May 26, 2022 – THEME WEEK DAY 4

We’re continuing our theme week on all things summer! Today we’re talking about ice cream! There are several accounts of frozen treats in Persia as far back as 550 BC. Roman Emperor Nero also enjoyed a sort of sorbet, made with ice collected from the mountains mixed with wine and honey.
Ice cream was only made possible by the discovery of the endothermic process. The addition of salt lowered the melting point of ice, drawing heat from the cream and allowing it to freeze. Before this, cream could be chilled but not frozen.
The Quakers introduced ice cream to the U.S. During the colonial era, there were ice cream shops in New York and other cities. Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson were all known to be ice cream lovers. Records show that George Washington spent around $200 on ice cream in the summer of 1790, and that Thomas Jefferson had his own 18-step recipe for the frozen treat.
Before the advent of modern refrigeration, ice cream was a luxury eaten by the wealthy or on special occasions. It was quite a process to make it. Ice was cut from lakes and ponds in the winter months and then stored in ice houses for use in the summer. But throughout the 1800s, with advances in refrigeration, homogenization, and delivery methods, the manufacture and distribution made ice cream more mainstream.
Ice cream soda was invented in the 1870s, which helped popularize it even more. The ice cream sundae was developed in the late 1800s, and according to some sources it was invented to skirt blue laws, which forbade serving soda on Sundays. Prohibition also helped increase Americans’ appetites for ice cream, as the soda fountain replaced shuttered bars and saloons.
While edible cones were described in French cookbooks in the 1820s, it wasn’t until the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 that they became popular. An ice cream vendor there ran out of paper cups. He was next to a waffle stand, so he bought some waffles, rolled them into cones, and began serving his ice cream in them.
We Americans love our ice cream! The average American eats around 23 pounds of ice cream and frozen desserts each year! The top 5 flavors are: vanilla, chocolate, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, and chocolate chip cookie dough. Learn more here.