The Jewish cone-ction to ice cream
Who knew we were so integral to the creation of sundaes and sorbets?
Brigit Grant is the Jewish News Supplements Editor
We may have missed National Ice Cream Day – a US celebration created for July 17th by Ronald Reagan – but right now the weather and the season lend themselves to an ice-cream-every-day policy. And as luck would have it, treating yourself to a scoop or two of cold sweetness in a cone, on a stick, or in a big bowl also allows for allegiance to the faith. It seems we are experts at making ice cream, though our connection is sometimes hidden (or covered in chocolate sauce and nuts). Here’s what you need to know next time you take a lick….
Who doesn’t like Haagen-Dazs Salted Caramel Crunch or Banana Peanut Butter Chip? Regardless of taste, the name Haagen-Dazs couldn’t sound less Jewish, yet it was a Polish Jew named Reuben Mattus who came up with it after working for his uncle’s Italian lemon ice business in Brooklyn. Reuben was just ten when he arrived in America in 1920 with his widowed mother, but by the time he was 20 he had designs on his uncle’s ice pops and set out to create a higher quality ice cream after engaging in science and culinary methods. Delighted customers couldn’t resist the ice cream, but also liked the upmarket name of the product Reuben had chosen for his frozen achievement. Opting for the moniker Haagen-Dazs, which was Reuben’s nod to Denmark’s effort to save the Jews during WW2, the innovator had come up with something sufficiently foreign sounding and suggestive of good taste. Brooklyn couldn’t have been further from Copenhagen, but Reuben’s scoop was all that mattered, and still does to the company, which makes $2 billion in sales annually.
Remember when we all gathered at a branch of Baskin Robbins to ponder over which one of the 31 flavours we wanted? Well, that is still possible at the seven remaining stores in north west London and beyond. But did you know that Baskin-Robbins was created by Jewish Canadian entrepreneur Irv Robbins, who taught himself to craft in his father’s store? His interest in ice continued when he was a lieutenant in the US Navy during WWII and then when he opened his first California ice cream parlor in 1945 with some of his barmitzvah money. Inspired by what he saw, Irv’s brother-in-law Bert Baskin opened his own parlour, too. The name Baskin Robbins came to be in 1948 when they joined forces. For the record, the 31 flavours were created to represent a different ice cream flavour for each day of the month, and who doesn’t want that?
The jury is still out on ice cream makers Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, as the furore against them not distributing to the occupied territories resulted in some flagging the Jewish partners as Phish Food. As the company has since sold its business interests in Israel to Avi Zinger, Ben & Jerry’s is now sold throughout the Holy Land and the West Bank, and there’s nowt B&J can do about it. But we can still look back to 1978 when they started their scoop shop in Burlington, Vermont. First adding different toppings, the partners moved on to selling pints blended with sweets and biscuits and only because since childhood Ben has suffered with a rare sinus condition (anosmia) that severely limited his sense of taste and smell. His only way of enjoying food was through texture, hence the loading of so much in the ice cream and why ‘Chubby Hubby’ does what it’s called to our spouses. Love ’em or loathe ’em, you have to admire B&J’s inventiveness with flavours and the thoughtful way they treat those that don’t survive the popularity test. Those flavours are laid to rest in the Flavour Graveyard beyond the factory in Waterbury, Vermont. It is there that you will see fitting epitaphs on granite headstones for the likes (or dislikes) of Wavy Gravy, Miz Jelena’s Sweet Potato Pie and Dublin Mudslide, to name but a few. Remember to take flowers if you visit.
There are 35 flavours that have been laid to rest in the Ben & Jerry’s cemetery, but they could make it 36 if they were willing to take outsiders. Poor Jew was the name given to a cornetto-style ice cream in Russia that had blue and white wrapping as well as the Star of David. Slavitsa, the company that made it, was being ironic when it introduced it with the line: “Introducing the ice cream ‘Poor Jew – Try all this deliciousness, it turns out that he is not so poor.”
Shocked by its name, the Jewish community in the town of Naberezhnye threatened to sue the factory if they didn’t stop production of the ice cream, but Slavitsa’s director was too impressed by the sales to take any notice. “People love it! At the end of the day, it’s clear that this Jew is not poor at all,” he said, fuelling the fire with ice cream. Investigations too place into whether the name and branding was legal, but as the company was also responsible for producing the Obamka (Little Obama), a chocolate ice cream that featured a dark-skinned boy on its wrapper, and the Hohol, a derogatory term for Ukrainians, it seems there are ice cream makers more deserving of a Mr Whippy than Ben & Jerry.
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