Is it true Italians invented ice cream?
It depends on how you define ice cream. I certainly think that what we consider ice cream today — that nice creamy smooth ice cream — is definitely an Italian, Neapolitan invention. Other cultures have frozen liquids but the real ice cream we think of is Italian. The Chinese would freeze an almond milk or soy milk because they don’t like so much milk. There are documents that say they served the Ambassador from Beijing almond milk frozen in a bowl of snow. I just had (for the first time, believe it or not) one of those Italian cakes in the box you usually see at Christmastime. What’s the story with those? And how does it stay moist in that box? There’s Pandoro with no candy fruit in it. When you slice it horizontally, it comes off in a star shape. Panettone is like a rounded dome of brioche with candied orange peel and raisins in it. The secret to why Panettone, Pandoro, and the Easter cake, Colomba, last so long is two things. One, they create their own yeast. That little packet of
