THE INVENTION OF ICE CREAM
Apr 1, 2020 02:54:46 #
During the ten-year period between 2000 and 2010, Jean and I regularly would entertain both our Bible Study Class members and various groups of Chinese Sinopec visitors at our beach house at 136 Quayside Drive, Tiki Island, Galveston TX. These Sinopec employees were engineers, accountants, H.R. specialists and lawyers all sent by their company to learn how the Free World did business and how free markets operated. They had also come to Second Baptist Church to work on their English language skills. We recruited several church families to volunteer and help show our Chinese visitors what family life was really like in Houston and how it differed radically from what was portrayed in the press and movies.
At our beach house, we regularly would have these Chinese guests and their host families come down for a Saturday of recreation, which would include a picnic, games, boat rides, fishing and entertainment that included making home made ice cream. I admit I am partial to homemade vanilla ice cream, since it has been a tradition my family since as long as I can remember.
Jean would stir up the ingredients of the recipe and pour all into a one and half gallon metal bucket. I would then carry this out to our second deck of the beach house and solicit volunteers to help me make the ice cream. To do this work, we always used a White Mountain Ice Cream freezer. This company, in my opinion is the standard and comes in several sizes and both manual and electric driven units.
Freezing ice cream requires perhaps 20 to 25 pounds of crushed ice and a box of rock salt. When I very small my father would by a 25-pound block of ice to take home. He would put the ice into a burlap bag, then with the flat side of a double bit axe, he would crush up this block so we could make the ice cream. Once the wooden bucket was full, he would put either a burlap bag on top, or a bunch of folded newspapers, and then I would sit on the freezer to keep it steady for him to turn the crank.
The metal can with the ice cream is placed inside a larger wood bucket. There’s a space of about 2 inches between the bucket and the can. After the gear and handle assembly are affixed on the top, one or more helpers begin to pour in ice in layers, and the spread a liberal amount of rock salt on each layer. This is continued until the space around the metal can is filled to the very top of the wooden bucket. All the time, someone turns the crank handle. Inside the metal can, there is a dash that turns in opposite direction. This dash had two small wooden paddles which are fitted tightly against the inside of the metal can. They keep the ice cream from separating or sticking to the sides of the container until the ingredients are completely frozen.
Freezing also takes a lot of rock salt and about 45 minutes before it begins to really get hard. Once that stage is reached, we would then take off the handle assembly, remove the top portion of ice and salt to expose the lid of the metal can, remove it, and being careful to not get any salt in the ice cream. We would open the can to remove the dash from inside. This is required to keep it out of the way when the server wants to dip out the ice cream to serve. Then this lid is replaced with a cork stopper in the hole in the top, and the used ice, plus more are piled on top to allow the entire metal can to remain in the super frigid water and the ice cream inside to harden even more. This usually takes another hour, or so.
The process of freezing the ice cream in the metal can is the result of the interaction of the rock salt causing the ice to rapidly melt, releasing and capturing the heat from the ingredients inside the metal can. This super frigid water, caused by the salt speeding the melting of the ice, is around, or slightly below, the freezing point of water.
While all the steps I’ve enumerated above were being done, I would lecture my students on the history of the invention of ice cream as I knew it at the time. How Louie the Fourteenth, King of France had a head chef who discovered how to make this secret formula of a frozen dessert of ice cream. Only those invited to dine with the king were privileged to eat ice cream, which was a tremendous treat. Then because this was a secret too good to be kept, the recipe finally gets to England, then to the Colonies in the New World.
The biggest problem over centuries was that of acquiring the ice. Until recently, there was no method of making ice, other than by nature. Recent excavations have uncovered the house where George Washington lived in Philadelphia had a large ice cellar. This was for storage of ice blocks that have been harvested from frozen lakes in the winter, skidded into the cellar and after a layer of ice had been stored, it would be covered with a layer of saw dust to provide insulation. Then another layer of ice and saw dust until the cellar was full.
