ice cream

History of Ice
Cream

Word History: Since Americans eat about 15 quarts of ice cream per capita each year, it is appropriate that the first recorded instance of the word (1744) occurs in the writings of an American, who mentions "fine ice cream . . . with . . . strawberries and milk." The
history of ice cream itself can be traced much further back, to the Roman
Empire, China, and India. Ice cream was introduced to England in the 17th
century and to America in the 18th. It seems to have been called iced cream
at first (1673), in line with such expressions as iced tea and iced coffee,
which we still use, but the form ice cream has taken over.

1559: Ice cream appears in Italy as ice and
salt are discovered to make a freezing combination.

1782: Ice cream is served at a Philadelphia
party given by the French envoy to honor the new American republic.

1846: A portable hand-cranked ice cream freezer
is invented by Nancy Johnson in New Jersey.

1851: The first wholesale ice cream business
is founded by Baltimore milk dealer Jacob Fussell who receives milk in steady
supply but is faced with a problem of erratic demand. Fussell sells his ice
cream at less than half the price charged by others.

1904: The ice cream cone is introduced at the
St. Louis fair by Syrian immigrant pastry maker Ernest A. Hamwi who sells
wafer-like Zalabia pastry at a fairground concession, serving them with sugar
and other sweets. When a neighboring ice cream stand runs out of dishes,
Hamwi rolls some of his wafers into cornucopias, lets them cool, and sells
them to the ice cream concessionaire. But an ice cream cone mold patent has
been issued earlier in the year to Italian immigrant Italo Marchiony who
claims he has been making ice cream cones since 1896; other claimants challenge
Hamwi's right to call himself the ice cream cone originator.

1924: Americans consume on average 17.8 pounds
of butter per year, 6.8 pounds of ice cream, 4.5 pounds of cheese, more than
350 pounds of fluid milk (nearly one pint per day).

1930: Dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) is introduced
commercially in the United States for purposes such as keeping ice cream
cold.