Italian ice, granita, sorbet & sherbet

Italian ice, granita, sorbet & sherbet 

Italian water ice (also known as granita and sorbetto) has a long and ancient history:
"The Greeks and Romans employed lumps of Etna's snow to chill their wine; the Arabs used it instead to chill their sarbat. The Italian word sorbetto and the English sherbert come from these sweet fruit syrups that the Arabs once drank diluted with ice water. The passage from sarbat and water, chilled in a container of ice, to granita was only a question of time, perhaps the chance invention of a housewife distracted by a passing vendor or a crying child. Sicilians always claim an Arabic origin for their ices, although in her book on Middle Eastern food Claudia Roden cites neither an Arabic name nor a Levantine history for the granita recipes she gives. In any case, whether it was in Damascus or in Catania that the sarbat stayed too long on ice, Sicily is the home of ices as far as the Western world is concerned, and Araby their inspiration. The flavors most common to the western part of Sicily are those that by now are most famous elsewhere in Italy and in America as well, lemon and coffee..."
---Pomp and Sustenance:Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food, Mary Taylor Simeti [Ecco Press:Hopewell NJ] 1989 (p. 283-4)
"For thousands of years people saved ice to satisfy their desire for cool drinks. The earliest icehouses existed in Mesopotamia, beside the Euphrates River, about 4,000 years ago. The rich used the ice in these puts to cool their wines. Alexander the Great dug pits and filled them with snow so that his army could have cool wine in the summer. Roman emperors had ice brought from the mountains, and the kings of Egypt had snow shipped to them from Lebanon...Easterners, especially in the Turkish Empire, frequently consumed iced fruit drinks, and the people of Greece sold snow in the markets of Athens from as early as the fifth century BC. Today's sherberts and wine coolers likely originated with the wine-flavored ices consumed by early peoples, and today's snow cones likely originated with the ices made long ago form real snow mixed with honey and fruit."
---Nectar and Ambrosia:An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews [ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara] 2000 (p. 121)
"Water ices seem to have come into being, in Europe, at about the same time in the second half of the 17th century as ice cream. The same technique is used for both products...It has been suggested that ices (whether water ices or ice cream) were made much earlier in China. This seems not impossible, and would be difficult to disprove. However, the further idea that they were introduced to Europe by Marco Polo, returning to Venice from China in the 13th century, is unsupported and is best counted as a piece of culinary mythology...As for precedence in Europe...no one can say whether true water ices were first prepared in Italy of France or Spain. Whatever the point of origin, their use spread quickly between the more sophisticated cities of Europe, although there is no sure evidence of then they first crossed the Channel to London...Water ices may be served as a stand-alone refreshment, as a dessert, or as a means of refreshing the palate about halfway through a meal of many courses...Italian sorbetto, and Spanish sorbete, belong to the sherbet group. Antoher Italian term, granita, refers to a water ice with a more granular texture than the standard kind."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 838)
Sherbet & sorbet
Essentially, sherbet and sorbet are similar products. Recipes evolved through the years. In England, the word sherbet also came to denote a powdered fizzy candy. In the USA the term 'sherbet' is commonly used for 'sorbet', except for in fine restaurants. About the words:
"English acquired the word sherbet via Turkish or Persian serbet from Arabic shabah, 'beverage, drink', and at first (in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) it was used, logically enough, for a Middle Eastern drink--specifically a cooling drink made from water, fruit juice, and sugar or honey, and often chilled with snow. Then in the nineteenth century and effervescent white powder was devised, composed of bicarbonate of sida, tartaric acid, sugar, and various flavourings, with which to make fizzy drinks that supposedly resembled the original Oriental sherbet. Children quickly discovered that it was if anything nicer to eat the sherbet powder than to make drinks with it, and so were born the sherbet dabs and sherbet fountains of yesteryear (the former was a lollipop that could be dipped into a bag of sherbet, the latter a cylindrical packet of sherbet with ta liquorice straw for sucking it up). Sherbet is closely related etymolocially to shrub (the dirnk), sorbet (in American English sherbet is often used for 'sorbet'), and syrup."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxcford] 2002 (p. 309-310)