The Chinese, Persians, and all others in those earlier times had to acquire ice from the mountains and
delivered by runners. Sometime later, sailing ships had to go into far northern waters, harvest ice from ice bergs, and return with an ever-melting cargo. Only very wealthy people could afford ice in the summer.
Now as far as I knew this was the invention of ice cream, but I was wrong. Such a delicious treat was far too good not to have been discovered much sooner than by the King of France, in the 1600’s. Recently, to my surprise the short answer to the discovery of ice cream is disputed. One source has the invention at around 500 B.C. in the Achaemenid Empire of Iran (Persia) it was made with a combination of ice and flavors to produce summertime treats. In 400 B.C. the Persians invented a special chilled food, made of rose water and vermicelli, which was served to royalty during the summer. The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavors. The most popular Persian ice cream now is bastoni sonnati!
On another trail, the earliest Ice cream is traced back to 400 B.C.E. and early reference to Roman emperor Nero, who ordered ice be brought from the mountains to be combined with fruit toppings. Still another source recorded ice cream was invented in China around 200 B.C. with the Chinese making a frozen dessert concoction of milk, a rice mixture, and snow.
King Tong, (668 to 97 C.E.) of Shang, China, had a method of creating dessert from ice and milk concoctions. But there are recorded accounts of ice houses as early as 2,000 B.C. in Mesopotamia which were used to store food, so, it is possible the Mesopotamians could have been the very first to enjoy a form of ice cream. There is no doubt that different versions of ice cream were simply too good not to have been invented, and possibly by several cultures simultaneously, and even before written records were kept. As a distinct memory, when we would have a big snowstorm, my sister and I would beg my mother to make snow ice cream. Since it was easily made, there’s no reason ancients could have done the same thing, even before the invention of writing.
The first official account of ice cream in the new world came from a letter written in 1744 by a guest of Maryland Governor William Bladen. The first advertisement for ice cream in this country appeared in the New York Gazette in 1777, when confectioner Phillip Lenzi announced that ice cream was available almost every day. Records kept by a Chatham Street, New York merchant, showed that President George Washington spent almost $200 for ice cream in the summer of 1790! All the early Presidents of the United States served ice cream at their official functions since it was both a rare and delicious dessert, and as in the past sought after by the ruling class.
Part of my lecture while making the ice cream, was about “sweat equity” and how they had earned an ownership portion by their work. Later, observing a young Chinese lady going back for her second helping of ice cream, I heard her say, “I sure do like my ice cream!” And another was so enthralled, she insisted on knowing where she could buy an ice cream freezer that she could take one back home with her.
Over the years, I have worn out one or two freezers, lost one to Hurricane Ike, and lost one to a divorce. My children gave me a new electric White Mountain freezer for Christmas after losing my old one to the hurricane. I would have never purchased an electric model since I am so tradition minded.
While we were living in New York, during the July 4th. Holidays, we invited some of my co-workers and families over for the holiday to cook hamburgers and have homemade ice cream. Not having been imbued with a long tradition of homemade ice cream, one co-worker was curious about what all the ingredients cost. I quickly toted everything up in my head, it even surprised me at the expense. I finally said, “never mind that, how do you like the taste?” In thinking about the subject afterward, I am left with the firm belief, you cannot put a price on tradition. MEMORIES and TRADITIONS ARE TOO PRECIOUS, JUST LIKE ICE CREAM! Just Sayin...RJS
At our beach house, we regularly would have these Chinese guests and their host families come down for a Saturday of recreation, which would include a picnic, games, boat rides, fishing and entertainment that included making home made ice cream. I admit I am partial to homemade vanilla ice cream, since it has been a tradition my family since as long as I can remember.
Jean would stir up the ingredients of the recipe and pour all into a one and half gallon metal bucket. I would then carry this out to our second deck of the beach house and solicit volunteers to help me make the ice cream. To do this work, we always used a White Mountain Ice Cream freezer. This company, in my opinion is the standard and comes in several sizes and both manual and electric driven units.
