Think of this badass next time you eat an ice cream
This may be news to some younger readers, but if you think freakshakes and hipster ice cream were invented purely and simply to rack up likes on Instagram, you’re mistaken. One of the pioneers of crazy ice cream flavors? This woman, almost one hundred and seventy years ago… (no, not me).
Have you also been eating ice cream like there’s no tomorrow these days? Or do you eat an ice cream every single day anyway, regardless of the outside temperature, like our fearless Adeline, who is crazy about popsicles? And do you also like to indulge in amazing creations à la Planet Earth ice cream or even crazier ones – and all the flavors our fantastic Dutch ice cream makers have in their range for you? Then think of this remarkable woman, to whom we probably owe a great deal:
Agnes B. Marshall
Agnes B. Marshall was a nineteenth-century culinary entrepreneur, chef, cookbook author and inventor. She was a pioneer who considered nothing too crazy, and she also helped make ice cream accessible to people who were not part of the highest social class in England at the time. Food historians have found links between her and the cones we serve ice cream in today, the (home) ice cream machine, and the liquid-nitrogen ice cream that modern ice cream makers experiment with nowadays.
Quite the entrepreneur
It is not entirely clear where Agnes received her culinary training, but her husband, successful engineer Alfred Marshall, once told a newspaper in Chicago that she had trained in Paris and Vienna under celebrated chefs. Once back home, she set up her own culinary institute and enthusiastically experimented away.
Nothing too crazy
Because if HEMA hot dog ice cream already sounds, well, highly creative to you, what do you make of Agnes’s ‘Foie Gras à la Caneton’ – a mixture of cayenne pepper, jelly, foie gras and frozen egg, all pressed into the shape of a duck?! Or ice cream made with spinach, cucumber or fish curry? Culinary historian Sarah Lohman called her creations “genius, bordering on deranged.”
Eating ice cream as a tribute
These days, few people know about Agnes B. Marshall’s existence. But she made a significant contribution to the culinary world in an emancipated way, and to honor her, an ice cream shop in St. Louis named itself ‘Ices Plain & Fancy’ as a reference to Marshall’s book ‘Fancy Ices’. Her portrait hangs on the wall there, and a special flavor has also been named after her: a mix of vanilla, cider, bitters and orange zest. She herself might have found it a bit boring, but it sounds delicious to us!
Also read:
- Ice cream in a flip-flop – and 19 more idiotic ways to serve food
- This is the difference between ice cream and gelato
- How to make the most delicious limoncello popsicles
Source: The Hustle, Wikipedia