"A sherbet, basically and historically, is a cold, sweetened, non-alcoholic drink, usually based on a fruit juice. The earliest recorded word for it seems to be sharab, the classical Arab term from a sweetened drink. However, in the late Middle Ages this word developed its current Arabic sense...The later Arabic word sharbat also entered European languages. In the late 16th century it appeared in Italian as the name of a beverage drunk in Turkey. Then the beverage itself entered Italian cuisine, under the name sorbetto. It took this form because the Italians assimiliated it into their verb sorbire, meaning to sip. The Italian sorbetto gave rise to the French sorbet, the Spanish sorbete, etc. All these words begin with 's' not with 'sh'. English seems to be the only language which took the word sherbet directly from the Turkish, complete with its 'h'...Acccording to the dictionary compiled by Fortiere in the late 17th cnetury, a sorbet in France at that time was also a drink, of sugar and lemon pulp. Diderot's great encyclopedia of the 1750s suggests that it remained so during the 18th century. During the 19th century...a sorbet could be either a drink or a sort of ice more suitable for drinking than eating, and in the latter case had an alcoholic content."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson, 2nd edition edited by Tom Jaine [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2006 (p. 717)
"Sorbet. A type of water ice that is softer and more granular than ice cream as it does not contain any fat or egg yolk. The basic ingredient of a sorbet is fruit juice or puree, wine, spirit or liqueur, or an infusion (tea or mint). A sugar syrup, sometimes with additional glucose or one or two invert sugars is added. The mixture should not be beaten during freezing. When it has set, some Italian meringue can be added to give it volume. Historically, sorbets were the first iced desserts (ice creams did not appear until ith 18th century). The Chinese introduced them to the Persians and Arabs who introduced them to the Italians. The word sorbet is a gallicazation of the Italian sorbetto, derived from Turkish chobet and Arab charah, which simply meant drink. Sorbets were originally made of fruit, honey, aromatic substances and snow. Today, the sorbet is served as a dessert or as a refreshment between courses; at large formal dinners in France, sorbets with an alcoholic base are served between the main courses, taking the place of the liqueur...formerly served in the middle of the meal..."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 1108)
Sorbet today? Notes from the National Restaurant Association:
Would like to see 19th century recipes and/or try making your own water ice? Ask your librarian to help you find this book: Victorian Ices & Ice Cream: 117 delicious and unusual recipes updated for the modern kitchen. This facsimile cookbook was reprinted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art & Charles Scribner's Sons in 1976. The original book was titled The Book of Ices, A.B. Marshall, London, 1885.
Related foods? Italian ice & granita.

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Malted milk & milk shakes

Did you know that malteds, milk shakes and other soda fountain treats were originally concocted as health foods? The history of malted milk and milk shakes are interesting and interconnected:
"Malted milk...Originally created in 1887 as an easily digested infant's food made from an extract of wheat and malted barley combined with milk and made into a powder called "diastoid" by James and William Horlick of Racine, Wisconsin, this item, under the name "Horlick's Malted Milk," was featured by the Walgreen drugstore chain as part of a chocolate milk shake, which itself became known as a "malted" and became one of the most popular soda-fountain drinks."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 196-197)
"Malted milk was a trade name registered by William Horlick of Racine, Wisconsin. Horlick supposedly coined the name "malted milk," but his formula resembled one already being marketed in England. He promoted his mixture of dried milk extracts of malted barley and wheat as a food supplement for infants and invalids. As such, it was widely availalbe in drugstores, both as as powder and as a tablet. Enterprising druggists soon discovered that they could use powdered malted milk to make a cheap syurp to flavor drinks. When ice cream was added, a malted was both tasty and filling, since the dried milk and the ice cream had a high fat content. Druggists promoted the drink as a complete meal and charged a premium price. Horlick's malted milk was the first in the United States but it was widely imitated by other manufacturers, including Carnation and Borden's. Although Horlick protested that thes other companies were infringing on his rights, his competitors cited legal precedents in their favor. Horlick persuaded some state associations of drugstore owners to boycott his rivals' products, and there was much animosity among the malted milk manufacturers....Malted milk sold steadily for decades than then became a fad in the 1920s, largely due to an electric blender invented by Fred Osius. Osius, who lived in Racine, prefected a mixer that blended a smooth, thick drink. At first, he tried to interest Horlick in his invention, but the malted milk magnate ridiculed him. In 1910, Osseus made a trip to New York City, tring to find investors but was unsuccessful and ran out of money. In order to pay his way back to Wisconsin, he persuaded the owner of the Caswell-Massey store on Broadway to take a blender as collateral for a loan. This blender was a big hit with Caswell-Massey's customers, who were fascinated by the way it worked. The sales manager for a leading manufacturer of milk products saw this blender at Caswell-Massey and immediately grasped its potentia. Subsequently, his company arranged to buy blenders from Ossius and give them to soda fountain operators who bought 100 pounds of its malted milk. Bulk malted milk sales increased from less than one million pounds annually in 1910 to more than 35 million in 1926. The drinks were so popular that several chains of malted milk shops sprang up on the West Coast in the 1920s."