Freezing ice cream requires perhaps 20 to 25 pounds of crushed ice and a box of rock salt. When I very small my father would by a 25-pound block of ice to take home. He would put the ice into a burlap bag, then with the flat side of a double bit axe, he would crush up this block so we could make the ice cream. Once the wooden bucket was full, he would put either a burlap bag on top, or a bunch of folded newspapers, and then I would sit on the freezer to keep it steady for him to turn the crank.
The metal can with the ice cream is placed inside a larger wood bucket. There’s a space of about 2 inches between the bucket and the can. After the gear and handle assembly are affixed on the top, one or more helpers begin to pour in ice in layers, and the spread a liberal amount of rock salt on each layer. This is continued until the space around the metal can is filled to the very top of the wooden bucket. All the time, someone turns the crank handle. Inside the metal can, there is a dash that turns in opposite direction. This dash had two small wooden paddles which are fitted tightly against the inside of the metal can. They keep the ice cream from separating or sticking to the sides of the container until the ingredients are completely frozen.
Freezing also takes a lot of rock salt and about 45 minutes before it begins to really get hard. Once that stage is reached, we would then take off the handle assembly, remove the top portion of ice and salt to expose the lid of the metal can, remove it, and being careful to not get any salt in the ice cream. We would open the can to remove the dash from inside. This is required to keep it out of the way when the server wants to dip out the ice cream to serve. Then this lid is replaced with a cork stopper in the hole in the top, and the used ice, plus more are piled on top to allow the entire metal can to remain in the super frigid water and the ice cream inside to harden even more. This usually takes another hour, or so.
The process of freezing the ice cream in the metal can is the result of the interaction of the rock salt causing the ice to rapidly melt, releasing and capturing the heat from the ingredients inside the metal can. This super frigid water, caused by the salt speeding the melting of the ice, is around, or slightly below, the freezing point of water.
While all the steps I’ve enumerated above were being done, I would lecture my students on the history of the invention of ice cream as I knew it at the time. How Louie the Fourteenth, King of France had a head chef who discovered how to make this secret formula of a frozen dessert of ice cream. Only those invited to dine with the king were privileged to eat ice cream, which was a tremendous treat. Then because this was a secret too good to be kept, the recipe finally gets to England, then to the Colonies in the New World.
The biggest problem over centuries was that of acquiring the ice. Until recently, there was no method of making ice, other than by nature. Recent excavations have uncovered the house where George Washington lived in Philadelphia had a large ice cellar. This was for storage of ice blocks that have been harvested from frozen lakes in the winter, skidded into the cellar and after a layer of ice had been stored, it would be covered with a layer of saw dust to provide insulation. Then another layer of ice and saw dust until the cellar was full.
The Chinese, Persians, and all others in those earlier times had to acquire ice from the mountains and
delivered by runners. Sometime later, sailing ships had to go into far northern waters, harvest ice from ice bergs, and return with an ever-melting cargo. Only very wealthy people could afford ice in the summer.
Now as far as I knew this was the invention of ice cream, but I was wrong. Such a delicious treat was far too good not to have been discovered much sooner than by the King of France, in the 1600’s. Recently, to my surprise the short answer to the discovery of ice cream is disputed. One source has the invention at around 500 B.C. in the Achaemenid Empire of Iran (Persia) it was made with a combination of ice and flavors to produce summertime treats. In 400 B.C. the Persians invented a special chilled food, made of rose water and vermicelli, which was served to royalty during the summer. The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavors. The most popular Persian ice cream now is bastoni sonnati!
On another trail, the earliest Ice cream is traced back to 400 B.C.E. and early reference to Roman emperor Nero, who ordered ice be brought from the mountains to be combined with fruit toppings. Still another source recorded ice cream was invented in China around 200 B.C. with the Chinese making a frozen dessert concoction of milk, a rice mixture, and snow.
