Ice Cream in History

Various reports lay claim to the invention of ice-cream in different places around the globe. Many people believe that it was invented in China whilst there’s no denying the strong Italian influence in the history of ice-cream.  The truth is that nobody knows exactly who, why or when it was invented but we do know for sure that it’s been around since the 2^nd century BC.

Alexander the Great is recorded as enjoying a helping of ice and snow which was flavoured with honey / nectar – does that sound like ice-cream to you? You bet, it also sounds like a rather nice flavour.  There are also a few links to ice-cream in the bible – King Solomon was said to enjoy iced drinks at harvest time (not that I suppose he did much of the harvesting himself) and Nero Claudius Caesar who was emperor of Rome between 54 and 86 AD is recorded as sending slaves up to the mountains to fetch snow to flavour it with juices and fruits – all of this sounds remarkably like early attempts of ice-cream to me.

So where do China and Italy come into the story? Well, I’ll tell you . . . .

Marco Polo is said to have returned from somewhere in the far east more than 1000 years later bringing with him a recipe now known as sherbet – historians are convinced that this was the original recipe which evolved into ice-cream in the 16^th century.  Ice-cream did appear in the UK at around the same time so the Italians can’t have all of the glory. Charles I was said to be particularly fond of “Cream Ice” in the 17^th century.

So you see ice-cream has popped up throughout history in one form or another but we’ve never got tired of it . . . it’s as popular today as its ever been.