Who Invented Ice Cream?

The term “ice cream” can mean all frozen confections, including ice cream, gelato,  sorbet, and sherbet. It can also mean only frozen confections with cream or milk in them. In any case, throughout history there have been many ways to mix fruit, honey or milk with snow or ice to make a delicious and cool dessert.  

The Arabs made an interesting contribution to ice cream when they began using sugar or syrup in place of honey. In the 10th century B.C., you could buy a concoction made with fruits and nuts added to sweetened ice cream in major Arab cities. In the 7th century B.C., Chinese King Tang created desserts from ice and milk. The Italian explorer Marco Polo, in 1295, brought back from China a way of making a new kind of snow ice cream. According to the recipe, you mix yak milk with snow. This made it creamy and became popular very quickly.  Soon there were many different combinations of milk, snow, fruit, and honey. 

Sorbet

The Chinese were the first people to eat snow ice cream. Snow and ice was blended with fruit or honey to make a tasty treat. This may have even been done in prehistoric times. 

A kind of snow cone was available in markets in Athens during the 5th century B.C.  Around 400 B.C., the Persians made a treat with vermicelli and rosewater.  This cool treat was sometimes mixed with fruit. In the 1st century, Roman Emperor Nero had ice brought down from the mountains and had it mixed with fruit. 

History

When Catherine de Medici of Italy married Henry II in 1533, she became the Queen of France. When she moved to France, she took her ice cream recipe with her.  Soon, cooks all over France were making this delicious dessert. A French chef began selling ice cream in a shop and made variations to the recipe by adding other flavors, like chocolate and strawberry. Ice cream made it to England after Charles I visited France in the 17th century.

Americans got their first taste of ice cream in 1700. Maryland Governor Bladen, who was English, served ice cream to his guests. New York City had the first ice cream parlor, which opened in 1776. Some say it was the Americans who first used the term “ice cream” which was a shortened form of the term “iced cream.”

The ice cream cone was first served at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 by E.A. Hamwi.  Some say he made a waffle cone to help out an ice cream vendor that didn’t have any bowls left.

Chris Nelson, who owned an ice cream parlor in Iowa, came up with the idea of a chocolate covered ice cream bar in 1920. One of his customers couldn’t decide between an ice cream sandwich and a chocolate candy bar, so he got the idea of combining the two. So he developed a chocolate covered ice cream bar on a stick and called it the “I-Scream-Bar.”  In 1934, the name was changed to “Eskimo Pie.”

Inventions

There’s not really a good answer for, “Who invented ice cream.” But, there were several inventions associated with it:

• In Europe, ice cream was made in a bowl which sat inside a large tub filled with ice and salt. The “pot-freezer method” was the name of this process.
• In 1843, a patent was granted to Nancy Johnson for a hand crank ice cream freezer.
• Alfred Cralle developed an ice cream scoop and an ice cream mold in 1897.

It was the Chinese, the Arabs, or simply people in ancient times who invented ice cream. Ice cream continues to change and evolve as people try to improve on its cool, creamy goodness. It is loved by people of all countries and all ages. As Jim Fiebig said, "Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone."