THE HISTORY OF ICE CREAM

Italian Immigration From Ciociaria And Ice Cream.
A quick look at the census returns for 1901 reveals that many of the new immigrants into the UK at that time did not have any sophisticated skills.
Many were poor peasant farmers from middle Italy scratching a living by caring for Goats Sheep or Cattle on the middle and upper slopes of the Mountain ranges.
Poverty could then be gauged by how high up the mountain you lived.
It was said within my Family, that the higher up the Mountain you came from before immigrating the greater the success you would be when you got to the Promised Land.

We only need to look at Lord Forte’s Success to believe this.

Although the earlier immigrants across Great Britain and especially in the north or the midlands worked at a variety of jobs, latter day settlers seemed to gravitate towards Catering and Ice Cream in particular.  GO TO THE CENSUS PAGE AND ENTER FORTE SEARCH, AND YOU WILL SEE THAT THEY WERE THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY WITH A LARGE VARIETY OF TRADES, NOT JUST CATERING.

  Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago, Charles I of England hosted a sumptuous state banquet for many of his friends and family. The meal, consisting of many delicacies of the day, had been simply superb but the "coup de grace" was yet to come. After much preparation, the King's French chef had concocted an apparently new dish. It was cold and resembled fresh- fallen snow but was much creamier and sweeter than any other after- dinner dessert. The guests were delighted, as was Charles, who summoned the cook and asked him not to divulge the recipe for his frozen cream. The King wanted the delicacy to be served only at the Royal table and offered the cook 500 pounds a year to keep it that way. Sometime later, however, poor Charles fell into disfavour with his people and was beheaded in 1649. But by that time, the secret of the frozen cream remained a secret no more. The cook, named DeMirco, had not kept his promise.

EVOLUTION
This story is just one of many of the fascinating tales which surround the evolution of our country's most popular dessert, ice cream. It is likely that ice cream was not invented, but rather came to be over years of similar efforts. Indeed, the Roman Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar is said to have sent slaves to the mountains to bring snow and ice to cool and freeze the fruit drinks he was so fond of. Centuries later, the Italian Marco Polo returned from his famous journey to the Far East with a recipe for making water ices resembling modern day Sorbets and sherbets. 

 

In England, the first recorded serving of this rare luxury was in 1672, to King Charles II, whose table at a banquet was served a delight denied to those sitting at more humble tables. The first English cookery book to give a recipe was Mrs Mary Eales Receipts of 1718. The recipe did not include a process for making the ice smooth and it must have been coarse with ice crystals. Ice being rare, ice cream was a luxury for the well off in all countries and had to be made and served immediately, there being no way to store it for any great time.

CIOCIARIA-FROSINONE-COMMUNE DI CASALATTICO
As economic conditions grew worse in Italy the trickle of immigrants became a flood by the 1880s. The first to arrive in the United Kingdom  were immigrants from the Ciociaria district.  Recruited by agents working for “Padrone” or “Ladrone” in London, Scotland, and the westcountry, Italians were brought to Britain as cheap labour. Many were sent North to Scotland where they were then given a barrow and became 'Hokey Pokey' men.

It was the Ciociari who laid the foundations for what was later to become a flourishing ice-cream industry. The necessity to earn more than could be put together by begging, slowly transformed them from itinerant musicians into itinerant ice-cream salesmen.   In the summer they would push their ice-cream carts to the gates of the main public parks and do business there. In under 50 years, from 1870 to 1920, with great courage and initiative, they graduated from rudimentary shops in the slum quarters to more luxurious establishments in the city centres, with lots of mirrors on the walls, wooden partitions and leather-covered seats.  Later immigrants came mainly from two areas of Italy - Lucca and Frosinone in the Abruzzi.  the ice-cream trade did provide a living, though only just. The problems of language and work conditions were aggravated by loneliness as the first waves of immigrants were mainly men hoping to return to Italy or make enough to send for their wives or fiancés. Necessity made the immigrants persevere and, of course, the desire to return home as a landowner. For most of them, the most important thing in life was to achieve some kind of economic independence and be able to go back to Italy as quickly as possible. In the years immediately following the first world war  representing the first step on the ladder of success was the ownership of a small shop which, in turn, could lead to the ownership of a piece of land in one of the villages at home.

ANGELO MORELLI

Eventually, as more of the immigrants began to move into the shop trade ice cream barrows began to vanish. In the shops the Italians specialised in ice cream in the summer and, in winter, hot peas and vinegar. These shops were often part of chains that would be sold off to employees who could prove their ability to make a profit. Eventually many turned to Fish and Chips as a way of earning a living.

