ROMAN EMPIRE
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.
1254-1324
The Italian Marco Polo returned from his
famous journey to the Far East with a recipe for making water ices resembling
modern day sherbets.
1533
The myth continues with the Italian chefs of the young Catherine
de'Medici taking this magical dish to France when she went there
in 1533 to marry the Duc d'Orleans,
1559
Ice cream appears in Italy as ice and salt are discovered
to make a freezing combination.
1625 - 1649
The french chef of King Charles I of England concocted
an apparently new dish for a sumptous state banquet. 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 divulge 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 disfavour 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.
1673
It seems to have been called iced cream at first (1673), in line with
such expressions as iced tea and iced coffee.
1774
In 1774, a caterer named Phillip Lenzi announced in a
New York newspaper that he had just arrived from London and would be offering
for sale various confections, including ice cream.
1782
Ice cream is served at a Philadelphia party given by the
French envoy to honor the new American republic.
1813
Dolley Madison, wife of U.S. President James Madison,
served ice cream at her husband's Inaugural Ball in 1813.
1846
The first improvement in the manufacture of ice cream (from the handmade
way in a large bowl) was given to us by a New Jersey woman, Nancy
johnson, who in 1846 invented the hand-cranked freezer. This
device is still familiar to many. By turning the freezer handle, they
agitated a container of ice cream mix in a bed of salt and ice until the
mix was frozen. Because Nancy Johnson lacked the foresight to have her
invention patented, her name does not appear on the patent records. A
similar type of freezer was, however, patented on May 30, 1848, by a Mr.
Young who at least had the courtesy to call it the "Johnson Patent
Ice Cream Freezer".
1851
Commercial production was begun in North America in Baltimore,
Maryland, 1851, by Mr. Jacob Fussell, now known as the
father of the American ice cream industry.
1896
Italian immigrant Italo Marchiony patents
the first ice cream cone mold.
1926
About 1926 the first commercially-successful continuous
process freezer was perfected. The continuous freezer, developed by Clarence
Vogt, and later ones produced by other manufacturers, has allowed
the ice cream industry to become a mass producer of its product.
1930
Dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) is introduced commercially
in the United States for purposes such as keeping ice cream cold. |
