Ice creams and summers are like the pair made in heaven. The former makes the latter look ‘cool’ and enjoyable. That’s one part of what makes ice cream so alluring, which today comes in as many flavours and shapes as there are colours, with a variety to suit every mood and taste.
But why do we find ice creams so tempting? Is it the dessert’s creamy, rich, cool texture, its pure marvel which seems to immediately calm nerves, or the sheer wonder of a scoop that never fails to astound us? An easy answer would be all of the above along with a bit of history. The love for ice cream unlike most cold desserts that have evolved over time was motivated by our need for items to be frozen rather than by our intrinsic love of ice and the way ice converted ingredients into this beautiful, visually appealing, and palate-satiating delicacy.
In fact, it was this likeness that laid the foundation for the ice cream we know and love today, which in antiquity was a concoction served atop an ice or snow mountain. In one of the earliest forms, or as the Chinese called “proto,” a mould of creamy rice and milk served on a bed of snow. Thanks to its popularity, this summer refreshment remained a significant trading ace during the Song and Yuan dynasties.
It was the possible iteration that travelled back with Marco Polo and helped in the creation of the first recorded Sorbetto recipe by Spanish Chef Antonio Latini around the 17th century.
Truly an inspiration
Was this how the modern-day beloved ice cream came to the fore? The ancient Chinese are believed to have planted the first seeds of modern-day ice cream. Many food historians believe that the Persian Bastani is actually a more likely older cousin of it. Along with two other popular formats called the sharbat and faloodeh, bastani and its variations, which are made of milk, eggs, sugar, rosewater, saffron, vanilla, and pistachios, travelled the culinary highways with Arabian traders.
And is said to have formed the basis for the curation of the Indian kulfi. A treat that may have made the adaptation of ice cream in the later years easy. While the variants of icy treats may have been at the foundation of the love for ice cream globally, the foundation of such treats was laid by the demand for a single, natural ingredient called ice. Since the start of the dynasty era, ice has been in great demand and everyone from the British to the Chinese to the Arabs to the great Darius and the Roman Emperors went to great lengths to obtain, store and use it. The earlier Sumerians, Arabs and Romans under Pliny The Elder in fact engineered ways to create ice in the ice pits to meet the demand for ice that began its journey as a natural cooler before being used for a number of tasks, such as chilling the palace and enhancing the flavour of food.
Old texts like the Ain-e-Akbari and others wax eloquent about the role of ice in the creation of ittar and wines that helped make the Indian summers bearable, as well as sharbats and kulfi, which many people think were inspired by Bastani’s ubiquity. It was common practice in many a royal feast including those hosted in mountainous areas to serve fruits and finely sliced meat atop a bed of shaved ice given the ability of ice to lend the shine turning them into the piece-de-resistance for the occasion.
So great was the love for ice that in 1830, Frederic Tudor shipped a consignment of 180 tonnes of ice to the ports in Calcutta. By the time the ship reached India, 80 tonnes had already melted away, and yet Tudor made a fortune on frozen water that was met with wonder, amazement, and desire at the port.
Tudor’s shipment ultimately proved to be the turning point for not only his fortune as the ice king but also for India, where it became instrumental in helping Indians appreciate the pleasures of the creamy, frozen treat called ice cream.
The salty agent
Even though ice was still a privilege of the colonial powers-that-be and the wealthy who frequented the corridors of Byculla Club and similar places, the availability of ice helped revive the appeal of cold drinks and cured meats and aided in the mushrooming of ice houses in major cities like Bombay and Madras.
Since ice was easily accessible, frozen desserts like ice cream, which was traditionally hand-churned, flourished.
Ice was salted and put around the central cauldron, which held the mixture of milk, sugar, fruits, and essence. Salted ice covered with jute bags could withstand the heat for long periods and became the best way to not just make ice cream but distribute it too. It was an upgrade from the time when the ice cream-making process involved turning full-cream milk into a creamy delicacy in a leather bag.
Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, the only other Parsee to have bought ice from Tudor’s first consignment is said to have used the technique to serve ice cream — considered a strange and unnatural food then — at a reception in 1834. Interestingly, while the reception was a disaster as many guests fell ill after having the ice, it did start the trend of using ice — or American ice as it was called then — and of ice cream.
Apart from the cities, towns like Udvada also developed a taste for this sweet treat, thanks to the availability of American ice and to Nancy Johnson’s 1846 hand churner, which was effectively Indianised and baptised as kothi.
While the technique of using salted ice made ice cream popular across homes, it also encouraged the mushrooming of artisanal parlours across cities like the Taj Ice Cream. Opening its doors in Bohri Mohalla, Bombay in 1887, Taj Ice Cream was one of the earliest businesses to experiment with flavours. And yet, it wasn’t until the first World War that ice cream got its big grounding. Once an indulgence, ice cream became a way of helping soldiers recuperate. In fact, that is one of the reasons Landour, a cantonment built to house wounded soldiers and veterans, boasts of many ice cream shops. Such was the love for ice cream that by the early 19th century, ice cream parlours became a common sight despite ice creams continuing to be a premium product.
Stiff competition
The Western classic wasn’t a strong competitor to kulfi until Vadilal introduced its version of hand-churned ice cream that was crafted to suit Indian tastes in 1907 and later developed a model that could be home-delivered in 1928. This proved to be a game-changer.
Curiously, it is the mix of association and its palate-play that made ice cream such an addictive indulgence, and one of the main reasons for our cravings for the treat. Thus, every time, one needs to feel good or celebrate, one turns to ice cream and the flavours that the palate memory is familiar with. The other reason for it is hedonic hunger, which stems from two things: a sudden vacuum and deficiency.
While nutritionists have attributed the deficiency to a lack of Vitamin D, calcium or fat, especially the latter that works the mind, it is the former that determines our choice of ice cream or lately frozen desserts. While the coldness numbs us giving that sense of instant calmness, it is the high sugar and fat content that spikes the insulin giving us a boost of energy and joy. Thus making it an experience worth the while.
Interestingly, it is that “high” and its advent that also decides which version of the iced treat one would go with first: the velvety ice cream, the fruity sorbet, the healthier sweetened yoghurt or a frozen dessert.
(The author is a seasoned food columnist and curator of experiential dining experiences, pop-ups and retreats for chefs.)