Although you may think of ice-cream making as a modern undertaking, it does in fact have historical, and artistic, roots.
As part of the Annie Marchant Kitchen and Dairy Collection Kiplin owns some beautiful examples of ice cream moulds from the Victorian era.
Swan shaped ice-cream mould from the Victorian era, part of a new collection of kitchen and dairy objects on display at Kiplin Hall
The example pictured is a particularly lovely swan-shaped mould. Swans were a popular motif in Victorian times and often featured on butter presses and pastry cutters reminiscent of the elaborate table centre displays of actual swans which were a popular dish at royal courts in the past.
Today, the elegant birds are not seen on tables, but are resident on the lake at Kiplin alongside the geese, heron, and an array of frogs, water-loving insects and flora.
Without modern freezers, ice and ice cream was something to be enjoyed by the upper classes in the Victorian period. But even without electricity ice cream could be made domestically.
Swans on the lake at Kiplin Hall and Gardens are part of the attraction’s reputation for calm tranquillity
A book called “The Book of Ices”, by Agnes Marshall, published in 1885 describes making ice cream in a specially patented zinc lined machine in just three minutes. A mixture of ice and salt was used to cool a central pewter jar. Salt lowers the temperature of ice making the jar very cold. Cream and other ingredients can then be churned in the jar and transferred to moulds. These moulds could then be stored in an “ice cave”, a metal box in a wooden chest filled with more ice and salt.
There were even huge commercial ice houses, like underground freezers, that used ice shipped across the sea from Newfoundland and Alaska. Modern experiments have proven their effectiveness at keeping cold for more than a year.
Excitement builds at Kiplin Hall, and many other indoor heritage attractions in the country, as they prepare to reopen their doors on May 17
Although there is no physical evidence of a large ice house at Kiplin it is clear from documents in the archive that the estate had one. In 1849, the 4th Earl of Tyrconnel, John Delaval Carpenter, writes in his diary on 4th January “Frosty still and after and after three hard days we were able fill the ice house today.” The accounts of the time also show fees to buy ice and payments for labourers to fill the ice house.
Visitors to Kiplin today can enjoy homemade ice-cream from the tea room. Soft fruits from the walled garden are used in recipes such as strawberry cream and raspberry ripple.
Ice cream made with soft fruit grown in the walled garden
Many of the recipes are made seasonally or soft fruits are frozen after picking to be used later in ice cream and jam making. Other unusual ice cream flavours at Kiplin include lemon curd and bramble swirl, although today they are served in takeaway tubs, rather than elaborate moulds.
Kiplin’s gardens are open to visitors six days a week, and the museum, including the exhibition “Introducing the Annie Marchant Kitchen and Dairy Collection” will reopen in line with government guidelines on Monday, May 17, all being well.
Newly installed bird hides at Kiplin provide visitors with secret views of the lake and lily pond from which to observe the wildlife
For more information visit www.kiplinhall.co.uk
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