The first chilled refreshments originated when the ancient Chinese, Romans and other early civilisations combined snow or ice with fruit juice or dairy products – epicurean luxuries for the enjoyment of the social elite. In the Levant sharbat/sherbet, created by whisking ice shavings or snow into sugar syrup flavoured with fruit juices and floral essences, became renowned as a summer delicacy; however, this concoction and similar Middle Eastern-style sherbets that eventually came to be replicated in fashionable 17th century London coffee houses were not genuine ices, but scented water-based drinks – sometimes cooled with ice or snow, but never frozen.

Ice cream recipes
Authentic frozen ices developed following the discovery of techniques for artificial freezing, using the powerful refrigerant properties of crushed ice mixed with various chemical salts. Adding common salt or saltpetre to ice lowers its freezing point to far below zero, enabling liquids placed within to become frozen solid, not simply chilled. This method was first recorded in Europe in 1530 by Italian scholar Marco Zimara and finally in the 1600s began to be systematically used for freezing comestibles.

Genuine ice cream appeared in Britain surprisingly early, but was initially reserved mainly for royalty and the nobility. Reputedly a French cook, Gérard Tissain, first introduced ice cream to Charles I, although no firm evidence survives. Either way, ice cream first appeared on an English menu at the 1671 Garter Feast of Charles II (1660–85), but was served only to the king. In the 1690s Grace, Countess Glanville published a recipe for ‘ice creame’ that resembled an earlier culinary work compiled by Lady Fanshawe, wife of the English ambassador to Spain, but now with critical directions for freezing it with ice, alum, salt and saltpetre. However, one other important process – the regular stirring of the freezing mixture to prevent formation of large ice crystals – was only fully understood in Britain once clear English instructions were published in the mid-1700s.

A fashionable confection
During the 18th century French confectioners developed ice cream manufacture in innovative and creative ways. Several key publications appeared, most notably the first book devoted entirely to the subject: L’Art de Bien Faire les Glaces d’Office (1768) by Emy of Paris, whose recipes included ices flavoured with truffles, rice, rye bread and dark rum liqueur. Novelty shaped moulds were growing more inventive and ices began to be served in special vessels called ice pails, to prevent them from melting when brought to the table. Fine porcelain ice pails or ‘glaciers’ made in France at the Sèvres factory were copied and manufactured by English porcelain factories like Spode and Wedgwood.

By the late 1700s commercial confectioners in cities and major towns throughout Britain were marketing high quality ice creams and water ices expertly moulded into ornamental shapes like oranges, lemons, melons, and other fruit. Producers included French, Italian and Spanish émigrés, as well as enterprising English and Scottish artisans who had learned the craft. The most prestigious establishment in Georgian London was the ‘Pot and Pine Apple’ run by Domenico Negri from Turin and English confectioner James Gunter, their Mayfair business patronised by the royal family, including the Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent/King George IV).

Dinner table ices
Ice cream making also extended to the great country estates that were now being equipped with fashionable icehouses in their grounds. In 1770 a Mr Borella published a small guide, The Court and Country Confectioner, aimed not at professionals but at the many housekeepers and female cooks wishing to become proficient at making ice cream. More influential was The Complete Confectioner (1789) by Negri’s former apprentice, Frederick Nutt. The first work to provide both clear instructions and precise quantities, Nutt often used egg yolks and advocated syrup instead of sugar. His varied recipes were inspired by many known in Italy at that time, the more unusual flavours including ginger, bergamot and parmesan cheese.

Although expert confectioners dominated professional ice cream manufacture, the craft increasingly developed at a domestic level, initially in the kitchens of affluent homes. By the early 1800s some large houses had designated cool rooms furnished with ice storage chests, various freezing pots, ‘spaddles’ (stirring implements) and elaborate ice cream moulds. With the advancing mass production of consumer goods, ever more specialised equipment became available: for instance, from the mid-1800s several hand-cranked ice cream freezers were manufactured with simple mechanised features, still combining ice and salt as a refrigerant, one example being Thomas Masters’ machine, patented in 1843.

Over time enjoyment of ice cream, once prohibitively expensive, extended further down the social scale. Increasingly, domestic servants created ices in their employers’ kitchens, some being sent on privately run ice cream making courses. By the late 1800s serving iced delicacies to dinner guests as entremets or dessert was de rigueur among the middle classes: dishes included flavoured ice creams, water ices, sorbets, bombes and iced puddings with novel French names.

Street sellers
In mid-19th century London cheap ices were also being sold on the streets by pedlars using Masters’ patent freezers, the trade escalating rapidly following an influx of Italian immigrants fleeing political strife and economic stagnation at home. Many hailed from Lazio and the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino and by the 1860s Italian ice cream vendors were a familiar sight in London, Manchester and other cities. As the railway network expanded, Swiss/Italian ice cream confectioners also ventured to coastal areas, like the Bolla, Biucchi and Pagani families, for example, who operated in Brighton, Sussex between the 1870s and c.1910. Such businesses came to characterise busy seaside resorts and encouraged a taste for continental confectionery, pastries and ice cream among ordinary British people.

Street vendors selling cheap ice creams to the working classes initially met with resistance, especially from established confectioners. Ice cream bought and consumed on the street was popularly called ‘hokey-pokey’ – both a generic term and the name of popular halfpenny and penny paper-covered slices of multi-coloured ice cream resembling luxury Neapolitan ices but of inferior quality. Other favourites were ‘penny licks’, a few mouthfuls of ice cream slurped on the spot from thick glasses that were then rinsed in filthy water and reused. Unsurprisingly, health issues were rife and finally came to a head in 1901: legislation governing the production and sale of ice cream grew stricter and, significantly, prompted the introduction of more hygienic edible wafers for its consumption.

Ice cream sellers generally pushed refrigerated handcarts through the streets, or used horse-drawn carts, often gaily painted like fairground stalls. Some family businesses operated for generations, eventually upgrading in the 1920s and 1930s to motorised vehicles: tricycles, motorcycle combinations and vans. During both world wars, due to milk and sugar shortages ice cream manufacture was banned or heavily restricted, and, sadly, during WW2 many Italian ice cream producers were interned as ‘enemy aliens’. Some re-established their businesses, but the industry was already changing with large-scale English manufacturers adopting modern American marketing techniques.

Modern marketing
T. Wall & Sons, a London sausage-maker, opened an ice cream factory in Acton, West London, becoming the first British ice cream wholesaler with nationwide sales. Beginning in 1922 with ten ice cream tricycles on the streets bearing the well-known slogan ‘Stop me and buy one’, by the outbreak of war in 1939 Wall’s operated 8,500 tricycles ridden by smart uniformed delivery men and 160 depots throughout Britain. Lyons, beginning by selling ices from its well-established and much-loved tea shops and corner houses, expanded under the trade name Lyons Maid from 1925. These big brand names increasingly dominated ice cream retailing, spearheading the introduction of new products such as iced lollies on sticks and ‘soft-serve’ ice creams Mr Whippy and Mr Softy.

Some of our childhood favourites like the ‘Mivvi’ launched by Lyons Maid in 1967, with its colourful fruit-flavoured coating hiding an ice cream centre, seemed fun and modern at the time: few realised that it was essentially a traditional Victorian bombe surprise on a stick!  {