
Iran's 2,000-year-old ice cream [video] - MiriamWeiner
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180801-the-birthplace-of-ice-cream
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js2
Some links to supplement the 3 minute video:

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream#History)

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakhchāl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakhchāl)

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faloodeh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faloodeh)

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastani_Sonnati](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastani_Sonnati)

Aside, the end of the video mentions that Americans and Iranians prefer
sweeter ice cream, while Europeans prefer ice cream with less fat and sugar.

I'm American and I find most American ice cream too sweet. I much prefer
Italian-style ice cream (gelato) and custards for this reason. I also have a
thing against modern thickeners. There needs to be an ice cream equivalent of
the Reinheitsgebot. :-)

There is one exception: if you like the taste of cream, Panna cotta is very
easy to make and a delicious dessert served with fresh fruit. It is thickened
with gelatin instead of being a custard, so the cream flavor really comes
through. To me it's even better than Philadelphia-style ice cream, which is
also made without eggs.

I recently tried Thai rolled ice cream and did not care for it at all. There
is almost no air in it (overrun) since it isn't churned, so I found the
texture not at all pleasing.

~~~
newnewpdro
> I'm American and I find most American ice cream too sweet. I much prefer
> Italian-style ice cream (gelato) and custards for this reason.

That's odd, considering Gelato tends to have less fat and more sugar than
American ice cream. [1]

I prefer Gelato, but it's obviously denser and more sugar-heavy than the
equivalent scoop of plain ice cream.

[1] [https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2016/07/16/heres-
the-s...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2016/07/16/heres-the-scoop-
about-gelato-vs-ice-cream-vs-frozen-yogurt/)

~~~
js2
I consulted McGee. He lists Italian gelato as 16% sugar by volume and American
ice cream as 13-16% sugar. Most of the recipes I googled (for both gelato and
ice cream) were 3/4 cup sugar to 3 cups of dairy. So the sugar content seems
to be the same in the base of either.

What can I say. Maybe the fact that gelato is denser and served warmer makes
it seem less sweet? Cold dulls the taste so you'd expect the warmer gelato
might taste sweeter. Maybe the eggs in custard make it seem less sweet, or
maybe it's all in my head.

~~~
newnewpdro
I guess with American processed foods being what they are, it's entirely
plausible that the average ice cream contains additional sweeteners or at
least HFCS instead of sugar. If memory serves HFCS tastes sweeter than the
equivalent amount of sugar, which may be part of what you're observing?

Gelato is decadent. I've always found american ice cream to be kind of bland
and watery in comparison, like drinking skim milk vs. whole milk.

~~~
h4b4n3r0
The ice cream aisle in a grocery store I go to has about 100 varieties of
“American ice cream”. You need to be more specific. :-)

~~~
js2
I generally avoid grocery store ice cream and either make my own at home or
prefer to go out to any local place that makes their own.

But as an example of an ice cream that’s entirely too sweet: anything from
Coldstone.

The one exception I have to grocery store ice cream: I’ll buy Häagen-Dazs
vanilla for making a Guinness float.

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benbreen
Some of the best ice cream I've ever had was on a hot day in Shiraz. I thought
it was flecked with butter but apparently it's frozen clotted cream [1]. The
Iranian ice cream + carrot juice combo is also a little odd at first to a
Western palette but really really good.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastani_Sonnati](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastani_Sonnati)

------
Zaheer
If you're in Southern California, some of the best persian ice-cream I've ever
had was at Saffron & Rose in Westwood. [https://www.yelp.com/biz/saffron-and-
rose-ice-cream-los-ange...](https://www.yelp.com/biz/saffron-and-rose-ice-
cream-los-angeles)

------
JdeBP
This was recently covered in the discussion at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17636624](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17636624)
by coincidence.

------
onyva
yakhchal (it’s kh of خ) actually means fridge. It’s the word still in use to
describe an ordinary modern fridge (or maybe just freezer, I forget).

Regardless, enlightenment in Europe really distorted the west’s
underdretending of east’s contribution to Europe’s ability to emerge from the
Middle Ages, not just how to make ice cream.

Anyone who ever read Voltaire can get the idea. What’s more sad is Muslims
with western education are further removed from their heritage.

But without the work of Muslim, Jewish and Zarathustra scholars, much of the
ancient world’s knowledge would have been lost, and renesance in Europe would
not have been possible.

There’s a great science show on the BBC, develope by a British-Iraqi
scientist, that mentions innovations we no longer associate with Islam (many
developed by Muslim scientists and scholars). For example: navigation tools
like astrolabe, that made it possible for European “explores” to navigate
their boats, and many others still in practice even today, like treatment for
cataract with injection syringe etc (in some parts of the world, though longer
in the west).

~~~
agumonkey
is it Jim Al-Khalili ?

possible videos [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Jim+Al-
Khalili+...](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Jim+Al-Khalili+bbc)
(many 2h+ long :)

------
theshahriar
We have sweet ice creams and delicious foods But we also have shitty
government

~~~
js2
Ice cream and/or beer may be the only thing that can truly unite humanity.