King Tong, (668 to 97 C.E.) of Shang, China, had a method of creating dessert from ice and milk concoctions. But there are recorded accounts of ice houses as early as 2,000 B.C. in Mesopotamia which were used to store food, so, it is possible the Mesopotamians could have been the very first to enjoy a form of ice cream. There is no doubt that different versions of ice cream were simply too good not to have been invented, and possibly by several cultures simultaneously, and even before written records were kept. As a distinct memory, when we would have a big snowstorm, my sister and I would beg my mother to make snow ice cream. Since it was easily made, there’s no reason ancients could have done the same thing, even before the invention of writing.
The first official account of ice cream in the new world came from a letter written in 1744 by a guest of Maryland Governor William Bladen. The first advertisement for ice cream in this country appeared in the New York Gazette in 1777, when confectioner Phillip Lenzi announced that ice cream was available almost every day. Records kept by a Chatham Street, New York merchant, showed that President George Washington spent almost $200 for ice cream in the summer of 1790! All the early Presidents of the United States served ice cream at their official functions since it was both a rare and delicious dessert, and as in the past sought after by the ruling class.
Part of my lecture while making the ice cream, was about “sweat equity” and how they had earned an ownership portion by their work. Later, observing a young Chinese lady going back for her second helping of ice cream, I heard her say, “I sure do like my ice cream!” And another was so enthralled, she insisted on knowing where she could buy an ice cream freezer that she could take one back home with her.
Over the years, I have worn out one or two freezers, lost one to Hurricane Ike, and lost one to a divorce. My children gave me a new electric White Mountain freezer for Christmas after losing my old one to the hurricane. I would have never purchased an electric model since I am so tradition minded.
While we were living in New York, during the July 4th. Holidays, we invited some of my co-workers and families over for the holiday to cook hamburgers and have homemade ice cream. Not having been imbued with a long tradition of homemade ice cream, one co-worker was curious about what all the ingredients cost. I quickly toted everything up in my head, it even surprised me at the expense. I finally said, “never mind that, how do you like the taste?” In thinking about the subject afterward, I am left with the firm belief, you cannot put a price on tradition. MEMORIES and TRADITIONS ARE TOO PRECIOUS, JUST LIKE ICE CREAM! Just Sayin...RJS
Apr 1, 2020 04:30:36 #
Robert J Samples wrote:
During the ten-year period between 2000 and 2010, ... (show quote)
Great thread
Apr 1, 2020 06:49:50 #
Apr 1, 2020 06:49:50 #
Apr 1, 2020 08:58:28 #
Mudfish2335
Loc: Charleston
That was a great history lesson on the making of ice cream. When i was growing up out in the country here in south Carolina we made homemade ice cream with hand turned churn. That was some of the best tasting ice cream. We also made pineapple sherbert, oh my it is so delicious.
Apr 1, 2020 10:28:05 #
When I was a little boy we made ice cream in the winter. I remember cold days and sitting near a pot bellied stove, eating ice cream. It was nectar from the Gods.
Apr 1, 2020 10:28:06 #
When I was a little boy we made ice cream in the winter. I remember cold days and sitting near a pot bellied stove, eating ice cream. It was nectar from the Gods.
Apr 1, 2020 13:20:27 #
Yep! From the consensus of you fellow members, Ice Cream is simply too good to have not been discovered a very long time ago by our ancient ancestors. It is my opinion they were as smart as we are, as creative, so when ice, and or snow was available I am certain they were able to make some form of Ice Cream! We just have the advantage of standing on the shoulders of others. Now that we have the technical capacity to make ice, we can have ice cream anytime we want. Just Sayin...RJS
Apr 1, 2020 14:21:30 #
Mudfish2335 wrote:
That was a great history lesson on the making of ice cream. When i was growing up out in the country here in south Carolina we made homemade ice cream with hand turned churn. That was some of the best tasting ice cream. We also made pineapple sherbert, oh my it is so delicious.
