The reason I am writing this is the slightly quaint recipes for “Snow cream”. Why snow and cream? Do you really use snow, as in "somewhat frozen water"? Apparently, going by Wikipedia (always a good starting point), the answer to this question is an clear yes. Looking up “Snow cream” you will learn that this is “a frozen dessert sometimes prepared in cold regions. The dessert is made by slowly pouring a small amount of sweetened dairy-based liquid (similar to ice cream ingredients) into clean snow. “ and goes on to give us a basic recipe for snow cream. Snow cream, then is a lazy persons way to make flavoured ice cream. It even alludes to Queen Elizabeth I having had this weird mixture served at a banquet or two. Although even in Elizabeths time, Snow Cream was old - there is, for example, a dutch recipe, which may be as much as another 100 years older than the Tudor recipes here.

So what was the Tudor Snow Cream like? As ice cream was known in Italy in the 16th century it isn't totally impossible that the queen could have been dining on those, although it is her second successor, Charles I, who is famously (and jealously) fond of ice cream. Anyway, Snow cream in Elizabeth's time was something somewhat removed from frozen water in that it seemingly consisted of Cream, Eggs, Rosewater and Sugar. You beat all this together and then whip into a froth which is later poured over other ingredients. However, from reading the recipe one could believe that the phrase “ ... Then cast your Snow upon the Rosemary ...” actually refers to the real, cold, watery stuff. But, I doubt that this is so, because in another recipe, only a few years removed, we find the phrase “beat your Cream with this sticke... now as the Snow ariseth” which actually seems to refer to process of creating whipped cream. Which you without too much imagination could liken to snow. Snow falling from below, but nevertheless quite snowlike. The same holds for other recipes of the period, as those from “The accomplish't cook” (1685) which also uses the phrase “... and when the snow riseth...” when referring to whipping cream.

However, the phrasing can be a bit unclear in some recipes, quite possible leading to the assumption that “Snow cream” uses real snow. Another recipe of “Snow cream” from Domestic Cookery (1806) makes no references to “snow” at all, giving the ingredients as “Cream, Lemon-peel, Eggs, Sweet wine and Sugar”. Again, the part in common with the other “Snow Cream” recipes is that you beat the cream to a froth.

There is however, a recipe, that deviates clearly from those referred to above; that of “Snow Cream” from the 1845 Domestic Cookery by Elizabeth Lea, Baltimore, USA. (Apparently Wikipedia seems to think that "Snow cream" is an americanism, while "Snow" is british - but many recipes here, even british are for Snow cream). But now, as we see, we have crossed the Atlantic and are almost 300 years removed from the Tudor Snow cream recipe. And there is also a quit distinct difference between the American snow cream recipe and the descendants of the Tudor variety; the American recipe uses fruit syrup to flavour the dish.

I have only one example of the later type of recipe, but it would seem that this type of preparation would make it much more like a lazy persons guide to doing ice cream than the other examples we find here on tOCB.

So, to summarize the fairly small collection of snow cream recipes here, I would suggest that we have to varieties; one, younger, type that actually uses snow and fruit syrup and which is the origin of what you will find on the internet when doing searches for “snow cream”, and one, the original “snow cream” that uses the term “snow” in referring to whipped, flavoured, cream – possibly accompanied by some other ingredients.