A Brief History of Ice Cream

Ice cream has been around in various forms since the second century B.C., but it is unclear exactly when it was invented or by whom. Alexander the Great enjoyed eating snow and ice flavored with honey and nectar. King Solomon liked to consume iced drinks during the harvest season. Roman Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar often sent runners into the mountains to retrieve snow that was flavored with fruits and juices.

Over 1,000 years later, Marco Polo returned to Italy from his travels in the Far East with a recipe for a dessert similar to sherbet. Historians believe that ice dream was developed from this recipe sometime in the 1500s. England discovered ice cream around that time, or possibly even earlier. Charles I ate it regularly in the 17th century. When Catherine de Medici of Italy married Henry II in 1553, she introduced ice cream to France. Ice cream was not available to the general public until 1660, when Sicilian Procopio introduced a recipe with milk, cream, butter, and eggs at Café Procope, Paris’s first café.

The first official mention of ice cream in North America came in a letter written by a guest of Maryland Governor William Bladen in 1744. The first American advertisement for ice cream appeared in the New York Gazette on May 12, 1777. Records show that George Washington spent about $200 for ice cream in the summer of 1790. He had two pewter ice cream pots at his house in Mount Vernon. President Thomas Jefferson had an 18-step recipe for an ice cream treat similar to a Baked Alaska. Dolley Madison served strawberry ice cream at President Madison’s second inaugural banquet in 1813.

Until 1800, ice cream was an exotic treat enjoyed mainly by the elite. Insulated ice houses were invented around 1800, and the manufacture of ice cream soon became an industry in the United States. It increased as a result of technological innovations, such as steam power, mechanical refrigeration, the homogenizer, electric power and motors, packing machines, and new freezing processes and equipment. Motorized delivery vehicles also dramatically changed the industry.

In 1874, the ice cream soda was invented, leading to the birth of the American soda fountain shop and “soda jerks.” After being criticized by religious leaders for serving “sinfully” rich ice cream sodas on Sundays, merchants removed carbonated water and invented the ice cream “Sunday” in the late 1890s. The name was eventually changed to “sundae” to eliminate any connection to Sundays.

During World War II, ice cream was used to boost troops’ morale. Each branch of the military tried to outdo others in serving ice cream to troops. The first “floating ice cream parlor” for sailors was built in the western Pacific in 1945. After the war ended and dairy rations were ended, Americans celebrated by eating ice cream. Over 20 quarts per person were eaten in 1946.

Ice cream production was relatively constant in the United States from the 1940s to the 1970s. Ice cream parlors and soda fountains began to disappear as more prepackaged ice cream was sold through supermarkets. Specialty ice cream stores and unique restaurants that serve ice cream have become popular with people who remember ice cream shops and soda fountains, as well as with younger generations. Today, over 1.6 billion gallons of ice cream are produced in the United States per year.