Create Your Own Victorian-style ice cream
Frozen desserts were made since at least Roman times, by adding sugar and fruit to ice or snow. However, it took much longer for people to work out how to freeze cream. Whilst water freezes at zero degrees centigrade, cream freezes at minus three. To make it freeze, ice needs the addition of salt. By late Victorian times, ice cream had become a luxurious treat.
Video – Learn how to create your own Victorian-style ice cream, using ice and salt to cool your cream
Watch The Video With Subtitles
Discover more about the history of Victorian ice cream on this site – find out how the wealthier classes were eating it or learn more about ice cream for the masses.
Ice cream for the wealthy
Ice cream for the masses
Making your own ice cream
When you first make ice cream, it’s easier to start with a very small amount. On the video, we placed a bowl of cream inside a larger bowl of salty ice water. We’d recommend that you try this activity by placing a small sealed plastic bag containing cream inside a larger sealed plastic bag containing ice and lots of salt.
You will need:
- 2 plastic bags that you can seal (one large and one small)
- Some slightly crushed ice and lots of salt, mixed together – put this in the large bag
- Cream, sugar, plus any flavourings (we used vanilla) – put some of this in the small bag (make sure there’s space for it to move around)
Put the small sealed bag (with the cream mixture ) inside the large sealed bag (with the salty crushed ice) and very gently shake or agitate the smaller bag inside the large one – take care not to burst either bag. Remove the small bag once the cream has frozen, rinse the salt off and open to enjoy your ice cream.
