It's a fact: The history of ice cream

There are many tales and myths written about the history of ice cream and how it originates. However. the earliest form of ice cream was first produced way back in the 1600s.

An English tale...

Charles I of England would host rather large banquets for all of his family and friends. These people were referred to as "Royals". It was Charles wish to serve lavish dinners for the royals when they came to visit.

Due to the fact that Charles was the King of England, he always requested that someone tend to his every need. The person that prepared his breakfast, dinner and tea was his chef, DeMirco. It is unknown whether DeMirco hails from Italy or France. This chef was a fantastic cook; he always came up with new dishes to please his very demanding King.

One hot summers night while the chef was preparing after dinner dessert in the Kings large kitchen he came up with a new recipe. When this dessert was prepared it looked like somebody had placed a bowl under a blizzard of snow but the dessert did not taste like snow, it was sweet and creamy. The King, his family and his friends were delighted with the dessert.

King Charles and the Royals indulged on the "frozen cream". King Charles was so satisfied by the dessert that he did not want anybody else except the Royals to experience this beautiful tasting "frozen cream". Charles insisted that DeMirco make a promise to him. DeMirco had to promise the King that he would not let the recipe for the "frozen cream" escape from the palace. This dessert was to be served to the Royals only.

In 1649 it was decided by the citizens of England that King Charles should be executed. Within a short period of time Charles was beheaded. Shortly after Charle's death DeMirco broke the promise that he had made to his slain King. He announced his recipe for the "frozen cream" to many eager listeners. It was not long before the recipe was widespread throughout England and by word of mouth the recipe was vastly spread in many other countries also.

A Roman tale...

Long ago in Rome the person that ruled the country was referred to as an Emperor. In those days an emperor had many slaves. The emperor in Rome during the 1600s was Nero Claudius Caesar.

Caesar thoroughly enjoyed fruit drinks. He wished to have his drinks cold but in those days the refrigerator was not yet invented. He demanded that his slaves climb the steep mountains and return with large amounts of ice to maintain his fruit drinks at very low temperatures.

Nowadays the frozen fruit drinks resemble the ice cream sticks seen in the freezers of your local supermarket. Centuries after King Charles and Claudius Ceasar, the explorer Italian Marco Polo returned from his famous journey to the Far East with a recipe for making water ices resembling modern day sherbets!

The Cone!
Everybody enjoys a cone during the summer time but did you ever wonder how the idea of the famous ice cream cone originates?

In the late 1800s Italo Marciony decided to immigrate to America. He made a living by selling lemon ice from a pushcart. The lemon ice sold very well but Marciony did encounter a problem. The lemon ice was sold in little glasses, people licked the ice from the glass and paid a penny to do this, hence the name "penny licks". While one enjoyed the penny licks it was not very hygienic because the germs were transferred from one person to the next via the penny licks glass. It was costing Marciony a lot of money to produce the penny licks because the glasses were accidentally broken and they were also stolen by the customers.

To resolve this problem he decided to sell his lemon ice in paper containers in the shape of a cone. This worked very well for Marciony, he made a greater profit and germs were not passed on from consumer to consumer. He then had a fantastic brainwave, he invented an edible container. These were waffle cups in the shape of the penny licks glass, sloping sides with a flat bottom.

These containers were very popular with his customers. Marciony decided to patent this fantastic idea. This patent was issued to him on the 15th of December 1903. The idea of the edible cup lives on today and is famously referred to as a "99" cone.

Did you ever ask yourself where the name "99" derived from?

Centuries ago, during the time of the monarchy in Italy the King requested that 99 soldiers guard him continuously. From then on if one were lucky enough to obtain anything that was special or of upper class it was referred to as "99".

During the 1930s Cadburys introduced the small flakes for the ice cream cones. At this time the ex-pat Italians accounted for the majority of the ice cream market so in order for Cadburys to increase their sales they targeted the Italians by naming their, now very famous flake, "99".