{"id":2163,"date":"2025-11-29T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/?p=2163"},"modified":"2025-11-29T19:00:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:00:40","slug":"november-29th-ice-houses-and-how-to-make-a-dish-of-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/november-29th-ice-houses-and-how-to-make-a-dish-of-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make a Dish of Snow & Ice Houses November 29th"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Zdenek Machacek -unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Yesterday, I posted about the exciting discovery that Ann Shakespeare might have stayed in London with her husband. Here you can read the academic article about the research<\/a>. Really worth reading!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Dish of Snow<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is a 0% chance of snow, in London and 90% chance of snow in Glen Shee, Scotland, according to the Snow Risk Forecast<\/a>. And here is an appropriate medieval recipe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To make a dish of Snowe<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Take a potte of sweete thicke creme and the white of eight egges and beate them altogether with a spoone then putte them into your creame with a dish full of Rose Water and a dishfull of Sugar withall then take a sticke and make it cleane and then cutt it in the ende fowre square and therewith beate all the aforesayd thinges together and ever as it ariseth take it of and putte it into a Cullander thys done take a platter and set an aple in the middest of it and sticke a thicke bush of Rosemarye in the apple then cast your snowe upon the rosemarye and fill your platter therewith and if you have wafers cast some withall and thus serve them forth<\/p>\nFrom Medieval Manuscripts, British Library. Blog. https:\/\/blogs.bl.uk\/digitisedmanuscripts\/medieval-history\/page\/2\/<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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BF – Before Fridges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before fridges, snow gave the chance for ice cream and other cold desserts. The problem was keeping it for longer than the cold spell. So many Stately Homes had ice-houses. The V&A had an ice-house just outside their glorious, Henry Cole commissioned restaurant<\/a>. There is an ice house preserved at the Canal Museum<\/a>, in Kings Cross. It was set up by Carlo Gatti in 1857 to store ice shipped in from Norway. Another one, in Holland Park<\/a>, dates from 1770 and served the infamous Fox family (PM Charles James Fox etc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first ice house was in Mesopotamian, but in the UK they were introduced by James 1 at his palaces in, first, Greenwich Park, and then Hampton Court. An ice house generally consists of a pit in the ground, brick lined, which tapered to a point. Above was a circular, often domed building. The ice was protected by insulation such as straw, and this structure would allow ice to be available all through the summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ice House Dillington, Somerset, photo K Flude<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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My great-grandmother hung a basket outside the window in winter to keep things cold. On my fridge-less narrow boat, I have been known to keep milk and butter outside the door on the front deck. And to suspend and submerge wine in a plastic bag in the canal in high summer. Butteries and Pantries were typically cut into the ground to make them cooler. A Roman Warehouse in Southwark, of which the wooden floor still survived, had a ramp down to the floor which was cut into the ground surface. The ramp suggests it was used for storing barrels, where they were kept cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sketch of Roman Warehouse found in Southwark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For more on Icehouses (and an Icehouse in York) and the history of ice cream, see my post from August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Time for Ice Cream August 20th<\/a><\/blockquote>