paris (the famous ice cream allegedly comes from the French city of Plobiere-les-Bem), in Italy - great lovers of mixing the most incredible products, they came up with ice cream with the addition of fruits, nuts, liqueur, pieces of cookies and even flowers, in Austria - iced coffee and chocolate ice cream. At this time, frozen whipped cream mixed with finely chopped almonds and maraschino, puff ice cream with strawberries and grated dome-shaped chocolate appear. New ice creams prepared for the celebration were quickly adopted in mass production.

So, at one of the receptions of the Chinese mission in Paris in 1866, a new dessert was proposed - a hot omelet on the outside, and ginger ice cream inside. It was the so-called "surprise omelette", which was developed by German chefs. We can only guess how many original and even unique ice cream recipes were born by the ingenuity of human genius. Unfortunately, history is silent about many of them.

Russia

In Russia, people have long used their own types of ice cream, since in the cold winters there was no shortage of "refrigerants" for freezing delicacies. Back in Kievan Rus, we served finely sliced ​​frozen milk. In Siberian villages to this day, housewives keep milk by freezing it in saucers and ... stacking the ice in a pile. In many villages, a mixture of frozen cottage cheese, sour cream, raisins and sugar was made for Shrovetide.

In the "European" version, ice cream appeared in our country in the middle of the 18th century and immediately gained great popularity. So, Count Litta, the envoy of the Order of Malta in Russia, who later took Russian citizenship, ate practically one ice cream. They say that even before his death, having received communion, he ordered to serve him ten servings of the best ice cream: "This will not happen in paradise."

Ice cream was loved not only among the common people, it was widely represented on the menu at the courts of Peter III and Catherine II. The very technology of producing ice cream in those days was quite primitive and made it possible to obtain a small amount of the product.

In the 19th century memoirs, one can find enthusiastic memories of the effect on the public of the Vesuvius on Mont Blanc dessert (ice cream was doused with rum or cognac and set on fire) or the colorful ruins of an ancient temple made of ice cream of different colors. Creating these masterpieces, the pastry chefs froze in the frost for many hours, and the delicacies “lived” for a few minutes, since they instantly began to melt from the heat of stoves and candles.

It was only in the 19th century that the first ice cream machine appeared in Russia. industrial production of ice cream was born in our country only in the early 30s of this century.

Industrial scale

Hand-made ice cream was not cheap and therefore inaccessible. Sometimes the passion for this delicacy led to real tragedies. For example, in 1883, 59 people were poisoned to death at a Baptist festival in the American city of Camden. True, it was not ordinary ice cream, but ... reusable.

After all, everyone wanted to enjoy the sweet, but not many could afford it.This is how inventions such as Smith's Cotton Ice Cream, a cotton wool cone, or Brown's Methodist Ice Cream, a rubber cone, emerged. The trick was to sprinkle some sweetened milk on the cone and lick it, pretending to be holding real ice cream. According to the New York Times, which reported the sad poisoning incident, the unfortunate Baptists did not figure it out and chewed the imitation ice cream clean.

Initially, ice cream production was based on the use of natural ice and snow, thus mankind was constantly dependent on the whims of nature. But the ubiquitous technological progress has gradually transformed the production of ice cream, transforming it from an exquisite delicacy of rich salons into a product available to everyone. Archival materials allow us to restore the chronology of discoveries in the field of ice cream production. Today it became known that as early as 1525 a physician from Apilia Cimar wrote about the cooling effect of saltpeter. However, the production of ice cream in relatively large volumes became possible only after the introduction of sufficiently efficient methods of producing and storing ice, cooling devices and machines with mixers and crushers.

In 1834, the American John Perkin patented the idea of ​​using ether in a compressor apparatus. Ten years later, Englishman Thomas Masters received a patent for an ice cream machine, which was a tin jug with a rotating three-blade spatula surrounded by ice, snow, or a mixture of one of them with salt, ammonium salts, nitrate, ammonium nitrates or calcium chloride. According to the patent description, the Masters machine could cool, as well as freeze and whip ice cream at the same time.

In 1843, Englishwoman Nancy Johnson invented a hand-held ice cream maker and patented it. Nancy Johnson invented a manual freezer for making ice cream in 1846, but she did not have enough money to organize the production of new equipment. The patent had to be sold to the Americans. In 1851, the first factory opened in Baltimore and the first commercial batch of ice cream was produced. And for more than 150 years, the process of improving recipes and technologies has not stopped for a single day.

