Were ice cream cones really invented at the World’s Fair or did they originate much earlier, early enough that Jane Austen might have enjoyed one? Explore the history of ice cream cones with me.
Continue reading →In Jane Austen’s day, vanilla wasn’t a common flavor, flower ice cream flavors were. When we think of common ice cream flavors today, our minds usually go to vanilla. Back in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, vanilla (which is the fruit of the vanilla orchid—but you probably already knew that…) was pretty uncommon. Far more common flavors were floral ones, including jasmine, orange flower, violet, elder flowers and rose. (Quinzio, 2002) The flavors do sound … Continue reading →
What does hokey pokey have to do with ice cream? The answer’s at the end of the research rabbit hole! Time for a quick trip down the research rabbit hole. You didn’t think I could possibly get through a series like this without a few bunny trails, did you? I did have over 200 pages of research notes for this project after all. (Yeah, seriously I did. I know, but graduate school did this to … Continue reading →
When it comes to ice cream, innovation is tradition, even to the point where vegetable ice cream sounds like a good idea Ice cream lovers fall into two camps: those who love experimenting with innovative, exotic flavors and the purists, who remain loyal to vanilla. Wild experimentation is nothing new, it can be traced back to the earliest ice cream cooks. While I’m not averse to experimenting and trying new things, at no time, … Continue reading →
With all our modern conveniences, it is easy to forget how arduous everyday tasks were for our ancestors. Wash day in particular is one for which we take our modern appliances for granted. Today, we gather the laundry and sort it, more or less, less if you’re one of my teen-aged sons. If it is a good day, we check for stains, pretreat the stains, then throw it all in the machine. Later we wander … Continue reading →
