Wyn Drabble: A treat for all seasons

Icecream is not just a summer treat, says Wyn Drabble. Photo / NZME

In summer we don't seem to eat a lot of chunky, hearty soups (think pea soup with ham bones). On the other hand, icecream remains a firm favourite all year round.

Yes, icecream, it seems, is not a seasonal treat. It transcends the seasons. Russians know that; I remember at one stage in my life reading that Russians, despite their comparatively cold climate, eat more icecream than any other nationality.

A supporting anecdote involves British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who was being driven through Moscow to meet Joseph Stalin in the depths of winter during World War II. They passed a cluster of Russians on a street corner and Churchill asked his aide de camp what they were doing in such bitter conditions.

"They are eating icecream, sir," the aide replied.

After a pause, Churchill replied, "These people will never be defeated."

According to a number of sources, icecream came about in China – the Chinese would bring snow down from the mountains and mix it with flavourings – and Marco Polo picked up the idea in the 12th century and shared it with Europe.

I am quite happy to accept this version of history as disputing it would involve pesky research but I must say it sounds more like sorbet than icecream to me. Or perhaps an early version of our modern slushies.

In New Zealand, icecream-making really took off after an Australian invented an ice-making machine. By the 1870s it was possible to buy factory-made icecream here.

My earliest memories of icecream come from the early 1950s when vanilla icecream was called "plain". The first question your server would ask was, "Plain or flavoured?" If you chose flavoured they then had to run through the flavours available but this was no real biggie as there were probably only two: "Neapolitan or hokey pokey?"

In the late fifties, I discovered the joys of "cream freeze" but to buy it you had to go to a milk bar where there might have been bodgies and widgies (though what threat they posed I never fully understood).

Wyn Drabble

Of course, cream freeze was served in a cone so there was no packaging on which you could read the ingredients. Probably just as well if modern versions are anything to go by: milk, sugar, cream, milk solids, glucose syrup (derived from maize and containing sulphites), vegetable gums (412, 407, 407a, 466), emulsifiers (471, 433), flavour.

Don't you love the non-committal use of the word "flavour". It probably has its own separate list of ingredients, many of them numbers.

Sometimes I think I would like to try making it at home but we always seem to be out of 407a.

Rest assured, however, that there are plenty of high quality icecreams in New Zealand now, largely thanks to a national competition. The New Zealand Ice Cream and Gelato Awards celebrate their 25th year this year and past winners have featured inviting-sounding flavours such as Lemon and Gin Botanicals, Double Mint and Dark Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cup, Fig and Manuka Honey, Black Sesame.

And three successes from 2018 took their inspiration from beverages: green tea; chai latte; roasted coffee affogato.

So, forget the winter weather. Have an icecream anyway. If your concerns are more health-based, remember you can eat spinach tomorrow.

If it still feels a little unseasonal for you, I'm willing to enter the kitchen to invent a pea and ham soup-flavoured icecream. I promise that none of the ingredients will be a number.

I'm taking my cue from Heston Blumenthal; if he can get away with bacon and egg icecream, I can get away with this.

Happy licking!

• Wyn Drabble is a teacher of English, a writer, musician and public speaker.