TIP OF THE DAY: Make A Frappe, A Recipe For A New England-Style Milkshake
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October 7th is National Frappe Day. Frappe (pronounced frap) is a New England term for a milkshake, from the French frapper (frap-PAY), “to beat.” It’s an iced beverage that is made in a blender or a shaker, to produce a foamy drink. Ice is added to increase the foaminess. Milk, sugar, and flavorings can be added. Caramel or chocolate sauce can be used as garnishes, along with whipped cream and a host of others. A frappe is not a milkshake, and it has its own holiday (National Milkshake Day is September 12th). “When is a milkshake not a milkshake?” asks New England Magazine. “In New England, of course, when it’s a frappe (or a cabinet).” > The differences between a float, ice cream soda and shake. > The year’s 8 ice cream drink holidays. > The history of the milkshake. > The history of the frappe is below. New England Magazine goes on to explain that: We hadn’t thought about frappes and jimmies for decades; we lived in Boston long ago. When we moved back to the land of milkshakes and sprinkles, frappes and jimmies faded into the deepest recesses of memory. But when we did live in the land of frappes, no one could tell us, a student of French and an editorial stickler, why the accent mark was left off. Maybe the area’s menu typesetters didn’t have an aigu, the é with the accent mark? Certainly, it couldn’t be that nobody knew French. Etymology notwithstanding, it seems that “frappé” (with the accent) has finally come to New England thanks to L.A. Burdick, one of New England’s finest chocolatiers. Burdick has café-chocolate shops in Walpole, New Hampshire (the original), Boston, and Cambridge, with a more recent expansion to Chicago and New York City. If you’re in the neighborhood, here are the addresses. Burdick Chocolate is one of our favorite artisan chocolatiers. His chocolate shoppe cafes are located in the Boston area plus in Chicago, D.C., and New York City. Burdick’s frappés combine a chocolate drink (milk and chocolate syrup) with crushed ice and fruit pureé (photo #1). His offerings: 1. PURÉE your fruit of choice. Sweeten lightly to taste. 2. MAKE a thick milkshake in the blender. Crush a couple of ice cubes with an ice tapper or a mallet. 3. PLACE the purée in the bottom of a tall glass, and top with the shake (photo #1). 4. GARNISH with whipped cream and a piece of fruit. If you’re near a store that sells Magnum ice cream, you can buy dark, milk or white chocolate ice cream. Otherwise, punt, with regular vanilla or chocolate ice cream. We used Ghirardelli white chocolate syrup and Talenti Double Dark Chocolate Ice Cream. Ingredients For 1 Drink 1. ADD the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a tall glass (or mason jar, or whatever) and garnish as desired. The frappe (pronounced frap) is a classic New England ice cream drink that’s similar to a milkshake but with a key difference: it always includes ice cream. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, soda fountains became popular gathering spots in the U.S., and regions developed their own variations of creamy drinks. In most of the U.S., “milkshake” came to mean a drink that included ice cream, but not on New England. They the drink called a milkshake does not have ice cream; just milk and flavored syrup, shaken until frothy. |
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New England distinguished their frappe from their milkshake by including ice cream in the former, creating a thicker and richer drink than their milkshake. Let’s add to the confusion by pointing out that in Rhode Island, part of New England, a frappe (a milkshake made without ice cream) is called a cabinet. The name is believed to derive from the cabinet where the blender was kept. Back to the frappe: By the early 1900s, the frappe became a staple at soda fountains and ice cream parlors in the region, blending milk, flavored syrup, and a generous scoop of ice cream. It became a beloved part of New England’s food culture, served at ice cream parlors and local diners. Today, the frappe remains a regional specialty in New England, though the lines between milkshakes and frappes have blurred in some places. But its history remains a testament to the area’s culinary traditions and its ability to preserve regional distinctions in our world of increasingly homogenized food culture. (Some information via Abacus.ai.) *Nonpareils, the precursors of sprinkles/jimmies, date to at least the late 18th-century, if not earlier. They were used as decoration for pièces montées† and desserts. The candy company Just Born (maker of Peeps, Mike & Ike, Peanut Chews, and other favorites), then in Brooklyn, New York, claims that its founder, Sam Born, invented the chocolate-flavored sprinkles he called jimmies. However, advertisements for chocolate sprinkles as a confection exist as far back as 1921, predating Just Born’s, established in 1923, by two years. But head over to Holland: Dutch hagelslag (sprinkles) were invented in 1913 by Erven H. de Jong in Wormerveer. Here’s more of the story. †A pièce montée (mounted piece) is a decorative confectionery centerpiece, created in an architectural or sculptural form. They are made for formal banquets and weddings, of ingredients such as confectioner’s paste, nougat, marzipan, and spun sugar. The great French Marie-Antoine Carême, a student of architecture, is reported to have said about pièces montées, that architecture is the most noble of the arts, and pastry the highest form of architecture [source]. **Fun fact: The original Frappuccino was made and trademarked by The Coffee Connection, a coffee shop in Massachusetts. They were bought out in 1994 by Starbucks, which tweaked the recipe a bit and popularized the sweet coffee drink that everyone knows today [source]. CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.
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