On Food and Cooking

warm object is placed in snow or ice. What
made ice cream possible was a sprinkling of
chemical ingenuity. If salts are added to the
ice, the salts dissolve in the slush, lower its
freezing point, and allow it to get cold enough
to freeze the sugared cream.
The effect of salts on freezing was known
in the 13th century Arab world, and that
knowledge eventually made its way to Italy,
where ices made from fruit were described in
the early 17th century. The English term “ice
cream” first appears in a 1672 document from
the court of Charles II, and the first printed
recipes for frozen waters and creams appear in
France and Naples in the 1680s and 1690s. By
the time of the American Revolution, the
French had discovered that frequent stirring of
the freezing mix gave a finer, less crystalline
texture. They had also developed super-rich
versions with 20 egg yolks per pint of cream
(glace au beurre, “ice butter”!), and ice
creams flavored with various nuts and spices,