Whether you like simple chocolate or vanilla, or prefer something decadent like jamoca almond fudge covered in strawberries and caramel sauce, it's hard to top ice cream as one of the greatest desserts ever made. Ice cream recipes have come a long way since the treat was first created and, thankfully, progress means we no longer use ambergris — which is essentially whale poop. Ambergris was a luxury additive in foods and perfumes for many years. For centuries, this greasy, smelly, hardened substance was harvested from the ocean, but little was known about its source. People were eating it, even using it as medicine, with no understanding of what it actually was. As the whaling industry grew in the 1800s, people learned that it's produced by sperm whales. It's believed that the hardened beaks of squid — which whales eat — are bound up in the stomach with mucus and digestive fluids, creating a sludgy, odoriferous blockage. In the past, some believed whales vomited ambergris, while these days most believe it’s expelled from the other end of the creatures. The earliest known recipe for ice cream belongs to Lady Ann Fanshawe and dates back to the mid-1660s. Her recipe for ice cream was made from cream boiled with mace, orange blossom water, and ambergris. The mix was sweetened with sugar, poured into a metal box, and covered in ice to allow it to freeze. As offensive as it sounds in principle, modern experiments making ice cream with ambergris have achieved stunning results. Fortunately, you won’t find it today, as ambergris is illegal in the United States. Even acknowledging how terrible it smells at first, the end product is described as incredibly delicious by those who have tried it and more intense than normal ice cream. Just think of it as the durian fruit of the dairy world.
