Ice Cream

Everyone Loves Ice Cream!

Do you know anyone who doesn't like ice cream? Probably not. It's one of the most popular foods eaten in the United States and Vermont is home to one of the most popular ice cream producers: Ben & Jerry's.

While the history of ice cream is based on a variety of legends and anecdotes (see The History of Ice Cream below), it is now a part of our American culture. It's an icon that is associated with hot summer days as a way to cool off, it's a treat for a child or adult, and it brings people together in communities at events like "ice cream socials."

Vermont's dairy farmers help produce the top quality milk products needed to make one of our favorite desserts. This section on ice cream includes information on nutrition, how ice cream is made and links you to some of the many Vermont ice cream makers throughout the state.

The History of Ice Cream

Around 3,000 years go, the Emperors of China are believed to have enjoyed frozen delicacies made from snow and ice flavored with fruit, wine and honey.

In the 4th Century B.C., Alexander the Great is said to have been fond of iced beverages, and by 62 A.D., the Roman Emperor Nero is recorded to have sent fleets of slaves to the Apennine mountains to collect snow and ice to be flavored with nectar, fruit pulp and honey.

Legend also has it that the great adventurer Marco Polo brought back recipes for water ices from China to Venice (Italy) in the 13th Century, however since the Persian Empire was already enjoying frozen fruit juice, teas, wines and liqueurs by then, it seems more likely that these products spread to Italy via Persia. The Arabic word charab is thought to be the derivation of the Italian sorbetto, French sorbet and English sherbet.

Catherine de Medici of Florence took her cooks and sorbetto recipes with her when she married Henry II and became Queen of France in 1533. Charles I of England is then thought to have purchased the formula for "frozen milk" from a French chef in the 17th Century. As they spread through the royal houses of Europe, eggs and cream also began to be added, and the frozen delicacies came to be known as "cream ices".

In 1660 an Italian, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, started to sell cream ices to Paris society from his Cafe Procope. Decorated frozen desserts became fashionable - the bombe glacee, parfait, coupe, and mousse.

By now ice was being commercially harvested from frozen lakes, with salt added to lower the Freezing Point (and temperature) for more efficient storage and freezing. This meant ice cream was no longer exclusive to the nobility.

In 1760 "The Compleat Confectioner" cookbook contained a method for making raspberry ice cream.

The U.S. President's wife Dolly Madison created a sensation when she served ice cream as a dessert in the White House at the second inaugural ball in 1812.

An American woman, Nancy Johnston, invented and patented the hand-cranked ice cream freezer (a similar concept to a butter churn, but with ice and salt packed around the outside) in 1843, and in 1851 the first ice cream "factory" (using manually operated churns) was set up by Jacob Fussell in Baltimore, USA.

The first commercial ice-making machine was invented in Australia in 1855, and refrigeration and mechanisation of the ice cream manufacturing process took place in the 1880's and 1890's. The invention of the homogeniser by August Gaulin (France) in 1899 allowed a much smoother ice cream texture, and the brine freezer (1902) permitted faster freezing.

At the St. Louis (USA) World Fair in 1904, a Syrian waffle vendor named E.A. Hamwi is credited with introducing the ice cream cone, when he started rolling waffles into cone shapes for the benefit of an ice cream vendor in an adjoining booth.

Prohibition in the USA (1919) resulted in many bars being converted into ice cream parlors, which is when the popularity of ice cream boomed.

The first mechanical horizontal batch ice cream freezer was invented by H.H. Miller of Canton, Ohio, USA, and about 1926 the first continuous freezer was commercialised by Clarence Vogt of Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

Many further refinements to manufacturing equipment have taken place since then, but by this stage the basic technology was in place to produce the ice cream that we know and love today.

- Sources: International Ice cream Association and others.