Tea at Trianon: The Pioneer of Modern Ice Cream

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, September 3, 2020

The Pioneer of Modern Ice Cream

From The Hustle:

You might think we’re living in a golden age of ice cream innovation. In plenty of US cities, you don’t have to look hard to find made-for-Instagram flavors like charcoal or Thai tea. Concoctions like liquid nitrogen ice cream blanket the internet. But Agnes B. Marshall, a 19th-century culinary entrepreneur, probably would have found our ice cream options quaint. Marshall was a chef, cookbook author, and business owner — but she was also an inventor who brought a new level of whimsy to a dessert that, until her arrival, was a treat largely reserved for the upper class.

Marshall mixed spices, meats, custards, and vegetables into her ice creams. Instead of scooping the desert into a bowl, she froze it in fanciful, self-designed casts in the shape of rabbits, melons, and cucumbers. Food historians have traced a direct line between Marshall and modern staples like edible ice cream cones, liquid nitrogen ice cream, and homemade ice cream makers. Some historians have nicknamed her the “Queen of Ices.” And although she’s largely forgotten, she might be more responsible than anyone for the look and the popularity of today’s ice cream. (Read more.)