Handmade ice cream freezer invented in 1843 by Nancy Johnson

In 1848, two ice cream machines were patented in the United States. One of them consisted of a device with two concentric cylinders, one of which was filled with refrigerant. In 1860, Ferdinand Carré created the world's first absorption refrigeration machine, operating on liquid and solid absorbent. Four years later, Carré improved the compression machine, which was the first to use a new refrigerant, ammonia.

Serial production of freezers began in the second half of the 19th century by Jacob Fussell in Baltimore. A little later, refrigerating machines were invented, methods for producing and storing ice were developed, which made it possible to significantly reduce the labor intensity, and, consequently, the cost of ice cream. And in 1904, St. Louis hosted an international ice cream exhibition, which demonstrated the first automatic waffle cup machine.

Thus, the technique and technology of industrial ice cream production has been constantly improved. In a number of countries, specialized firms began to be created to produce machines and equipment for the production of ice cream, which has become a common attribute of city cafes. But behind this commonplace phenomenon was rapid scientific progress in the study of cooling processes. It was he who allowed some firms to master the production of machines and equipment for the industrial production of ice cream.

In 1919, a teacher from Iowa, Christian Nilsson, developed a recipe and technology for the production of a new type of ice cream - doused with chocolate, and on January 24, 1922, he was granted a patent for the famous popsicle - glazed ice cream on a stick.Nelson drove his products to cities and sold, at the same time showing a film about the Eskimos. The novelty was first called "Eskimo pie" - "Eskimo-pie", but this word was very quickly shortened to simply "Eskimo".

However, the championship in the production of "popsicle" among the Americans is challenged by the French.

The first glazed ice cream in 1921 was invented by Christian Nelsen from Iowa, and his companion Stover gave it the name - "Eskimo-pie", that is, the Eskimo pie. In 1979 the French firm "Gervais" even celebrated the 60th anniversary of the "Eskimo". Until the beginning of the 20th century, Gervais specialized in the production of cheeses, until one of its founders, Charles Gervais, tasted the popular popsicles in America. After returning to France, he got the idea to cover the ice cream with chocolate icing and "stick" it on a stick. According to French sources, the name "popsicle" arose by chance. In one of the Parisian cinemas, where Gervais sold his sweet products, a film about the life of the Eskimos was shown. And since the repertoire of cinemas in those days changed quite rarely, one of the witty viewers who watched a film about Eskimos several times and ate a dozen servings of ice cream in chocolate during this time called it "Eskimo".

Thus, the technique and technology of industrial ice cream production has been constantly improved. In a number of countries, specialized firms began to be created to produce machines and equipment for the production of ice cream, which has become a common attribute of city cafes. But behind this commonplace phenomenon was rapid scientific progress in the study of cooling processes. It was he who allowed to master the production of machines and equipment for the industrial production of ice cream.

New varieties, custom made for celebrations, quickly became mass-produced, especially in the United States. The first ice cream factory was founded in Baltimore, but very soon such factories appeared in New York, Washington and Chicago.

Modernity

N. Chernyshov "Novgorod Ice Cream", 1928

Nowadays, ice cream has firmly conquered the tastes of people around the world and is sold in almost every grocery store. Chefs have created thousands of ice cream recipes!

N. Chernyshov "Novgorod Ice Cream", 1928

And therefore the struggle for the buyer is not for life, but for death. The best and most expensive varieties are made from elite natural products based on the most modern technologies. The quality of such ice cream can be judged at least by the fact that without any preservatives it can be stored in a refrigerator at a temperature of -20oC for up to two and a half years.

In pursuit of consumer demand, the world market leaders annually update their assortment, although there are already several thousand names of ice dainties. Among the hits of recent years are ice cream with walnuts, ice cream made from green tea, ice cream with forest herbs. Not to mention currant, blackberry, pineapple, special varieties based on live yoghurts ... You can't list everything.

And soft ice cream - British scientists (whose group included the young Margaret Thatcher) invented a method in which twice as much air is added to the ice cream, and you get "soft" ice cream!

In the 1990s, thicker ice cream of the highest quality appeared. This category includes Ben and Jerry's, Beechdean and Haagen-Dazs. By the way, Ruben Mattus invented his ice cream back in 1960 and called it Haagen-Dazs because it sounds Danish.

Which one to choose?

In fact, any ice cream is a chilled whipped emulsion made from a mixture of milk, possibly cream, sugar, sometimes eggs, often fruit juices, various fruits or vegetables (even fish and seafood in Japan) plus flavorings and various additives such as nuts or caramel pieces.

