We All Scream for Ice Cream

Ashley Donnellan

Food Research

February 15, 2005

We All Scream For Ice Cream

Who in their right mind could say no to the irresistible taste of ice cream? Being one of my most favorite snacks, I will admit that a carton of ice cream never stays in the fridge for more than a week. I can remember always having ice cream as a very special treat when I was younger, mostly chocolate and vanilla. Nowadays there are so many flavors of ice cream from simple chocolate to cola flavored.

Ice cream may not be as popular as you think it is so here are some fun facts the show just how much us American's love this simple dessert. Currently, ice cream is America's second most favorite dessert according to a 1997 Nielsen survey. About 2.3 billion dollars of ice cream is sold in the America's per year. Its competition, the cookie, holds 3.6 billion dollars in sales per year. The United States is currently the number one country in the world for consumption of ice cream. Its followers are New Zealand, Denmark, and Sweden, to name a few. I consume a large amount of ice cream, but to discover that each American consumes about 23.2 quarts of ice cream a year I was shocked! Keep in mind this is just an average because in the Northern Central States they consume over 41.7 quarts a year. For myself ice cream is best enjoyed a sunny day when you just cannot seem to escape the heat, this is why ice cream sales are the highest in the months July (National Ice Cream Month) and August. I do not want any of my readers to try to tell me they do not buy ice cream because statistics show that 98 percent of households purchase ice cream. Although ice cream is thought of as a child's dessert, adults also consume nearly a half of all ice cream novelties. This tasty treat has always been a favorite, even since its appearance on this earth over sixteen centuries ago.

The invention of ice cream can be traced back to the fourth century (BC) but was never really "discovered" until the 1600's. Much about the history of ice cream has been left to the imagination but historians can give credit to the chef of Charles 1 of England. After much preparation, the King's French chef had concocted an apparently new dish. It was cold and resembled fresh- fallen snow but was much creamier and sweeter than any other after- dinner dessert. The guests were delighted, as was Charles, who summoned the cook and asked him not to reveal the recipe for his frozen cream. The King wanted the delicacy to be served only at the Royal table and offered the cook 500 pounds a year to keep it that way. Sometime later, however, poor Charles fell into disrespect with his people and was beheaded in 1649. But by that time, the secret of the frozen cream remained a secret no more. The cook, named DeMirco, had not kept his promise. It is likely that ice cream was not invented, but rather "came to be" over years of similar efforts. Indeed, the Roman Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar is said to have sent slaves to the mountains to bring snow and ice to cool and freeze the fruit drinks he was so fond of. Centuries later, the Italian Marco Polo returned from his famous journey to the Far East with a recipe for making water ices resembling modern day sherbets. In 1774, a caterer named Phillip Lenzi announced in a New York newspaper that he had just arrived