Easy – Homemade – 3 Ingredient Mango Ice-Cream

We all are receptive of how effortlessly sea water was used to make sea salt through the evaporation technique from millions of years ago. But notwithstanding thats much straightforward compared to the method of making ice. Millions of years ago, it is said that the earth was withstanding the era of the ice age and it continued to stick around for several thousands of years. There are supposedly 5 ice ages being talked about. We are currently living in the ice age appellated the “Quaternary” ice age which is the interglacial age between two consecutive ice ages. All these ages span across several thousands of years.

But historians say that these ice ages never quite impacted the Indian sub continents except the Himalayan ranges and across the nearby Indian states to be precise. Dating back to the 7th century, evaporative cooling methods of using porous clay pots was very much a practiced thing. Buttermilk was reserved frigid in vessels that were placed in pails filled with ice brought from the Himalayas. 

Moving further to the 17th century stories written by Achaya, apparently, an English man recorded the process of how ice was made in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh). Ideally, India had three winter months, when it was quite possible to prepare ice. During the cold Shishir months, there were deep pits that were built in the absence of wind and sound. Boiled water would be then poured in pots and placed in these pits. Ice would be formed overnight and then these went on to be produced in masses, in tons rather, which could be stored for a prolonged use.

Later it is even believed that the Moghuls began transporting these manufactured ice blocks to Delhi. Ice was even being imported from different countries, in the 18th century. Cutting the long story short, there was this man, the American businessman Frederic Tudor, Boston’s “Ice King”, who actually brought ice to India. He had several adjectives to his kitty, a few being an obstinate business man, an ice man, a marketing savvy and a stubborn ice trader who never left a stone unturned to make ice available to the whole world. It turns out that he even churned out a recipe for ice – cream in 1810 in West Indies using milk, cream and fresh fruit juices. .

One would have never imagined that in one of the hottest cities, the Madras, in the year 1874, the International Ice Company began the mass production of ice through the “Steam Process”, after which a similar thing happened in Calcutta. The story of the International Ice Company is vast and a very protracted one, spanning to several decades till 1920, before it shut down after being handled by multipied managements. 

On the other side of the country, the Moghuls invented the Kulfi in Delhi. Achaya says that it could be possible that the recipe was brought from Kabul. Khoa, Zaffrani (Saffron) and Pistachios were cooked and poured into conical moulds which was later frozen using manufactured ice.  

What a beautiful chain of events just bring the humble ice and the ice cream to India. Today, its just cinch and simple to make a lip smacking kulfi / and ice cream using a churner, more cardinally, refrigeration and ice making is just a snap of fingers.

I’ve been pining to assemble an ice – cream recipe from mangoes this season. I couldn’t detain my joy when I scooped out the first blob of ice cream from the frozen bowl of dense mango churned with love. This ice-cream recipe yields more creamier and a heavier dessert than what we customarily obtain from the stores. I love adding powdered nuts and dried fruits to my scoop of iced goodness.