Does ‘Ice-Cream’ really originate from China?

The history of Chinese ice cream is expected to begin during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) In those days, milk was considered very expensive and rare. Therefore, a method of storing milk was invented by burying it in the snow until it became the first ice cream generation by mixing buffalo milk, goat milk, or cow milk with flour and camphor, then, it was compressed into an iron bar and soaked in snow to freeze.

Around the same time as India in the Mogul Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Akbar who invented ‘Kulfi’ (formerly used ice from the Himalayas) mixed boiled fresh milk, sugar, and scents such as spices, nuts, fruits, and flowers, which were then considered only food for the elite.

Moreover, ice cream is also believed to have been produced since ancient Egypt during the first dynasty in 2890 B.C. by placing a thin clay tray containing water on a bed of straw, which would freeze overnight from evaporation and low temperatures at night.

A few thousand years later, the ancient Greeks added specialty to this delicious dessert by using honey and wine to flavor the ice. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, also gave his patients ice to treat.

About 800 to 900 A.D., the conquest of the Arab Persian Empire produced a similar ice cream called sharbat by mixing vermicelli or noodles with frozen rose water, saffron, and fruit to make a luxurious dessert that the royal family liked. In addition, Arab scientists have also introduced key elements in the ice cream production process by using rock salt and ice to make ice cream set faster.

Although it cannot be proved for sure whether the early ice cream recipes actually arrived in Italy, in the 1600s, communities in Venice, Naples, and Sicily ate ‘sorbetto’, or ice mixed with Arab fruits regularly. In the 1660s, several ice cream puzzles came together. In Naples, Antonio Latini wrote some of the oldest recipes for ‘sorbet’ and milk sorbet. This sorbet was frozen with snow and salt, adding milk, sugar, and sweet pumpkin. Most historians claim this is the closest thing to the first recorded ice cream recipe. 

In the same period, 1666 A.D., a Sicilian chef named Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli opened a Café named Procope with the first sale of ‘gelato’ ice cream. The gelato ice cream developed various scented and flavored ice creams for top-class customers such as Napoleon or even Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, until it entered the United States around 1700 A.D. After that, ice cream became famous all over the world until after the Industrial Revolution in 1916, when various appliances and labor-saving devices were invented, making ice cream easy to access for everyone, and liked by all ages and genders.

In conclusion, if asked whether the origin of ice cream is from China, it may be possible, but it is difficult to 100% to conclude because each country has a different origin. However, there’s no denying that China’s ice cream history has been around for thousands of years, from the elite’s dessert menu to the general menu favored by many people all over the world. It is the history of food that has been passed through many eras.