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I was reading a food history book and found out the first written recipe for ice cream was from 1665.
It was in a book called 'The Art of Cookery' by a guy named Robert May, and it called for orange flower water and ambergris (which is whale stuff, yuck). I always thought it was a much newer thing. Has anyone else come across old recipes that made you do a double take?
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noah_webb5mo ago
Yeah, that tracks. You see it with tools too. My grandpa's old work manuals have instructions for mixing your own paint or sealant from stuff like linseed oil and lead, wild recipes nobody would touch now. Makes you realize how much basic stuff was just homemade chemical experiments back then.
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anna9835mo ago
But those old recipes actually worked pretty well, all things considered.
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cameroncarr4mo ago
Whoa, that's actually pretty wild about the whale stuff in ice cream. I've totally been there with old recipes. Once I tried to follow a 1700s bread recipe that called for "a pint of good ale yeast" and it was basically a science experiment gone wrong in my kitchen. @noah_webb is right about that homemade chemical thing - my dad used to mix his own wood stain from vinegar and rusty nails back in the 80s. If you're ever tempted to try an old recipe, my advice is to look for substitutes first. The orange flower water part is actually fine and you can still find it at specialty stores, but skip the ambergris unless you want your ice cream tasting like a whale burped on it. Just swap in vanilla or rose water instead and it'll work way better.
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