Summer is often associated with diets abundant in fresh fruits, berries, vitamin-laden ingredients including the goods you can dig up in your own garden and last but not least - ice cream. Winter, on the contrary, is the time of the year to focus on dishes that are comforting and high in carbohydrates to keep us energised and happy when the exposure to sunlight is low. Even though winter and ice cream seem two remote concepts, the history and partnership between the two actually reach centuries back.
1660 BC was a time when humans, for obvious reasons, did not have machines that could freeze water into ice independently from the season. Enjoying an icy delight would mean being dependent on the weather or geographical benefits, such as living near snowy mountains. There is a passage in the Old Testament in which Abraham’s son Isaac is encouraged by his father to cool off with a juice consisting of snow mixed with goat milk. And legend has it that Alexander the Great, during his conquest victories in India, requested never ending supplies of snow that he could consume with honey. He also demanded holes in the ground for the purpose of preserving snow. Cold air temperatures and snow were the core ingredients of the ancient version of what we now enjoy as ice cream.
The ice cream making process is no longer as cumbersome as it was back then, but there is still something special about ice cream and the cold winter months. According to Russian folklore, eating ice cream in winter will warm you up. This may seem like a contradiction, but the Russians are not necessarily wrong. Scientific evidence shows that ice cream, despite its freezing temperature, actually warms the human body when eaten due to its caloric content. There’s a reason why we crave for more calories when it’s cold - they help us remain energised and warm as the body spends more energy keeping us at the right temperature.
For us at Ludo & Hedo, the winter months are especially exciting for creating new ice cream recipes and experiences as we get to work with seasonal ingredients. And each season brings something unique as our minds and bodies have different needs. Winter allows us to create menus filled with soothing creaminess, sudden energy boosts and pick-me-ups. They are accompanied with many types of sweets and traditional dinner recipes and we see it as a nice challenge to translate those familiar tastes and memories into unconventional and surprising ice cream creations. For us, winter adds an extra dimension to well known flavours and we hope that you will join the journey with us this season!
