The ice cream

- ICE-CREAM IN ANCIENT TIMES REAL ICE-CREAM THE EVOLUTION OF ICE CREAM ICE-CREAM TECHNOLOGY

In ancient times, ices of any kind were pretty unusual (except in winter). In about the 3rd century BC, the Chinese realised they could store blocks of frozen river water underground until summer. The practice gradually spread to the west, and it allowed iced desserts to be regularly served in royal palaces.

DESERT ICE
The ancient Romans even managed to make a deep-freeze in the North African desert: a tub of water was set in the bottom of a deep hole, and exposed each night to the clear skies above.

Heat radiated freely away until just before dawn, when thick layers of straw were placed on top to act as insulation. In a few days, Roman cooks had a block of ice to play with. Such skills were lost after the collapse of the Roman Empire, and ices remained a product of the fabled East.

In the Middle Ages, the Christian Crusaders greatly appreciated them, when they were not busy attacking the Muslims in Palestine, and in time iced sherbets spread from Arab courts to Sicily and on to Renaissance Italy. (The Venetian explorer Marco Polo is said to have brought recipes for frozen milk desserts back from the Far East in 1295.) Catherine de Medici - or her Florentine cooks - took the tradition to the court of France in the mid-16th century.

WINDSOR ICE CREAM
Charles II picked up the idea when in exile in France, and after his return in 1660 gave England its first ice house. But Britain's first true ice cream was eaten at Windsor in 1677. It probably contained much coarser crystals than we are used to today.

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY
The ice cream churn was invented by an American, Nancy Johnson, in 1846. The first ice cream factory opened in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1851. But the popularity of ice cream might not have spread without Italo Marchiony, who arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey from Italy in 1895 and sold ice cream and lemon ice from a pushcart on New York's Wall Street. He used liquor glasses to serve his confections to stockbrokers and Wall Street runners. But many of the glasses broke or were taken and had to be washed after each serving. Marchiony devised a better way to serve ice cream: an edible cup known today as the ice cream cone.

LOW-TECHNOLOGY
The hand-powered ice cream churn has scarcely changed since its invention 150 years ago. A metal container sits inside a wooden tub; the space between them is packed with ice and salt, and the inside container filled with the chosen ingredients.

As the paddles rotate, they prevent large ice crystals forming. Just clamp on the top and turn the handle. In a few minutes you'll be in the real ice cream business.

THE LANGUAGE OF ICE CREAM
"REAL ICE CREAM: made of air, water, milk/cream and sugar, stirred constantly in a subzero environment
WATER ICES: based on frozen, flavoured syrup or fruit puree. Made in much the same way as real ice cream
SORBETS OR SHERBETS: made like water ices, but with an egg-white stirred in after freezing to give a soft-scoop texture.

ACTIVITY 27: Finally, find the answers to these questions reading carefully the text once again and choosing the answers from the menus (two answers are NOT correct). Then check your exercise.

According to the article above, who ...