Bompas & Parr are at it again – this time showcasing the world’s first non-melting ice lolly, launching at the British Food Museum’s SCOOP: A Wonderful Ice Cream World.
The inspiration behind Bompas & Parr’s latest culinary invention is inspired by pyrkete, a frozen composite material made with a combination of sawdust and wood pulp dispersed in ice. Sounds great right?
Inventor Geoffrey Pyke first proposed his composite (which has similar properties to concrete) during World War II as an alternative material to build an impervious structure that could form an immense floating runway in the middle of the ocean from which aircraft could take off.
Pyke had realised that ice could be manufactured for only 1 per cent of the energy required to make an equivalent mass of steel, and proposed that an iceberg, natural or artificial, could be levelled out to create a floating runway. Inspired by inuit ice sleds which were reinforced with moss, he began experiments on creating super-strength ice in a secret location under Smithfield Meat Market, in a refrigerated meat locker, hidden behind frozen animal carcasses.
The proposal was treated as something of joke by some naval officers, however Churchill was enthusiastic about it. Ultimately the project was abandoned due to rising costs and mitigated by the longer ranges newer aircraft could achieve.
Anyway, here we are today with Bompas & Parr unveiling its very own take on pykrete through the world’s first non-melting ice lollies, replacing the sawdust and wood pulp in the pykrete recipe with edible fruit fibres. These Pykrete-inspired lollies last hours longer than conventional ice lollies exposed to the same temperatures.
The innovation will be showcased at an introspective evening examining pykrete in all its forms, with visitors able to taste the non-melting lollies (blow-torch optional). If the prototype non-melting ice lollies are successful, Bompas & Parr is exploring developing a product that they hope will be in supermarkets across the world shortly.
Launching on 3rd July until the 30th September, SCOOP: A Wonderful Ice Cream World is the British Museum of Food’s inaugural exhibition, exploring the past, present and future of ice cream at Gasholders London, King’s Cross. There’s the chance to make your own ice-cream, try glow in the dark scoops and watch your very own brain frequency respond to the frozen treat.
Tickets are £12, for more info, visit: http://bompasandparr.com/projects/view/scoop/