---Sundae Best: A History of Soda Fountains, Anne Cooper Funderburg [Bowling Greeen State University Popular Press:Bowling Green, OH] 2002 (p. 50-51)
[Fred Osius' patent #D104,289, granted April 27, 1937, here. NOTE: Osius is not credited for inventing the first blender. That honor belongs to Stephen J. Poplawski in 1922. About blenders.]
"1883...English-American inventor William Horlick, 37, produces the first "malted milk" (he will coin the phrase in 1886) at Racine, Wis. He has combined dried whole milk with extract of wheat and malted barley in powder and tablet form, and his "diastoid" is the first dried whole milk that will keep...."
---The Food Chronology, James L.Trager [Henry Holt:New York] 1995 (p. 317)
What about milk shakes?
"Milk shake...When the term first appeared in print in 1885, milk shakes may have contained whiskey of some kind, but by the turn of the century they were considered wholesome drinks made with chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla syrups. In different parts of the country they went by different names...A "malted" is made with malted milk powder-invented in 1887 by William Horlick of Racine Wisconsin, and made from dried milk, malted barley, and wheat flour-promoted at first as a drink for invalids and children. By the 1930s a malt shop' was a soda fountain not attached to a pharmacy."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 206)
"Milk shake also appeared in the late 1880s, but the term then usually meant a sturdy, healthful eggnog type of drink, with eggs, whiskey, etc., served as a tonic as well as a treat. Since malted milk was also considered a tonic, the combined malted milk shake was a logical step and in the early 1900s people were asking for the new treat, often with ice cream, and before 1910 were using the shorter terms shake and malt (the longer word malted being somewhat more common in the Eastern states). Malt shop was a term of the late 1930s, usually being a typical soda fountain of the period, especially one used by students as a meeting place or hangout."
---Listening to America, Stuart Berg Flexner [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1982 (p. 178)
"It is not known exactly when milkshakes were introduced at soda fountains, but they were popular by the mid-1880s. Tufts patented his Lightning Shaker for mixing milkshakes in 1884, and trade publications printed numerous ads for shakers in the 1890s. These handcrafted machines agitated glasses filled with liquid, producing smooth, thick drinks...Tufts' 1890 trade catalog said that the milkshake "has sprung into great popularity in the South in a surprisingly short time...It can be made of any flaor, but vanilla and chocolate are the most desirable flavors. This catalog included a milkshake recipe, which instructed the dispenser to fill a tumbler half-full of shaved ice, add 1.5 ounces of syrup, finish filling the glass with milk, and shake well. For a little extra punch, the recipe said to add port wine. In order to make a richer shake, upscale fountains used a combination of heavy cream or ice cream and milk. While most milkshakes sold for a nickel, these creamier shakes cost 10 to 15 cents. Saxe's New Guide, or Hints to Soda Dispensers warned against giving the customer a wide choice of milkshake flavors because it slowed down service while the dispenser waited for the patron to decide."
---Sundae Best: A History of Soda Fountains, Anne Cooper Funderburg [Bowling Greeen State University Popular Press:Bowling Green, OH] 2002 (p. 51-52)
If you need additional information on the history of soda fountains ask your librarian to help you find this book:
The Great American Ice Cream Book, Paul Dickson
& check.