Black liquorice ice cream is just to die for. I love it so much, but it's hard to find.

I think the best one that I ever had was at a little shop in Denmark a few years ago.

But once in a while you can find it at a specialty ice cream shop here in Minnesota.

And when I do, I call my sister and we both have to go find it because it's so good.

Mine is lemon ice cream from Crab Samuafel, in Bogota, Colombia, especially when I am a little sad.

If frozen custard counts, chocolate almond from upstate New York.

If it doesn't, the olive oil gelato that you can get in Union Square.

You might think that the most complex thing about ice cream is choosing which flavor to have.

It is a tough one. When in doubt, get them all is what I say. I mean, what could possibly go wrong.

But even if you do manage to buy all the flavors, what you don't know is that ice cream itself is incredibly complicated.

It is truly a miraculous substance. In scientific terms, it's up there with the jet engine.

And its history is kind of complex too. Everything you thought you knew about ice cream, all those stories are wrong.

I'm Nicola Twilly. And I'm Cynthia Graver. And this week on Gastropod, we're exploring the history and science of our favorite summer treat.

There are all sorts of weird myths about the beginning of ice cream.

One is that Marco Polo brought the recipe back from the east around 1300.

That guy gets credit for everything. Spaghetti and ice cream?

And when I was in Italy, I heard that Catherine Dometici brought it to France in the 1500s.

I was also told that she created one of the earliest ice cream flavors, but neither of those stories are true.

Well, unfortunately, there's no one eureka moment.

We know that Catherine Dometici did not, because there is no evidence of ice cream in France at that particular time.

Jerry Quinzio wrote a book called of sugar and snow, a history of ice cream making.

And the title comes from the way early confectioners described the consistency of ice cream they were looking for.

...