Other Notable Dates and Trivia

In 1905 little Frank Epperson, at the age of 11, invented the first popsicle, originally called The Epsicle. He had inadvertently left his fruit flavored soda on the porch overnight with a stick in it and it froze to the stick. Eighteen years later, in 1923 Epperson received a patent for frozen ice on a stick, The Epsicle ice pop, which his children renamed the Popsicle.

In 1651, Italian Francesco dei Coltelli opened an ice cream café in Paris and the product became so popular that during the next 50 years another 250 cafés opened in Paris.
The first ice cream parlor in America opened in New York City in 1776.

Invention of the ice cream soda is usually attributed to Robert M. Green, who operated a soda water concession in Philadelphia. Green, who sold a mix of carbonated water, cream, and syrup, apparently ran out of cream and substituted ice cream, hoping his customers wouldn't notice. But they did and daily sales receipts climbed from $6 to $600.

During the Victorian period, drinking soda water was considered improper, so some towns banned its sale on Sundays. An enterprising druggist in Evanston, IN, reportedly concocted a legal Sunday alternative containing ice cream and syrup, but no soda. To show respect for the Sabbath, he later changed the spelling to "sundae."

In 1843, New England housewife Nancy Johnson invented the hand-cranked ice cream churn. She patented her invention but lacked the resources to make and market the churn herself. Mrs. Johnson sold the patent for $200 to a Philadelphia kitchen wholesaler who, by 1847, made enough freezers to satisfy the high demand. From 1847 to 1877, more than 70 improvements to ice cream churns were patented.

The first commercial ice cream plant was established in Baltimore in 1851 by Jacob Fussell.

The development of industrial refrigeration by German engineer Carl von Linde during the 1870s eliminated the need to cut and store natural ice and when the continuous-process freezer was perfected in 1926, it allowed commercial mass production of ice cream and the birth of the modern ice cream industry.

An ice cream shop in Venezuela, Helados Coromoto, is listed in the Guinness book of World Records as serving the most flavors: 550!

12 pounds of milk are needed to make one gallon of ice cream. It takes about 50 licks to eat a single scoop ice cream cone.

The largest ice cream sundae in the world weighed in at a whopping 54,914 pounds. It was made by Palm Dairies Ltd. of Alberta, Canada, in 1988.

Before the invention of the cone, ice cream was either licked out of a small glass (a penny lick, penny cone, penny sucker, or licking glasses) or taken away wrapped in paper which was called a "hokey pokey." The customer would lick the ice cream off the dish and return the dish to the vender, who washed it and filled it for the next customer.

Ice cream in a cup also became known as a "toot," which many have been derived from the Italian word "tutti" or "all," as customers were urged to "Eat it all." They were also known as "wafers," "oublies," "plaisirs," "gaufres," "cialde," "cornets," and "cornucopias."

Ice cream became an edible morale symbol during World War II. Each branch of the military tried to outdo the others in serving ice cream to its troops. In 1945, the first "floating ice cream parlor" was built for sailors in the western Pacific. When the war ended, and dairy product rationing was lifted, America celebrated its victory with ice cream. Americans consumed over 20 quarts of ice cream per person in 1946.

The closing of bars that sold wine and beer in 1919 led to the opening of many ice cream parlors in the United States.

In Southern China, there's a kind of cold food made of mung bean, called (pinyin: ludòusha, literally: sand of mung bean), similiar to the ice cream. Mung bean was smashed into sauce and stir with milk and sugar. Often sold in bowl or cup.

Three Claims to the Ice Cream Cone:

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. A vendor named Abe Doumar said he created the cone and sold it nightly at the St. Louis World’s fair. Vendor, David Avayou claimed he knew of “cones of pastry” from France.

Italo Marciony claimed he created the ice cream cone on September 22, 1896. He sold his cones from a pushcart in New York City. He had a patent for a waffle mold, granted in December, 1903, eight months before the St. Louis Fair.

Both paper and metal cones were used in France, England, and Germany before the 19th century. Travelers to Düsseldorf, Germany reported eating ice cream out of edible cones in the late 1800s.