Which came first: snow ice cream or ice cream? When and why were they created? How did the idea for the first refrigerator come about? When one investigates history, all references indicate that Marco Polo was the one who brought, among his trunks full of wonders from China, the recipe for an icy snack that he had tried based on snow and honey. It is known that the Persians, in 400 BC, liked a kind of frozen custard made with rose water and angel hair. And that Alexander the Great relieved summer hot flashes with a cocktail of snow, honey and nectar. The idea of mixing milk and ice is attributed to the Tang Emperor’s cooking entourage. In the 10th century, in Sicily, during the Arab domination, an icy drink was prepared called sherbet either sharbat: a mixture of fruit and honey with the snow of Etna. A French chef is credited with adding eggs to fruit sorbet. The Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli is considered the father of ice cream, who, in 1660, invented the first ice cream maker in history. He boom It arrived in the 18th century when another Italian, Filippo Lenzi, opened the first ice cream shop in the United States. And so… the story continues until today.
Ice cream is the most valued ephemeral snack in history. It went from being a subsistence invention to the most famous recipe of royalty. From a mixture of ingredients to a precise formula typical of a haute cuisine laboratory. All of this is part of that halo that surrounds the world of this dessert and that the books, once again, have been able to transmit and endure. Although it is already a timeless snack, with the arrival of heat, ice cream is the main protagonist of our appetite. Therefore, here are four books for professionals and experts that will help us better understand its essence.
Possibly, the best books on production that we can find in bookstores are those published by Grupo Vilbo: Essence. A new way to create ice cream, by Jesús Escalera; and The secrets of ice cream, by Angelo Corvitto. The latter, for many years, has been the essential reference for chefs and pastry chefs. The editor, Alberto Ruiz Vicente, even published in the editorial: “The book was born as a result of the articles that Angelo Corvitto published in our magazine Ice Cream Art. It is an eminently practical book so that every gastronomy professional (…) can make the best possible ice cream.” Angelo Corvitto (owner of Gelats Angelo. Ullà. Girona) is considered one of the pioneers in the ice cream technique. He will find the formulas to make ice cream in a traditional way or with new cooling techniques such as liquid nitrogen.
There are books to put a series of recipes into practice, books to delight in photographs and books to think. essence, by Jesús Escalera, which has just been published, is one of those manuals to question yourself before practicing. “This book is not just about sharing recipes, nor is it intended to be an instructional guide that only teaches how to make ice cream in a squared manner. The objective is another: to open a window that inspires us to think differently about flavor,” the author writes in the prologue. In this way, his ice creams, which border on the poetic, not only transform fruits, tubers, legumes… the challenge is another: how to capture the aroma? Roasted caramel corn ice cream or a pink peppercorn ice cream; The frozen spring (in its range of green aromas, celery, peas, apples…) or The Great Wave off Kanagawa (or how to bring the work of the Japanese painter Katsushika Hokusai to a table), are some of the proposals. The book delves into the soul of ice cream, into what makes it unique, into understanding why eating ice cream can lead to a state of levitation.
One of the most practical, original and versatile books on ice cream is by Margie Broadhead, Healthy ice creams, edited by Cúpula, in a manageable and small format. Starting from the basic ingredients that we could find in a market, the author creates a recipe book that plays with sweet and salty, hot and cold: from coconut porridge with chocolate ice cream and berries, to creamy ice cream banana split with salted caramel chocolate chip cookie; of the Neapolitan ice cream cake with brownies to the pink poles with edible flowers, for example. In the first pages of the book, we find a series of tips to not only make excellent ice cream, but also to transform the kitchen into a recycling laboratory: “Use the yogurt cups as a mold (…) If you don’t have sticks to make popsicles , use straws or wooden forks or spoons (…) The riper a banana is, the better the ice cream will turn out (…).
Another essential novelty for those who want to make ice cream at home is Ice creams, by Massimo Pignata (Larousse publishing house). The author is a renowned master ice cream maker, originally from Piedmont, owner of the DelaCrem workshop (Barcelona). In this book we will find not only recipes for seasonal ice cream and sorbets, but also original proposals such as mojito or sweet potato ice cream, to name two. The author proposes working with seasonal products, that is, letting the market dictate creativity to make, for example, an ice cream with toasted almonds and liqueur. amaretto; watermelon with mint and ginger; a sorbet of celery, lime and ginger or fresh cherries with kirsch (cherry liqueur). The book is full of advice and stories from the author linked to each of the proposals and all illustrated with the delicious photographs of Becky Lawton.
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