The mention of pineapple sherbet reminded me of the one time my family got to go to Hawaii. We visited the Dole Plantation on Oahu and there was a little shop that made pineapple ice cream.
That was THE BEST ice cream I have ever eaten in my life!!
So if any of y’all get a chance to ever go there, it is well worth the time to visit the Dole Plantation, just for a scoop or three. 😋
Apr 2, 2020 06:24:09 #
Apr 2, 2020 07:46:58 #
Apr 2, 2020 08:19:37 #
Your buts not turning that crank though. We made it after dark to,it was a bit cooler. You and yours stay safe.
Apr 2, 2020 11:07:31 #
key1016
Loc: Green Bay, Wi
Robert J Samples I enjoy not only your stories, but all the stories, jokes and comments by everyone on FS.
I want to buy a copy of your book and I want to know if you offer an autographed copy.
I want to buy a copy of your book and I want to know if you offer an autographed copy.
Apr 2, 2020 14:06:57 #
threeCs
Loc: Allen Texas
RJS did you ever try taking a chunk of the ice from the ice cream freezer and clutch it in you hand tightly and try to run around the house, I guarantee you will not make it around the house before opening your hand. That will be the coldest thing you have ever touched.
Apr 2, 2020 14:58:19 #
Three C's: Glad you mentioned that, it brought back a distant memory. My younger sister and I were staying the summer with an aunt and uncle because my father was in Dallas having back surgery and our mother was staying there with him. We were there all summer, and had many new experiences with working on the farm with our relatives.
Once, we were invited to some other church folks to come to their home for an evening of ice cream and fun. Well, the ice cream was great, but afterwards, since there was little else to do, we kids wound up with our own game, chasing each other around this farm house with ice from the freezers and trying to put chunks of ice down each other's collar.
Later, we heard that the owner of the house was mad because our slinging the ice, and salt water, around, it had peeled the paint off the walls of his home. Now, I don't know for sure that our playing with ice was the real cause or not, but that's what was claimed.
On another Ice Cream social, we were invited to these folks house. Now by car it was probably 5 miles distance, but with a team of horses and wagon, only maybe a mile or so. My uncle decided it would be fun, like a hay ride to take the team and wagon.
So we go, have a great time, but all of a sudden, up comes a severe thunder storm, with a lot of hail. He has to put the horses in their barn to get them out of the hale storm. Now, between the two homes is a big canyon and creek. The adults decide that there's too much raging water coming down the creek for us to try to ford it in the middle of the night. So, we kids are put to bed on the floor with pallets. We spend the night before going home the next morning. The water then is down about knee deep to the horses so it was a wise decision to wait. Just Sayin...RJS
Once, we were invited to some other church folks to come to their home for an evening of ice cream and fun. Well, the ice cream was great, but afterwards, since there was little else to do, we kids wound up with our own game, chasing each other around this farm house with ice from the freezers and trying to put chunks of ice down each other's collar.
Later, we heard that the owner of the house was mad because our slinging the ice, and salt water, around, it had peeled the paint off the walls of his home. Now, I don't know for sure that our playing with ice was the real cause or not, but that's what was claimed.
On another Ice Cream social, we were invited to these folks house. Now by car it was probably 5 miles distance, but with a team of horses and wagon, only maybe a mile or so. My uncle decided it would be fun, like a hay ride to take the team and wagon.
So we go, have a great time, but all of a sudden, up comes a severe thunder storm, with a lot of hail. He has to put the horses in their barn to get them out of the hale storm. Now, between the two homes is a big canyon and creek. The adults decide that there's too much raging water coming down the creek for us to try to ford it in the middle of the night. So, we kids are put to bed on the floor with pallets. We spend the night before going home the next morning. The water then is down about knee deep to the horses so it was a wise decision to wait. Just Sayin...RJS
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.