Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or 1 small avocado calories fruit such as strawberries or peaches.

The meaning of the name “ice cream” varies from one country to another. In some countries, such as the United States, “ice cream” applies only to a specific variety, and most governments regulate the commercial use of the various terms according to the relative quantities of the main ingredients, notably the amount of cream. Ice cream may be served in dishes, for eating with a spoon, or licked from edible wafer cones. The origins of frozen desserts are obscure, although several accounts exist about their history.

Some sources describe ice cream-like foods as originating in Persia as far back as 550 BC. A Roman cookbook dating back to the 1st-century includes recipes for sweet desserts that are sprinkled with snow. There are Persian records from the 2nd-century for sweetened drinks chilled with ice. There are Tang dynasty records of a chilled dessert made with flour, camphor and water buffalo milk. Kakigori was a Japanese dessert using ice and flavored syrup.

The origins of kakigōri date back the Heian period in Japanese history, when blocks of ice saved during the colder months would be shaved and served with sweet syrup to Japanese aristocracy during the summer. Ibn Abu Usaybi’a attributes the process to an even older author, Ibn Bakhtawayhi, of whom nothing is known. Ice cream production became easier with the discovery of the endothermic effect. Prior to this, cream could be chilled easily but not frozen. It was the addition of salt, that lowered the melting point of ice, which had the effect of drawing heat from the cream and allowing it to freeze. Kulfi in a matka pot from India. In the sixteenth century, the Mughal Empire used relays of horsemen to bring ice from the Hindu Kush to its capital Delhi.

The ice was used in fruit sorbets. The technique of “freezing” is not known from any European sources prior to the 16th century. During the sixteenth century authors made reference to the refrigerant effect that happened when salt was added to ice causing it to freeze. But it wasn’t until the latter part of the seventeenth century that sorbets and ice creams were made using this process. Ice creams spread throughout Europe is sometimes attributed to Moorish traders, but more often to Marco Polo.

Though it’s not mentioned in any of his writings, Polo is often credited with introducing sorbet-style desserts to Italy after learning of it during his travels to China. In 1651, Italian Francesco dei Coltelli opened an ice cream café in Paris, and the product became so popular that during the next 50 years another 250 cafés opened in Paris. The first recipe in French for flavoured ices appears in 1674, in Nicholas Lemery’s Recueil de curiositéz rares et nouvelles de plus admirables effets de la nature. The first recorded mention of ice cream in England was in 1671. Elias Ashmole described the dishes served at the Feast of St George at Windsor in for Charles II in 1671 and included ‘one plate of ice cream’.

The only table at the banquet with ice cream on it was that of the King. The 1751 edition of The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse includes a recipe for ice cream: “H. Fill it with Ice, and a Handful of Salt. The year 1768 saw the publication of L’Art de Bien Faire les Glaces d’Office by M.

Emy, a cookbook devoted entirely to recipes for flavoured ices and ice cream. In 1769 Domenico Negri, an Italian confectioner, founded a business in Berkeley Square London which would become famous for its ice creams. Cakes, fine and Common Sugar plums’ but most importantly ‘all Sorts of Ice, Fruits and creams in the best Italian manner. In 1789 Frederick Nutt, who served an apprenticeship at Negri’s establishment, first published The Complete Confectioner. The book had thirty-one different recipes for ice creams, some with fresh fruit, others with jams, and some using fruit syrups.

Flavours included ginger, chocolate, brown breadcrumbs and one flavoured with Parmesan cheese. Soft serve ice cream was invented in the United States. An early North American reference to ice cream is from 1744: “Among the rarities. It was served by the lady of Governor Bland. Quaker colonists introduced ice cream to the United States, bringing their ice cream recipes with them. Confectioners sold ice cream at their shops in New York and other cities during the colonial era.