The path to vanilla.

Byline: Renee Enna

When did vanilla ice cream show up? Good question. For all the fuss about its old-fashioned values, ice cream has a vague history.

Ed Marks, an ice cream consultant, writer and unofficial historian from Lancaster, Pa., has been in the ice cream business in various roles for 54 years. Marks contends that the accepted stories of Marco Polo bringing it from China and Catherine de Medici taking it from Italy to France have been refuted in recent years.

"Most of the history is myth, rumor and speculation, hardened by repetition in the media," says Marks, who doesn't sound as cranky as that remark might lead you to think.

What is agreed on: Ice cream was first enjoyed by the nobility, who had access to two of the then-rare ingredients it required: sugar and ice. (Anyone with a cow could get the milk and cream.)

When Marks launched the Ice Screamers newsletter in 1980, a publication for collectors of soda fountain and ice cream paraphernalia, he began doing his own research. Some of the early flavors, made by the court confectioners for 17th Century royalty, were determined by practical concerns, he says: "They flavored ice cream with the things they could: asparagus, rhubarb, brown bread, saffron. Those were the first four popular flavors."

(Brown bread ice cream? Don't laugh. It's in Fannie Farmer's 1918 "Boston Cooking-School Cookbook" too.)

Thankfully, vanilla showed up. Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes brought vanilla beans from Mexico to Europe. Thomas Jefferson, a.k.a. the Founding Father of Food, tasted it when he was ambassador to France, and brought it home with him.

Exactly when vanilla showed up in ice cream, nobody knows, Marks says. But it was a hit.

Though if you had been used to asparagus ice cream, it's hard to see how vanilla could miss.

WHAT MAKES VANILLA VANILLA?

The vanilla bean was the first flavoring for vanilla ice cream, but today it's not the only one. Sharon Tyler Herbst, in Food Lover's Companion, offers some insight:

To make vanilla extract, vanilla beans are boiled in alcohol and water; the liquid is sold as pure vanilla extract. Government standards dictate that it must contain 13.35 ounces of vanilla beans per gallon during extraction and 35 percent alcohol.

Imitation vanilla, or vanillin, is composed of artificial flavorings. Some manufacturers blend the real stuff with the fake stuff to lower costs.

Of course, this affects the labels on vanilla ice cream cartons.

If ice cream uses only pure extract and/or vanilla beans, it can call itself vanilla ice cream.

If a combination of pure and imitation vanilla extract is used, its label must read, "vanilla-flavored ice cream"; it is allowed to contain up to 42 percent imitation flavoring in the mix.

And if imitation vanilla is the only flavor source? The label will read, "artificial-flavored ice cream."

BUYING AND STORAGE ADVICE

Here are tips from the International Dairy Foods Association and Oberweis Dairy to keep ice cream at peak flavor.

At the store:

Make the ice cream aisle your last stop at the supermarket.

The temperature of the freezer case should not be above minus 20 degrees. If kept at a proper temperature, ice cream will be thoroughly frozen and will feel hard.

In open-top freezer cases, buy ice cream and frozen treats that are stored below the freezer line.

Insulate ice cream for the ride home. When your groceries are packed, request an additional brown paper bag to insulate it.

At home:

Don't let ice cream repeatedly soften and refreeze. When ice cream's small ice crystals melt and refreeze, they will eventually turn into large, unappetizing lumps.

The freezer should be set at minus 5 to 0 degrees. Ice cream is easy to dip at 6 to 10 degrees, the ideal serving range.

Store ice cream in the main part of the freezer. Do not store it in the freezer door, where it is subjected to fluctuating temperatures when the door is open and shut.

Keep the ice cream container tightly closed when storing in the freezer.

Don't store ice cream alongside uncovered foods; odors may penetrate ice cream and affect its flavor.

For optimal storage, put the carton in a sealed freezer-safe bag.

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(c) 2002, Chicago Tribune.

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