Ice cream arrived in America

Ice cream arrived in America during the 1700's. George Washington himself brought pewter pot freezers to the United States -useful souvenirs of a trip to France. Thomas Jefferson, the great gourmet president had an icehouse that stored vast quantities of ice, as well as enough servants to laboriously turn and turn and turn the ice canisters used for the ice cream. He didn't have enough vanilla for the taste he preferred but ordered them later from France. With a local river supplying him with ice, he was able to have ice cream all year long.

It was two freed slaves working for Dolly Madison, whose culinary interests are well known,who continued the elite use of ice cream. Sallie Shadd, who ran a catering business, used strawberries from the garden to create a strawberry ice cream. But it was a chef in the White House, Augustus Jackson, who shaped the ice cream into elegant molds that were served on a silver tray. Ice cream was an elite dessert, available to the wealthy.

The industrial age made ice cream available everywhere to everyone. Making ice was a business of its own, one that provided ice for ice boxes, that primitive refrigerator. It was the air inject freezer, however which brought ice cream into the world of commerce. This freezer is able to inject as much as 60% air into the mixture of ice cream. Aptly, it was in Philadelphia where a woman, Nancy Johnson, who came up with a design for a 'machine' with a crank that produced a smooth, creamy ice cream. This was a hand cranked machine, however, and a tedious job for the lover of ice cream, but it did make it possible for the average person to enjoy this cool dessert.

Once established, there was no stopping the rage for ice cream. The eskimo Pie appeared in 1921 and the Good Humor followed rapidly in 1923. In that same year, ann ingenious gent named, Hood, invented a tub-shaped paper cup for serving ice cream. This revolutionary cup was first presented at the National Ice Cream Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. It ultimately found the name Dixie Cup and is still sold, now coated with wax and accompanied by a small plastic spoon. Thee was no rest for innovative ice cream makers and soon that lovely sherbet on a stick appeared, that which is called a Popsicle. This was followed by the invention of a machine that could make soft ice cream to be dispensed in a swirl right on the spot. This became Carvel.

With such enthusiasm and such ingenuity being applied to ice cream it was inevitable that the commercial enterprises would want to lure customers with the promise of variety. At a soda fountain in Boston, an entrepreneur named Howard Johnson promised "28 Flavors" to his customers and an empire was born. Not to be outdone, two gentlemen, one Mr. Basking, the other Mr. Robbins went beyond Johnson and promised 31 flavors.(inmamaskitchen)


See also :
Dim Sum
Sushi