Il Padrone began to take on the more able and alert among the assistants and apprentices as full-fledged partners, on an equal basis, in the running of these new concerns. 
The owners would supply the premises with all the necessary furniture and equipment plus the usual stocks of cigarettes, chocolates, soft drinks, milk and sugar which were all purchased in bulk at discounted prices.
The working partner would provide the labour and accept full responsibility for the efficient running of the business, the profits being shared equally between them.  In Britain a new large workforce were seeking new entertainments - cinemas were opening, music-halls and dance-halls flourished.
 Italians had introduced the “GELATI”  idea to Britain by 1850 at the latest, when Carlo Gatti was peddling ice cream to Londoners from a painted cart. He was so successful that he and others brought many more Italians over to join them.

My Aunty Giovanna Morelli selling Ice Cream at the top of South Street Exeter in one of our FORTE'S static ice cream kiosks around 1950.

These immigrants were grossly exploited labour, often lodged in poor conditions and paid little; during the winter they often worked as hurdy-gurdy men. Every morning in summer they cranked and froze the ice cream mix they had made the previous night, and went their rounds in London, Glasgow, Manchester, and other growing industrial cities crying, 'Gelati, ecco un poco!' It is thought to be because of their cry that ice-cream vendors were called 'hokey pokey men' and the ice cream they sold 'hokey pokey', a term which became common also in America. , the number of ice cream vendors called Hokey-Pokey Men, exploded in the large cities. The term "Hokey Pokey"  presumably evolved from the Italian cry that the Italian vendors hawked their cheap ice cream, although what this originally was is not known. There have been several suggestions: a corruption of "Ecce, Ecce" Ecco, Ecco (here) (Look, Look); a derivation of "Hocus Pocus;" a corruption of "Ecco un poco" (Italian for Here’s a little), the Italian "O'che poco" (Oh how little) - the last one being a reference to price, rather than the quantity, which gives it the most plausibility. Hokey-pokey actually referred to cheap ice cream or ice milk. In general, they sold delicious ice cream, even though their standards of sanitation were quite low. On a hot summer day in the city, there were swarms of children surrounding the ice cream vendors. Following is the catchy, nonsense phrase that was popular with the street vendors or Hokey-pokey men:

"Hokey-pokey, pokey ho. Hokey-pokey, a penny a lump.

Hokey-pokey, find a cake; hokey-pokey on the lake.

Here's the stuff to make your jump;

Hokey-pokey, penny a lump.

Hokey-pokey, sweet and cold;

For a penny, new or old."

The second half of the nineteenth century was the period in which ice cream became a treat for ordinary people.
Italy continued to lead Europe in ice cremery and immigrants to the UK from there brought with them a tradition and expertise which led to  other countries too, especially the United States, where ice cream gained popularity. The commercial harvesting of ice in cold climates and its transport to population centres was a growth area from the earl nineteenth century. This ice trade made large volumes of ice available at a realistic price and it became possible for ice cream sellers to offer a taste of ice cream to the ordinary person. Ice was sold on glasses which were wiped clean and re-used. These glass "licks" remained in use in London until they were made illegal in 1926 for  reasons of public health.

Ice cream edible cones were first documented by Mrs Agnes Marshall in her book Fancy Ices of 1894.   
Most books are full of myths about the history of ice cream. According to popular accounts,

Marco Polo (1254-1324) saw ice creams being made during his trip to China, and on his return, introduced them to Italy. The myth continues with the Italian chefs of the young- 

Catherine de'Medici taking this magical dish to France when she went there in 1533 to marry the Duc d'Orleans, with Charles I rewarding his own ice-cream maker with a lifetime pension on condition that he did not divulge his secret recipe to anyone, thereby keeping ice cream as a royal perogative.  Unfortunately, there is no historical evidence to support any of these stories. They would appear to be purely the creation of imaginative nineteenth-century ice-cream makers and vendors. Indeed, we have found no mention of any of these stories before the nineteenth century.

ANGELO FORTE AGED 20, SELLING ICE CREAM IN A PARK IN EXETER ABOUT 1920

The first improvement in the manufacture of ice cream (from the handmade way in a large bowl) was given to us by a New Jersey woman,

Nancy Johnson, who in 1846 invented the hand-cranked freezer. This device is still familiar to many. By turning the freezer handle, they agitated a container of ice cream mix in a bed of salt and ice until the mix was frozen. Because Nancy Johnson lacked the foresight to have her invention patented, her name does not appear on the patent records. A similar type of freezer was, however, patented on May 30, 1848, by a Mr. Young who at least had the courtesy to call it the "Johnson Patent Ice Cream Freezer".  another version of this is as follows..........

In 1843, New England housewife Nancy Johnson invented the hand-cranked ice cream churn. She patented her invention but lacked the resources to make and market the churn herself. Mrs. Johnson sold the patent for $200 to a Philadelphia kitchen wholesaler who, by 1847, made enough freezers to satisfy the high demand. From 1847 to 1877, more than 70 improvements to ice cream churns were patented.

modern ice cream makers for shop use.

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