Thomas Jefferson wanted to be remembered as “author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia. I would like to add that he is also credited to be the person who popularized ice cream in the United States. His original ice cream recipe still remains available online.
I am one of those for whom Ice cream is a key part of the food pyramid, a much loved confection that can be savored and critiqued. Like most things, it all goes back to my childhood.
They cost five cents. Our mother and father were ice cream aficionados and so our begging for ice cream was often heard by giving us the money to go to Pop’s candy store on the corner of 55th and 3rd Avenue to buy Dixie Cups, little four-ounce paper cups with lift-off paper lids filled with mostly vanilla ice cream. They also included the affectionately-remembered wooden flat spoon used to scrape the ice cream into a form that we could eat. Now, this isn’t widely known, but my siblings and I saw that wooden spoon as a bonus; not only could we use it in our make-believe play as a piece of flatware, but when you had a loose tooth, it would be the device that would free the tooth engendering a visit from the tooth fairy who would leave 10 cents under our pillows … 10 cents would buy two more Dixie Cups. It was a crude version of “cash back” for those under 10 in Brooklyn a long time ago.
I saw Dixie Cups again in the freezer section of a grocery store just last week. I don’t’ think they were the “Dixie Cups” brand as such, but the same cup form, multiples packed in a plastic bag, without wooden spoons. Maybe they gave you the spoons when you checked out. I didn’t pursue this line of questioning because my love off ice cream was now fulfilled by other offerings in that same freezer section. Half gallons or cartons that looked like half gallons offering multiple flavors of the dessert. “Monkey paws, Orange sunset, Key Lime,” etc. – exotics to tempt the consumer.
As tempting as the many brands and flavors are, the offerings are not the same quality. If you purchased a half gallon of ice cream and allowed it to melt (and who does that on purpose?) you can compare it with other melted half gallons. There are significant differences because of the amount of air or “overload” that the ice cream maker beats into the basic ingredients. Less air, more ingredients, equals a creamier mouth feel and, in my mind, a better ice cream.
How do I know this? When I was in high school, I worked three summers at a venue in Lake Carmel that made and sold frozen custard. The custard mix was rich with eggs and cream and would make a superior product. The degree of superiority was determined by how much air was added as the giant machines churned the mix into frozen custard. My boss was adamant about producing the most superior product. Eating that ice cream was a pleasure played out in taste and how long a cone would last.
You can also judge how much overload was used in making any ice cream by seeing how fast it melts.
Seeking really good ice cream is a side hobby of mine which has contributed to my sides, my front and my back, but that is another story…related but not germane here. Once, when my spouse and I were on a tour in Italy, I found myself climbing the hill that led to the town of San Gimignano. Half way up this precipitous hill, I began to have chest pains.
“Oh, my God,” I worried. Am I having a heart attack?”
My spouse had long reached the town and disappeared. The rest of the tour group were scattered. I began to walk more slowly, thinking about my mortality and wondering how they would get my body home, when I spotted Gelateria Dondoli, a gelateria the guide had told us produced the best gelato in Italy. OK, I figured, if I was having a coronary, I might as well go out enjoying the best gelato in Italy. So, I went in and bought the biggest cone that I could. I sat in the ancient town square and ate my gelato, the strains of sad melodies in my head. The pain disappeared with the first lick. A side note, it was the Howitzer style coffee that I had for breakfast that had awoken my esophageal problems. The cool gelato calmed the angry cells down. I credit the gelato for saving my day, if not my life. Gelato is a poster ice cream for low overload. So creamy tasting, it is made from milk rather than cream and churned slowly with practically no air added.
I often take my grandsons to the ice cream stand next to the Bowling Alley in Marcellus. On a hot day there is nothing like one of their “small” black raspberry cones to cool down your body and mind. Watching those boys enjoying their treats, laughing, giggling and exclaiming about the amount of ice cream they are eating is a gift I give myself. Of course, I will have had my own small cone too. If you haven’t partaken of said small cone, you are missing something that revises the meaning of small.
I have, in my mind, a list of places where I can find great ice cream. I recently added the Ice Cream Sandwich shop in Marcellus to that list which also includes … now these are my favorites …the Marcellus Lanes ice cream stand, Doug’s ice cream, Abbots Frozen Custard on Onondaga Boulevard in the city, the little shop in the building that houses the Chinese restaurant on Kasson Road across from Tops in Camillus and the Creamery in Caz.
But there is one source of ice cream, no longer available, that makes me smile the most. I was working at Catholic Charities on the west end of Syracuse, about two city blocks from the legendary Marble Farms where, in the summer of 1979 I was with child, and craving ice cream. Marble Farms made the best ice cream, using fruits in season. That summer, I ate a giant waffle cone (is there any other kind?) filled with peach ice cream at least once a day, sometimes more than once a day.
One has to think of sampling a wide variety of ice creams as having historical and scientific connections. As you sample, you are recreating Thomas Jefferson’s delight as well as measuring how much air the maker added to the ingredients. Or … you could just admit, in all transparency, it just tastes so good