Depending on the method of production, ice cream can be seasoned, soft and homemade. Soft, with a temperature of 5–7oС, is made in restaurants and cafes using special equipment.You need to eat it right away, for the future such desserts are not prepared. It looks like a cream.

Seasoned ice cream - industrial. It is divided into several groups - according to the type of the main product and filler, and according to packaging. The main representatives of the "milk" group - milk, cream and ice cream - differ from each other in their fat content.

Other groups are fruit and berry or fruit and aromatic. There are also so-called amateur, or homemade, types - milk-based, fruit, milk-fruit, multi-layered, with egg white and even with confectionery fat.

Now the specific numbers. The fattest ice cream is ice cream, its fat content is 12-15% on average.

It is named after the French city of Plombier, where it was allegedly invented. Allegedly - because in France ice cream is made from English almond cream with the addition of whipped cream and candied fruit infused with cherry vodka. We, of course, have a simpler ice cream, but still - the fattest and most high-calorie ice cream.

Then - creamy, with a fat content of 8-10%, then - dairy, in which there is even less fat, only 2.8-3.5%. There is no milk fat in fruit and berry ice cream and fruit ice, because they are made from fresh and frozen fruits and berries, from mashed potatoes, natural juices, jam and jams.

And, of course, every consumer is interested in the quality of ice cream. And it directly depends on its value.

Firstly, because real, not powdered, fresh and high-quality cream, various berries, fruits, chocolate and other natural ingredients always cost more than semi-finished products, concentrates and dyes. Secondly, equipment that allows maintaining the quality of the original product is also an expensive pleasure, inaccessible to small firms.

Peace be with you bakers!
The construction of the first ice cream factory in the USSR began in 1932. In 1936, the USSR People's Commissar for Food Anastas Mikoyan issued an instruction, which said: "Ice cream should and can be made a mass food product, producing it at affordable prices ...".

And on November 4, 1937, the first Soviet ice cream was produced at an enterprise equipped with the most modern American technology brought from the United States by Mikoyan. Its fame was determined by GOST 117-41 "Ice cream, ice cream sundae, fruit and berry, aromatic", which was introduced on March 12, 1941 and which can be called one of the most stringent standards in the world. Domestic ice cream was produced without the use of preservatives, therefore, it was delicious and environmentally friendly. In addition, cups, briquettes and popsicles throughout the country were made using the same technology and contained only milk fats.

However, since 1966 ice cream began to be produced not according to the state standard, but according to the inter-republican technical conditions, and from 1980 - according to the industry standard. In the 70s, the enterprises practically ceased to allocate the stabilizer agar-agar and agaroid, and this did not have the best effect on the consistency and presentation of the product. Nevertheless, the ice cream was still tasty because its quality was controlled on a 100-point system (with gradation for "premium" and "extra"). Also, strict control was exercised by the State Trade Inspection, Gosstandart, and Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision bodies.

The volume of ice cream production at the Soviet cold storage plants reached 450 thousand tons per year. Soviet ice cream was loved not only in our country, but also abroad: 2 thousand tons of cold delicacies were exported annually.

The beginning of the end of our ice cream coincided with the beginning of Gorbachev's perestroika. In 1986, a 100-point assessment of the quality of "air-enriched milk product" was excluded from the technological instruction (this is the explanation of the technical term "ice cream"). And since 1990, ice cream has been produced according to TU (technical specifications). At the same time in Russia there was a flow of imported ice cream in bright packaging, but far from the best quality. Up to 42 thousand tons of ice cream per year came to the Russian market from Europe, mainly from Poland.Surely this is a Polish ersatz, many Russians still remember. It had nothing to do with the ice cream we are used to and had a clear "chemical" flavor. At this time, whey appeared in the domestic product instead of milk, animal oil was replaced with rapeseed, palm and soybean oil. Today, according to the Association of Ice Cream and Frozen Food Producers, in Russia 80% of manufacturers (240 out of 300) make ice cream from vegetable raw materials. Also, new types of ice cream began to include condensed milk, dyes, emulsifiers and stabilizers. In general, only memories of the taste of real "Soviet" ice cream remain ...


This is what a real Soviet ice cream looked like.
The top label allows you to recognize it from a thousand, and the soft crispy glass has always been pressed in by the fingers of the buyers choosing it. And no one disdained ...

Peace be with you bakers!