Rédey Judit: Hideg nyalat és spanyol tekercs. A fagylalt, a jégkrém és a parfé története (Budapest, 2007)

Néró császár szobra Bust of Nero, Emperor of Rome Hindu Kush Mountains, and the result was a truly stimulating cold dessert, which helped Alexander to literally conquer the city. Snow was kept in underground pits covered with foliage in ancient Rome too. When the reserves run out, couriers running in relay carried some natural ice down from the mountains in leather sacs bundled in furs. The Emperors Nero and Heliogabalus were both fond of icy treats. Romans sweetened fruit juice not only with honey: they also added spices - contemporary writers mentioned violets, cinnamon, coriander and rose water. These cooled sweets could resemble today's snow cones and sorbet. Not only drinks were cooled with snow and ice, but foods also. Emperor Varms Avarus already thought of air conditioning: he had piles of snow heaped up in the garden ol his villa to provide pleasant surroundings to himself and his guests in summertime. Eating habits changed after the great empires of antiquity fell, in the Early Middle Ages and during the time of the Great Migration. The network of roads built earlier fell into abandonment and decay, while the paths leading to the mountains were no longer safe due to frequent highway robbery. Therefore history has no record of frozen delicacies for a long time. The great turning point in the history of ice cream took place when a confectioner of the city of Catania had an inventive idea in the 1500's. Instead of adding ice and snow directly to the raw materials, as it was done before, his idea was to use them merely as a device for cooling. The principle was simple: place the raw materials into a receptacle, which was then put into the ice, and rotate the receptacle slowly until the mass in it becomes frozen. Basically, ice cream is made this way even today. His idea, worthy of a genius, however, failed to spread quickly enough, and the custom of mixing snow or ice directly into the food or drink to be chilled lives up to this day - think about drinks cooled by ice cubes. Catherine de Medici was famed to be extremely fond of special foods, and especially of sweets. Having been endowed by Nature with an extremely thin, fragile earthly frame (which was not considered an advantage for a lady of her time), she could well afford to pay homage to the joys of gastronomy without guilt. Her wedding to the Duc d'Orléans (later Henry II of France) in 1533 was an event widely celebrated. Catherine is said to have brought with her the famous Italian maestro Buontalenti to Paris, who made sherbets, ice creams and cooled drinks. Ice creams made with oranges, raspberries and lemons were served at her wedding feast. In 1598, during the reign of Henry III, the French Court in Paris used snow for cooling. A court ordinance stipulated that an appropriate amount of snow should be provided each year. Ice or snow was served to the King for each meal on a separate plate. In accordance with court etiquette, the Royalty himself was exclusively allowed to mix the snow into his drink. At first, this custom was though as too effeminate at the Court,