“You scream, I scream, we all scream for Ice Cream!” That was a mantra growing up, but to this day, ice cream is probably the one sweet that is my favorite.

Most people think it was Marco Polo who introduced ice cream to the new world. Actually, a form of ice cream was said to have originated with Nero back in 60 A.D., when he would send slaves to the mountains to retrieve snow which he then mixed with juices to make a concoction similar to sorbet. But it was Marco Polo who brought back a version made with milk mixtures to Europe in the 13th century.

Ice cream made its way to the USA before we became an official nation. In 1700 Governor Bladen of Maryland served ice cream as a dessert to his dinner guests. Ice Cream was also served by many of our first presidents including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. In fact, it is said that Dolly Madison made quite an impact when she served it in 1812 at the second inaugural ball. It was becoming an instant sensation.

In 1843, Nancy Johnson, from New England, invented the first hand cranked ice cream churn and patented it. Unfortunately she didn’t have the revenue to market it so she eventually sold the patent to a Philadelphia kitchen wholesaler for $200. In a 30 year period, between the years of 1847-1877, over 70 patented improvements were made to the original churn. And the first commercial ice cream plant was established in 1851 in Baltimore by Jacob Fussell.

There are a few accounts of how and where the first ice cream cone began. In the early 1900’s, Italo Madison had an ice cream push cart on Wall Street in New York. It was customary to serve the ice cream in glasses, but due to the high costs of breakage and theft, he created a waffle cup to reduce his overhead with the original glass. He then patented this in 1903. 

The other story is that the ice cream cone appeared at the 1904 State Fair in St. Louis. It is said that a vendor ran out of cups and subsequently teamed up with a waffle vendor to create a rolled waffle referred to as “cornucopias.”

The ice cream soda was attributed to Robert Green who mixed soda water, cream and syrup together. One day he ran out of cream and substituted ice cream instead. The customers loved this change and sales soared. During the Victorian era, in some towns, drinking soda was deemed improper, especially on Sundays. So a druggist in Indiana reportedly created an alternative to ice cream soda to be served on Sundays, but minus the soda with just ice cream and syrup. And to be respectful of the Sunday Sabbath, he altered the spelling and penned the name “Sundae.”

A few fun facts:

• It takes 12 pounds of milk to make 1 gallon of ice cream.
• U.S. standards require ice cream to contain a minimum of 10% milk fat and 20% total milk solids.
• A gallon of ice cream must weigh a minimum of 4.5 pounds.
• Dairy Queen was the first soft serve ice cream. It was served in Olympia, Washington.
• Sunday is the day in which the most ice cream is sold.
• Ice cream consumption is highest during July and August.
• July is National Ice Cream month.
• Children between the ages of 2-12 and adults over 45 years, eat the most ice cream.
• Per capita, ice cream consumption in the U.S. is about 5.5 gallons (2005).
  98% of all households purchase ice cream.
• The top 5 producing states are CA, IN, OH, IL and MI, respectively.
• The top 5 cities that purchase the most ice cream per capita are Portland (OR), St. Louis and Seattle.
• The top ice cream consuming countries are U.S.A., New Zealand, Denmark, Australia, Belgium, Sweden, Canada, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, respectively.
• The favorite topping is chocolate syrup.
• The biggest ice cream sundae made was 12 ft. and made with 4,667 gallons of ice cream and 7,000 pounds of toppings in Anaheim, CA, in 1985.
• 80% of the world’s vanilla bean is used for ice cream and grown in Madagascar.
• Top flavors are Vanilla (29%), Chocolate (8.9%), Butter Pecan, (5.3%), Strawberry (5.3%), Neapolitan (4.2%), Chocolate Chip (3.9%), French Vanilla (3.8%) and Cookies & Cream (3.6%).
• 25% of Baskin Robbins ice cream sales are vanilla.
• Haagen Dazs was created in 1959 by Polish born Rueben Mattus. He also created the Danish-sounding name.
• Waste from Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company is given to local farmers to feed to their hogs. The hogs do not like Mint Oreo flavor.
• At one time, it was illegal in Kansas to serve ice cream on cherry pie.
• It takes approx. 50 licks to finish a single scoop ice cream cone.

So, since it is now 109° outside, I think I will go get myself an ice cream cone and cool off.

“I” is for “Ice Cream” and Ice Cream is “Incredibly Yummy!”