We all scream for ice cream

We might think of ice cream as a modern creation because it’s frozen, but ancient flavored ice cream dates back to the inventive Chinese, who began eating their version as early as 3000 B.C.

It was originally snow or ice mixed with honey and maybe some berries. And once again, that adventurous explorer, Marco Polo, can take credit for bringing the idea from China to his native Italy, where the royal court of the Medici family embraced it. These ice creams were the forerunners of our modern Italian ice creams, sorbets and sorbets. In 1553, Catherine de’ Medici married French King Henry II and introduced him to the frozen treat. It was a great success at court, but like so many other specialties, ice cream was only available to the elite and the masses were left out.

By the mid-17th century, chefs were using dairy mixed with ice and calling it “creamy ice cream.” Lacking freezers, some Italian cooks had “runners” who were sent into the mountains in search of snow and rushed back with their precious cargo before it melted. The frozen concoction was reported to be a favorite of Julius Caesar and his friends. A commoner didn’t get a chance to taste royal delight until the first known ice cream parlour, Café Procope, was opened in Paris in 1660 by a Sicilian named Procopio. He added eggs and cream to his recipe, and the world’s love affair with this frozen treat began. The Italians eventually created their own version and called it gelato.

The first official account of ice cream in the US appears in a letter written in 1744 by a guest of Maryland Governor William Bladen. The first known advertisement for ice cream appeared in a New York newspaper on May 12, 1777, when confectioner Philip Lenzi announced that ice cream was available in his shop “almost every day.” Presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Madison served the frozen treat at state dinners.

With the invention of insulated ice houses around 1800, ice cream manufacturing spread on a large scale. An industrious Baltimore milk merchant named Jacob Fussell introduced his town’s residents to this delicious product in 1851, and as mechanical inventions and technology increased, new ways of freezing and homogenizing milk and cream became possible.

As ice cream spread across the country, drug stores began featuring the popular dessert by installing soda fountains. With the invention of ice cold soda, the well-known title “jerk soda” became a household word. When churches condemned consumption as sinful, especially on the Sabbath, clever fountain owners eliminated sparkling water on Sundays to appease the clergy and served simple ice cream instead. One might assume that Sunday was probably the most popular day of the week to enjoy.

Growing up in the ’50s, who didn’t stash a few coins out of mom’s purse to ride a bike to the nearest local store for a popsicle, fudge sundae, or drumstick cone? There was nothing to stop us, as we were wounded.

Not content with simple flavors, the emergence of gourmet ice cream in the 1970s took its place in the form of high-butterfat (and high-priced) premium brands, introduced by Haagen Dazs, Ben and Jerry’s, and many local dairies. Dove Bars became all the rage, after humble beginnings in a local candy store on Chicago’s northwest side, and had been a neighborhood favorite for three decades before the Mars Candy Company bought the recipe in 1985. All of which it showed that Americans gladly paid higher prices for premium brands and inventive flavors.

So there you have it in a nutshell. Whether it’s a sundae, a chocolate ice cream soda, a soft serve, a gelato, a pint of premium ricotta, or the many novelty ice cream creations in your local supermarket’s freezer, we don’t have to shout about it anymore. It is everywhere.