Ice cream (originally iced cream) Ancient History – And Myths
Much of what is written about the history
of ice cream begins centuries ago...and it’s the stuff of legends. The claims of Nero (1st century A.D.) and the ancient Chinese (via Marco Polo) enjoying an “ice-cream-like dessert” are used to bolster ice cream’s long-standing popularity. Well, bunk. These desserts, while frozen, are not ice cream as we know it, but more like sorbet or probably a sno-cone! Nero would have servants run to the mountains for fresh snow, and then race back (before it melted) to his palace where he would enjoy the frozen treats topped with fresh fruits. Again, it’s not the dairy treat we enjoy today, and further – it was something only royalty enjoyed (not everyone could have servants sent to the mountains, y’know).
The Dawn Of Ice Cream As We Know It
Ice cream as a dairy delight was probably “discovered” in the 1600’s. The concept of flavored ices evolved, but no one is sure how. We do know that Charles I of England, or rather, his chef (either French or Italian), made ice cream a staple of the royal table. Depending on which
version you read, either the chef had a secret recipe for ice cream and the king paid him a handsome reward to keep it a secret, or the chef was threatened with death if he divulged the recipe. Either way, once Chuck-One was beheaded in 1649, the chef blabbed. Soon nobility in Europe knew of, and enjoyed, “crème ice.”
Ice Cream Comes To The Colonies
In 1847 she developed the first hand-crank ice cream maker, and despite what you might read elsewhere, received a patent for it. Much of the confusion (and lack of credit) to Ms. Johnson comes from the fact that she sold her rights to William Young for just $200 (still a pretty good sum in those days). He at least had the courtesy to call the machine the “Johnson Patent Ice-Cream Freezer.”.Mass Production – Finally, Ice Cream To The People.The hand crank might have been fine for backyard picnics, but no one considered ice cream making as an industry – until Jacob Fussell in 1851. The milk dealer was looking for a way to keep a steady demand for his cream. He discovered that he could do so by turning it into ice cream – and he could get twice the price! His Baltimore factory utilized icehouses and a larger version of Johnson’s machine, and by the start of the Civil War he had additional ice cream plants in New York, Washington, and Boston. Ice cream still didn’t become a widespread phenomenon until the 20th century, when advances in refrigeration and power allowed for the dramatic increase in production as shown in the chart below:
Who REALLY Invented The Ice Cream Cone?
And if you thought the invention of the sundae was confusing, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Many histories proclaim that the ice cream cone was invented in 1904 at the St. Louis World’s Fair (the Louisiana Purchase Exposition), when Syrian immigrant Ernest Hamwi gave some of his “zalabia” (a waffle-like
pastry) from his pastry cart to neighboring Arnold Fornachou, who had run out of paper dishes to serve his ice cream in at his adjoining ice cream cart at the fair. Another version has Hamwi teaming up with a different ice cream vendor named Charles Menches, who also ran out of dishes.Well, wait…yet another vendor named Abe Doumar said he created the cone and sold it nightly at the fair. Hang on…fair vendor David Avayou said the same thing, claiming he knew of “cones of pastry” from France. All in all there were about 50 ice cream vendors and more than a dozen waffle stands at the fair, so it’s very likely there were several vendors selling some version of an ice cream cone. Certainly, the cone became universally popular after this date. Despite the number of claimants, most ice cream experts and associations give the credit to Hamwi .But - let us seriously consider ItaloMarciony (also spelled Marchioni and Marcioni)– who claimed he created the ice cream cone on September 22, 1896! He sold his cones from a pushcart in New York City, and his claim may be the best, since he had a patent for a waffle mold, granted in December, 1903, eight months before the St. Louis Fair! His invention was “…like a waffle iron and producing several small pastry cups with sloping sides.” .Most give Hamwi the credit because he had been a sailor, and early ice cream cones were supposedly shaped around a sailor''s tool, which Hamwi had with him in his pastry cart (so the story goes), and he eventually went on to start his own cone making company
And History Is Still Being Made Today...
In April, 2004, Zinger''s Ice Cream began making homemade ice cream. Partly to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ice cream cone (or 101st, if you are in the Marciony camp), and partly to offer visitors a better ice cream with more diverse flavors, "Zinger''s Homemade" is a combination of old-fashioned creaminess and 21st Century flavors.