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Did they have whipped cream in the olden days before electricity? I think that they might have. I'm sure I've seen a portrait of Henry VIII munching some of that creamy goodness before.

But what on earth caused someone to whisk cream for hours to see what would happen? Is there any scientific basis to it? For example, "Well I know if I whisk this cream, theoretically it should thicken up." Or was it just some super bored peasant folk who discovered it? Perhaps an argument between a peasant wife and a peasant worker, "I am going to take this fork to this cream and stir it for ages to make an annoying noise!"

Another example is beating eggs - why bother when intuition would probably tell us we are wasting our time?

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    Though this is an interesting question, I've always wondered how they actually decided to cook something in the fire (burn the food at that time) without being aware of all the benefits it brings.
    – Trufa
    Jan 19, 2011 at 15:06
  • So many things we eat as a species defy believe as to how they ever got on to our palate. My personal example of choice is isenglass. How in the name of Neptune's Beard someone found out that a substance from dried fish swim bladders, particularly from the Sturgeon originally, could be used as a very effective fining, I'll never know.
    – Orbling
    Jan 20, 2011 at 0:37
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    It's not an answer, but I would like to point out that you don't have to beat heavy cream for hours to make whipped cream. I've done it by hand a number of times, and it takes approximately 10-20 minutes. Which is a much more reasonable thing to do. In addition, when heavy cream is stored for any length of time, it tends to form clumps of stuff very much like whipped cream, so it might be reasonable to say "Hey, this stuff is good. Can we get it on purpose?"
    – Martha F.
    Jan 20, 2011 at 15:09

4 Answers 4

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Accident and/or trial and error, with a bit of 'evolution'. Someone notices that cream gets a bit thicker when it's been stirred a while, they put two and two together and beat it. Then someone has the bright idea to use a whisk to get more air into it and make it even thicker, etc etc.

Though actually I imagine that whipped cream was actually discovered during the process of making butter (keep whipping cream and butter is what you get).

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    Then how was butter discovered?
    – Cascabel ♦
    Jan 19, 2011 at 15:37
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    But I second the first sentence: a lot of people have lived, and if you remember all stupid things people try even today, it doesn't seem so crazy that someone tried stirring cream for hours once.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Jan 19, 2011 at 15:48
  • probably it was the other way around and they discovered butter after stirring cream too long.
    – BaffledCook
    Aug 18, 2011 at 8:08
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Perhaps the original "experiment" was an accident. Someone carried some cream in a cart a long distance over a bumpy road, and what arrived was butter and buttermilk.

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  • Happens even today. I heard a story about that once.
    – Arlen Beiler
    Aug 17, 2011 at 18:39
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ElendilTheTall addressed some of the technical questions of "Why would some one think to do that?" So after that why take the time to do the exparament?

I would suggest taking a different frame of reference. Imagine your the cook to a lord and you have kitchen servants (typically the children of other house hold servants) under you. There is no real cost to you to have a servant beat eggs or cream for hours on end on the off chance it might turn out well. And if it doesn't your lord never needs to know. On the other hand if your lord gets bored with your cooking you can find your self out of a job, without a home, money, or marketable skills.

So an abundance of near free labor and a real reason to try new things is usually a good recipe for innovation.

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i wondered this myself recently, except for cheese. i've been learning to make my own, and the conditions seem so specific for even the most basic cheese to happen that i marveled that humans ever discovered how to make it in the first place. my answer is: we are a hungry and curious species. : )

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    The first person who ate blue cheese was either very brave, or very, very hungry.
    – Marti
    Jan 19, 2011 at 14:52
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    Goat/calf's stomachs used to be a handy way to store milk, and they are a natural source of renet which makes milk turn into cheese. When you've got no refrigeration and you store things in leftover animal bits, cheese just kind of happens.
    – yacomink
    Jan 19, 2011 at 15:16
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    @Marti: I still maintain people who eat blue cheese are nuts!
    – Orbling
    Jan 20, 2011 at 0:31
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    @Orbling: that's OK, just leaves more for me. :D
    – Marti
    Jan 20, 2011 at 2:14
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    @rumtscho it's quite possible for the same thing to be invented different ways. I never liked the "nomad/goatherder/etc travelling around all day with milk in a stomach" theory because the cultures it's ascribed to generally don't drink fluid milk, much less carry it around with them while doing something active. But anyway I'm just telling you another origin story I've heard that might (also?) be true. The intestines-with-the-milk-still-in-them dish is called pajata, btw.
    – Kate Gregory
    Aug 18, 2011 at 11:31

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