Sicilian ice cream: origins, flavors and traditions
Artisanal ice cream is the real star of summer. In Sicily, you can enjoy ice cream in every corner of the big city centers and the smaller inland villages. From the eastern side to the western side, historic and new ice cream parlors are flourishing, ready to surprise locals and tourists with new delicious flavors.
So many flavors, so many tastes of ice creams that satisfy any palate and need: from vegan artisan ice creams to fruit flavors of local produce. But where did ice cream originate? Have you ever wondered what its origin is?
Although artisanal ice cream is Italian and now popular all over the world, we can say that ice cream originated in Sicily. We tell you all about it in this article! We will find out all about the origins of Sicilian ice cream, the traditions and legends that have made it so famous, and the best flavors to enjoy for the summer. Let’s start.
The origins of ice cream: between history and legend
When was ice cream born? And where was it born? We can say, without a doubt, that homemade ice cream is the most beloved and famous summer dessert in the world, especially Italian ice cream. Pastry shops and ice cream parlors in Southern Italy compete to make the best Sicilian artisanal ice cream, and in some pastry shops, ice cream is present all year round.
As for its origins, one has to go through tales, legends and stories passed down from generation to generation to find out more about this delicious dessert. This is not easy, precisely because there are countless historical accounts and historiographical references about the ancient traditions, storage habits and its birth.
Everyone would like to be recognized as the inventors of ice cream, but to whom does this coveted and coveted title really go?
Ice cream: what do we know about its legendary origin?
The earliest legends about the origin of ice cream tell of its ancestor as early as the Bible, where Isaac used to hand his father Abraham an iced drink with goat’s milk and snow to help him fight the heat. The history of ice cream continues by recounting the ancient Roman custom, introduced at banquets by Nero, of enjoying fruit salads and desserts with honey and snow during the warm season. The earliest historical documents in which ice cream is mentioned, on the other hand, date back to the city of Athens in 500 B.C., where the Greeks liked to make refreshing drinks with honey, lemon and pomegranate juice mixed with snow or ice.
In China, around 2000 B.C., a mixture made from milk and rice cooked with some spices was prepared. This mixture was placed in snow for it to become solid. At that time, it was a custom in China (particularly during the Jung Dynasty) to freeze fruits, milk and dairy foods to extend the shelf life of foods. These included a dish prepared with kumiss, heated and fermented milk with flour and camphor leaves added and refrigerated before serving.
It was in the Middle Ages that the production of cold desserts began to catch on. Milk-based desserts and fruit juices became so popular that they were imported to Europe as early as the 14th century.
In the late 1600s, at the royal court of Charles II of England, a dish very similar to ice cream was served, made with cream, fruit and flavorings. But it was not until the 1700s that eggs were added to the mixture, giving the dessert a creamy, velvety texture.
Ice cream is Sicilian!
In Italy, the history of ice cream traces back to some drinks and frozen desserts that are very similar to gelato, and the first appearances occurred in Sicily. These attestations of the ancestor of ice cream date back to the Arab domination that took place in the 9th century.
The Arabs used, in fact, to enjoy cold drinks called sherbet, real distilled fruit juices flavored with lemon, orange, pomegranate, cherry, and tamarind. The Arabs in Sicily used snow from Mount Etna and nearby mountains to freeze these drinks sweetened with sugar cane imported from Persia in containers.
Thus was born on the island the first ancestor of Italian artisanal ice cream, very similar to sorbet. This recipe was perfected in Florence.
Ice cream as we know it today
The Arabs of Sicily, then, initiated a new way of enjoying beverages and invented the ancestor of ice cream. We must, however, wait until the 16th century and the Renaissance age to see the birth of ice cream as we know it today: creamy, thick and tasty. The artisanal gelato we all enjoy in ice cream parlors today, according to historical reconstructions by the Italian Gelato Institute, was invented in Italy at the court of Catherine de’ Medici in Florence.
In 1565, it was he who claimed the invention of the world’s most beloved Italian dessert. The recipe called for adding milk and egg whites to ice, sugar and lemon.
But in 1686, Sicilian cook Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli of Aci Trezza created the first perfect mixture to make and package ice cream. Thanks to the use of a curious machine for making frozen sorbets given to him by his grandfather, this Sicilian ice cream maker moved to Paris to the court of the Sun King, where he was able to open the historic Café Procope and make modern ice cream known throughout France and Europe.
The first ice cream maker for making homemade ice cream
The real breakthrough in homemade ice cream production occurred in 1843 in the United States, when a woman named Nancy Johnson invented and patented the first hand-cranked ice cream maker. Ice cream was made by means of a tub filled with salt and ice, mechanized with a metal dough cylinder that was then turned with a hand crank.
This remarkable invention passed into the hands of Johnson, who acquired the rights to his patent for only $200 and revolutionized the way ice cream was made. How? By attaching a motor to the tub and thus achieving more uniform cooling of the mixture. These technologies were perfected over time, and in the early 1900s the first automatic spatula sorbet maker was born.
The first ice cream store and … the first ice cream cone!
The first ice cream shop opened in New York in the late 1700s, thanks to an Italian named Giovanni Bosio. Needless to say, it was a huge success and the beginning of an extraordinary business.
In 1927, in Milan, it was Giovanni Torre di Bussana who put ice cream between two wafer dough wafers-a true revolution for the time, which opened the door to a new way of enjoying ice cream.
But who is responsible for the invention of the timeless ice cream cone? The invention of the cone is quite recent. In 1903, Cadore ice cream maker Italo Marchioni created a wafer that was open on one side and closed on the other, so it could be garnished with ice cream. This wafer increased the popularity of Italian ice cream and its spread.
Sicilian artisanal ice cream: the favorite flavors of cold dessert lovers!
If the origin of ice cream is Sicilian, there is no doubt that many contributed to the birth and spread of the ice cream we all know today. Its evolution has led to a flurry of ice cream shops where you can enjoy delicious homemade ice cream for all tastes, accompanied by the most classic cone to the chocolate-covered one, with cream or without, to go from the typical cup to the traditional Sicilian brioscia cu tuppu!
Sicilian artisanal ice creams are made with top-quality materials and often with local products, for a zero-mile dessert that surprises at the first bite. But what are the most popular and beloved Sicilian artisan ice cream flavors?
Sicilian fruit ice cream
Upon entering one of the many Sicilian ice cream stores, one is immediately struck by the colors and variety of flavors to choose from. Especially in large cities, it takes only a few meters to encounter renowned or new gelaterias ready to surprise with traditional and innovative flavors.
It is impossible to renounce fruit-based flavors, which have always been the mouthpiece of a millenary tradition and mirror of an island founded on fruits born from the earth. From sorbet to granita to the most velvety fruit ice cream, it’s hard to sit back and watch.
Delicious flavors abound in the counters, from lemon to cantaloupe, melon to jasmine. Not to mention the nut-based ice cream flavors: from Bronte pistachio ice cream to the more classic hazelnut, from Avola almond ice cream to tangerine and orange. All strictly Sicilian.
In the province of Messina, it is impossible not to try the traditional brioscia col tuppo accompanied by a fresh homemade mulberry, coffee, lemon or pistachio granita. A real goodness!
Traditional Sicilian ice creams
But in the Sicilian artisanal ice cream tradition, alongside fruit flavors, the gaze rests on Sicilian ice creams flavored with coffee, zuppa inglese or stracciatella, from the classic “sette veli” pistachio chocolate flavor with white chocolate, from Modica chocolate ice cream to “cassata siciliana” flavor. How to resist?
What about you, have you tried Sicilian artisan ice cream yet and what are your favorite flavors? Leave us a comment!