Ice-cream is probably a national food in Italy, where you can find good gelato everywhere. Gelato is a specific ice-cream type. Other types are sorbet, frozen yoghurt, sundae, soft ice-cream, frozen custard… What differentiates each type is how they are made. You can also find national types of ice-cream in some countries. Sorbet, for example, is based on fruit and it is an Italian version of the Persian sherbets. Frozen yoghurt uses yoghurt instead of milk or cream and it is a USA invention.

Existing since ancient times, ice-cream boomed in the 19th and 20th centuries when new techniques allowed it to be widely commercialized. Before, it was a special dessert for the rich, when its confection was too expensive, but, when the production costs decreased (much due to refrigerators), it became available to anyone. Just imagine 18th century aristocracy eating ice-cream for dessert as it was a distinct delicacy…

Agnes Marshall (1855-1905) was an English cook who understood the potential of ice-cream. She wrote and published two recipe books about it and invented the first ice-cream machine. She also created a cone from almonds to be eaten together with the ice-cream, what she called “cornets with cream”. This was the first version of the ice-cream cones we all know today. Agnes was a real pioneer and visionary not only in what ice-cream was concerned, but also in terms of cooking in general. Together with her husband, she bought a cooking school in her name shortly after a law was issued allowing women to own property. This school thrived, much due to her travels around the country giving lectures and advertising the books she published. A true entrepreneur, she did not stop innovating and she even founded a human resources company for people who wanted to hire cooks, complementing, thus, her activities in the school.

Nowadays, ice-cream is part of our daily lives. We can buy them in specialized stores, on the street, and in the supermarket. We can eat them on a plate, on a glass, on a cup, or on an edible cone. Besides the traditional flavours (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry), many new ones are being made (imagination is the limit). In fact, there are people who are paid to discover new mixes, so basically their job is to taste ice-cream. Pretty cool, yeah? There are also ice-cream cakes and baked ice-creams (look for “baked Alaska”).