Ice Cream Traditions Around the World

There are few things better than a cold scoop of ice cream on a sunny day. The frozen treat has found fans all across the world, and each nation that adopts it has added a unique spin to the classic dessert. These are just a few of the most popular ice cream varieties enjoyed around the globe. While some of them can be hard to find, others might be for sale just a few blocks away! Will one of them end up being your new favorite summer treat?

Ice Cream’s History

Wherever human beings have had access to fresh snow, they’ve enjoyed pairing it with sweet ingredients such as berries. This early ancestor of ice cream has been coveted for thousands of years. In ancient times, powerful rulers sent runners to nearby mountains to return with snow and ice. The Achaemenid Persians, for example, crushed ice and snow and drizzled fruit syrups over it, a forerunner of sherbet. When Alexander the Great swept though the empire on his conquests, he also found and tried Persian sherbet.

Over time, various civilizations experimented to improve the dessert’s texture and flavor. Ancient China may have been the first location to try mixing in milk, creating a creamy substance similar to modern ice cream. The ice cream widely found today, however, traces its roots to Italy in the 1600s, though it’s possible that Chinese recipes made their way there through the Silk Road.

From there, ice cream spread and evolved with each new culture that embraced it. These are just a few examples of the hundreds of unique and tasty ice cream varieties you can try today.

Thai I Tim Pad

I Tim Pad is also known as stir-fried or rolled ice cream. It’s unique in that, instead of being served by the scoop, each portion is prepared flat and then carefully rolled up. In a process similar to making crepes, a milk-based batter is poured onto a circular metal surface, which is freezing instead of hot. The mixture is then spread thin as it freezes, carefully scraped off, and rolled into a delicious tube. From there, it can be served in a cone or a cup, often with toppings. Like many other entries on this list, stir-fried ice cream soon found fans far from its original home and is now served internationally.

Japanese Mochi Ice Cream

Mochi is a type of Japanese rice cake. It’s a familiar comfort food in Japan with centuries of history behind it, and it usually isn’t served cold. In traditional mochi, steamed sweet rice is ground into a sticky paste and then shaped into a sphere, disc, or other form. Sometimes other flavors, toppings, or fillings are added, and that’s where ice cream enters the picture. Mochi ice cream was invented by Japanese-American businesswoman Frances Hashimoto. The dessert keeps the sweet, sticky outer coating of mochi but pairs it with a refreshing ice cream center.

Turkish Dondurma

Dondurma is another interesting spin on the traditional ice cream formula. It was developed in Turkey with two key extra ingredients: mastic, a type of plant resin, and the ground up bulb of the early purple orchid. These ingredients give dondurma its notorious sticky, stretchy, and melt-resistant properties. This ice cream boasts a consistency more like taffy, allowing it to be pulled and manipulated. This had made it a popular item for street vendors, who dish out their delicious confection with a few added laughs.

Indian Kulfi

Kulfi is often called the traditional ice cream of India, but it’s actually prepared differently than a standard ice cream blend. Instead, it’s made more like the Latin American recipe dulce de leche; sweetened, condensed milk is gradually reduced over low heat, allowing it to slightly caramelize. The milk and any extra flavorings are then poured into a mold, quickly frozen, and served. The end result is a sweet, buttery smooth, almost custard-like dessert that has won hearts and minds in many nations.

Filipino Sorbetes

Another favorite of street vendors, sorbetes is a type of ice cream native to the Philippines. It employs traditional Filipino ingredients, such as carabao or coconut milk and cassava flour. In addition, the ice cream may be flavored with Filipino produce, including mango and ube, a type of yam that produces a vivid and distinctive purple color.

Italian Gelato

Gelato is the classic Italian ice cream, a rich, dense, and history-laden favorite sold around the globe. The best known inventor of gelato, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, hailed from Sicily in the 1600s. He introduced modern ice cream to Paris through a successful café and, from there, the world couldn’t get enough.

Gelato is made from the base ingredients of sugar, whole milk, heavy cream, and sometimes eggs. The mixture is then whipped slowly to prevent too much air getting in. Many different flavors can then be added in, ranging from vanilla to pistachio to mango. The end result is a dense, silky, and flavor-packed delight.

American Soft-Serve

The USA is home to a dizzying variety of ice cream treats, from frozen yogurts and custards to root beer floats and Dippin’ Dots. But perhaps its greatest contribution to the world of ice cream is soft serve. Created in the 1930s, soft serve gets it characteristic creaminess by injecting air into the mix as it freezes. It needs a special machine to make, and so soft serve is almost never eaten at home. Instead, it’s a staple of fairs, festivals, fast food restaurants, and other summertime destinations.

German Spaghettieis

Possibly the strangest entry on this list, spaghettieis is no noodle dish. Instead, the German novelty consists of ice cream noodles slathered not in tomatoes but strawberry sauce, all topped with almond or coconut flakes. Originally served in Mannheim, Germany in the 1960s, spaghettieis spread to the rest of the nation and, from there, has received international attention.

Ecuadorian Helado de Paila

Helado de Paila is an Ecuadorian specialty that combines ice, fruit juices, sugar, and sometimes milk. Recipes for helado de paila are often passed down through families, so each version is a little different. But the common factor is the paila, a large bronze or copper bowl in which the ingredients are mixed over ice. Through constant stirring, they eventually combine and freeze into a creamy sorbet-like mixture. If you’re ever lucky enough to visit Ecuador or one of its neighboring countries, be sure to track down some helado de paila yourself!

TOTA

Sweets of the World

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