By The Landlord
“Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.” – Don Kardong
“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.” – Ernestine Ulmer
“Ice cream is happiness condensed.” – Jessi Lane Adams
“I eat ice cream. It's better than booze.” – Del Shannon
“It was quite a challenge to make people eat crab ice cream.” – Heston Blumenthal
“My father's family were Italian ice cream men, and the knowledge was passed on, so I ran an ice cream van while I was dating my wife.” – Chris Rea
“I'm trying to write books that taste like ice cream but have the nutrition of vegetables.” – Dan Brown
“I've been wanting an ice cream truck forever.” – Ry Cooder
“When I'm no longer rapping, I want to open up an ice cream parlor and call myself Scoop Dogg.” – Snoop Dogg
“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” – Roberto Benigni, Tom Waits and John Lurie, Down By Law (1986)
Pistachio, almond and lemon, anyone? Celeriac-miso and buttered pecan? Earl grey tea, vanilla bean, with sweetened condensed milk (aka "London fog")? Dark chocolate with paprika and agave? Sage and pomegranate? Cumin and mango? Rooibos and imphepho smoke? Pink peppercorn and sake? Blue cheese with pomegranate ripple? Or how about ... er ... tomato?
This week then, with hot weather certainly an ongoing thing all around the world, who isn't tempted by the occasional ice cream or sorbet, with vegan options (especially chocolate) coming in all sorts of forms from the dollop on a cone to the tub, the lolly to the fancy dessert or even spaghetti eis? Ice cream flavours seem a little bit like notes and chords and sounds and melodies, mixed together in the right combination take you to new places, but there’s also many associations with the stuff, from relationships to crime and wider culture. And it also comes with many great, flavoursome names.
So, fancy a Twister by the pool? Shall we Häagan Dance? How about a Fab, a Feast, a Solero, Cornetto, Calippo, Magnum, Vanilla Sandwich, Choc Ice, some Ice Pops, Fruit Splits, Freckles, Funny Faces, or Funny Feet, a Freak Out, Orange Maid, Red Devil, Jubbly, Nobbly Bobbly, Chilly Willy or Wibbly Wobbly Wonder? That might summon up some memories.
And when was a 99 with flake 99p or 99c or even cheaper? Can you still get a Screwball with bubble gum at the bottom? Anyone remember super sweet Lord Toffingham, the Mini Milk, or the past's pointy fingered That-A-Way, or the rocket-shaped trip to a sweet heavenly Zoom or Booster? I could go on, with a kaleidoscope of flavours, shapes, and colours from the present and past, and even a mention of a personal childhood favourite - the Fiz Wizz, which contained an interior line of space dust having riotous candy-popping party right on the tongue.
Here's an even older, pre-decimalisation board:
So then, with ice cream week, and songs about this subject, whether using it as a primary lyrical or titular flavour, or prominently in passing, all are served up in our parlour cabin to sample and enjoy. Those brand names also offer a colourful hook in lyrics. But more importantly the context of ice cream-related songs may be as varied as flavours in the literal or metaphorical, from melting of hearts or heartbreak in relationships, shapes, and places, moods or momentary pleasures, disappearing dads, the mysterious or sinister van seller, to the wider used of said vehicle, and the infamous ice cream turf wars in the East End of Glasgow in the 1980s.
Ice-cream vans serve up all sorts of associations
Glasgow’s infamous ice cream wars
Or, with the Scottish connection, where ice cream is more literally a a big thing with a history of Italian immigration particularly into Glasgow, where there are beautiful gelato parlours (see also the one in Largs on the west coast), but stretching far further into history, how about William Boyd's darkly comic An Ice-Cream War (1982), which focuses far away in the context of the East African Campaign fought between British and German forces during the First World War, with a title arising from a quotation in a letter: “Lt Col Stordy says that the war here will only last two months. It is far too hot for sustained fighting, he says, we will all melt like ice-cream in the sun!”
Ice cream therefore has associations of leisure and pleasure, but of course it's the contrast with sourer realities that can be particularly stark and strong of flavour. What associations, for example do ice-cream man, van, girl, or indeed Mr Whippy have for you?
Talking of which, in my childhood there was a fabulous variety of brand and name types, cleverly designed by mainstream makes such as likes of Wall's to excite us kids with colourful displays on the side of vans and in shop boards, mixing up all your standard flavours from chocolate to vanilla to strawberry, but not the huge range of flavours, herbs, spices, mixes and specialists there are today. After all, Neopolitan or raspberry ripple were once deemed very fancy indeed.
So this eccentric1970s sketch by the Two Ronnies, especially showing a classic feat of memory by chief writer Ronnie Barker, had more novelty then than it does now:
But ice cream and all sorts of flavourings have been around a very long time. The very idea was possibly conceived in Persia in 500 BC, the Ancient Romans concocted recipes for sweet desserts sprinkled with snow, the 16th-century Mughal Empire, now part of India created kulfi, while Japanese indulged in Kakigōri made of ice and flavoured syrup. It's an indulgence that's as been around as long as civilisations in varying climates. Marco Polo is thought to have brought sorbet creations to Italy from his travels to China, and similar indulgences slipped down Parisian's throats in the 17th century.
The first known recording of the combined word ice-cream occurred in England in 1671, a plate of it described to be exclusively placed in front of Charles II at a Feast of St George at Windsor. And the first known recipe in English was published in Mrs. Mary Eales's Receipts, a book dedicated to confectionery, in London in 1718 describing a process of cream in pots, mixed with ice, bay-salts and then a choice of fruit such as raspberries, currants, strawberries, or cherries.
Salted ice cream, at least as part of a preservative element, is nothing new then. A 1751 edition of The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse includes a recipe for ice cream: which also included ...set it [the cream] into the larger Bason. Fill it with Ice, and a Handful of Salt." Hmm, salty and sweet flavours eh? Fat and sugar mixed together? It'll never catch on ...
Les Glaces: a French depiction of ladies enjoying the new fad in 1801
Then there was England's Agnes Marshall the so-called "queen of ices" who did much to popularise ice cream recipes and make its consumption into a fashionable middle-class pursuit. She wrote four books: The Book of Ices (1885), Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Book of Cookery (1888), Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes (1891) and Fancy Ices (1894) and gave public lectures on cooking. She even suggested using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream and was among the first to mention the ice-cream cone. Her recipe for "Cornet with Cream" said that "the cornets were made with almonds and baked in the oven, not pressed between irons".
Ice cream was spreading around the world from America to Australia, Finland to the Philippines, with ice-cream soda to Ben & Jerry, and today is one of those things in life that feels like both luxury as well as common treat, but some servings, such as this in Vietnam and elsewhere, might be deemed a little over the top:
How big or full of variety do you want yours, and what does it all mean? For final call out and inspiration, let’s enjoy those three great characters from Jim Jarmusch's fabulously strange prison-break movie:
So then, it's time for your orders and servings. Who’s tempted to run the van? It’s driven and served by the excellent EnglishOutlaw. Over to you then, with flavours and styles all a-scoop. Nominations in the ice-box below close at 11pm UK time on Monday for playlists published next week. Cool.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Fancy a turn behind the pumps at The Song Bar? Care to choose a playlist from songs nominated and write something about it? Then feel free to contact The Song Bar here, or try the usual email address. Also please follow us social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube, and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share.
Song Bar is non-profit and is simply about sharing great music. We don’t do clickbait or advertisements. Please make any donation to help keep the Bar running: