We welcomed Alison Warren to July's main meeting who spoke about the history of ice cream - June's Jaunt revealed we love ice cream almost as much as we love cake! It turns out it's much older and exotic than we thought, hailing from China in the Tang dynasty i.e. way back to Anglo Saxon Britain.
We learned the differences between ice cream, gelato and sorbet. Apparently it's all in the fat content with ice cream typically having 10% or more, gelato between 4 to 8%, and sorbet none. We also learned that a contemporary of Mrs Beeton - the beautiful and talented Agnes Marshall aka 'the Queen of Ices' - invented the Marshall's ice cream maker, the forerunner of the machines we see today. She also wrote several books on the subject.
Alison also promised to provide a recipe for cucumber ice cream - one of the more unusual flavours! In the meantime, the internet reveals a Victorian style recipe together with more information on Agnes Marshall.
The photo is one of Michelle's series on Travels with Ice Cream - stem ginger in this case - from her trip to the NFWI AM in Bournemouth in 2019.
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