America’s favorite ice cream flavor? Vanilla holds the spot at the top of the charts.

Ice cream: So good it gets its own month
And we have the real scoop …
by Heidi Edidin

July is National Ice Cream Month, originally designated so in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. In the proclamation, Reagan called for all people of the United States to celebrate with “appropriate ceremonies and activities.”
Apparently we do. America’s ice cream industry generates about $20 billion in annual sales. The International Ice Cream Association estimates that the average American eats around 45 pints – that’s just over 5.5 gallons – of ice cream a year. About 10 percent of all the milk produced by dairy farmers in the United States is used to produce ice cream.
Despite trendy flavor combos and clever names, vanilla holds the spot at the top of the charts, followed by the standard choices of chocolate, vanilla and chocolate swirl, and flavors with fruit. Cookies and cream rounds out the country’s top five most popular flavors.

The first scoop
According to the International Dairy Foods Association, the origin of ice cream may reach back in history as far as Alexander the Great, who was known to enjoy a mix of snow and ice flavored with honey and nectar. During the Roman Empire, Caesar also enjoyed the cool confection, frequently sending runners into the mountains for snow, which was then flavored with fruits and juices. Despite their affections for the frozen treat, neither ruler was known for his good humor.
Fast forward 1,000 years: Marco Polo returned to Italy from the Far East with a recipe that closely resembled what we now call sherbet. Historians estimate that this recipe evolved into ice cream sometime in the 16th century. The English discovered ice cream about the same time, calling it “cream ice.” France was introduced to ice cream in 1553 by Catherine de Medici when she became the wife of Henry II of France.
In America, the first official account of ice cream was in the 1700s after a visitor to the governor’s mansion in Maryland wrote of the frozen treat. Historic records show George Washington spent approximately $200 for ice cream during the summer of 1790, and inventory of the Mount Vernon estate taken after Washington’s death included two pewter ice cream pots. Baked Alaska, the ice cream dessert served covered with meringue and then flambéed, was said to have been a favorite of President Thomas Jefferson. And, in 1812, Dolly Madison served strawberry ice cream at President Madison’s second inaugural banquet at the White House.
Until the1800s, ice cream remained a rare and exotic dessert enjoyed mostly by the elite. Around 1800, insulated icehouses helped propel the ice cream industry in America.
The widespread availability of ice cream in the late 19th century led to new creations, like ice cream sodas and sundaes. In response to religious criticism for eating the sinfully rich ice cream sodas on Sundays, ice cream merchants omitted the carbonated water, inventing the ice cream Sunday in the late 1890s. The name was eventually changed to sundae to remove any connection with the Christian Sabbath.

The original coneheads
Italo Marchiony, an Italian emigrant, is credited with inventing the first ice cream cone in 1896 in New York City. He was granted the patent in December 1903.
A similar creation was independently and somewhat accidentally introduced at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair by Ernest Hamwi, who was selling a crisp, waffle-like pastry from a booth next to an ice cream seller. Because of ice cream’s popularity, the vendor ran out of dishes. Hamwi, seeing a solution to the problem, quickly rolled one of his waffles into the shape of a cornucopia and gave it to the ice cream man. The cone-shaped waffle cooled in a few seconds and the vendor put some ice cream in it.
Over time, ice cream production has increased because of technological innovations like steam power, mechanical refrigeration, the homogenizing process, electric power and motors, packing machines, and new freezing processes and equipment. Early on, motorized delivery vehicles dramatically changed the industry. Today, consumers can order their favorite flavors online and have them shipped overnight directly from the dairy to their doorstep.

Make it yourself
These days, ice cream is available at almost every turn. Still, some ice cream aficionados believe the best ice cream is homemade. Hours of churning and the ritual layering of salt and ice may soon be a thing of the past. Ice cream freezers have gone high tech, and electric no-churn freezers are now reasonably priced and available online or at local gourmet or kitchen shops.
If you like to do it yourself, the National and North Carolina Egg Councils recommend against eating ice cream made with raw eggs. Be sure to cook your eggs into a custard first, then cook the custard before pouring the mix into your ice cream freezer.
Unflavored egg substitutes like Egg Beaters are pasteurized and may be eaten raw. If you’d like to forgo cooking the eggs, then use the egg substitute – one-quarter cup for each egg – and proceed.
Homemade ice cream is best eaten right out of the ice cream maker. To freeze leftovers, follow these recommendations by the International Dairy Food Association.
• Do not allow ice cream to repeatedly soften and refreeze. When ice cream’s small ice crystals melt and refreeze, they can eventually turn into large, unpalatable lumps.
• Check the temperature of your freezer. It should be between -5 degrees and 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Ice cream is easy to scoop between 6 degrees and 10 degrees Fahrenheit, the ideal serving temperature range.
• Store ice cream in the main part of the freezer. Do not store ice cream in the freezer door, where it can be subjected to more fluctuating temperatures as the door is repeatedly open and shut.
• Keep the ice cream container lid tightly closed when storing in the freezer.
• Don’t store ice cream alongside uncovered foods; odors may penetrate ice cream and affect its flavor.

It’s in the bag
To make individual portions of ice cream for summertime fun with the kids, let them make their own ice cream without the aid of any type of mechanical freezer. All you need is one pint-sized Ziploc bag and one gallon-sized Ziploc bag for each child. Fill the large bag half full of ice and add six tablespoons of rock salt. Seal the bag. Combine one-half cup of milk or half-and-half with one tablespoon of sugar and one teaspoon of vanilla. Pour this mixture into the smaller Ziploc bag and seal. Place the small bag inside the large one and carefully seal again. Shake for five minutes or so until the mixture in the small bag freezes and becomes ice cream.

Ben & Jerry’s 2005 Scooper Olympics
If you’d rather watch the pros than make your own, visit the sixth annual Charlotte Ben & Jerry’s ice cream Olympics, 10 a.m. July 25 at the Myers Park location (507 Providence Road). The five area Ben & Jerry’s shops will compete in events including speed smoothie making, brownie special relay race, a Ben & Jerry’s trivia contest and ice cream cake decorating. The public is invited to cheer for their favorite team, witness the thrill of victory and enjoy the edible spoils of the competition.
The winning shop will take home the wooden plaque engraved with an Olympic-style logo of five linked ice cream cones. The plaque will be displayed in the winning team’s store until the 2006 competition.

William Christianson, 18 months, digs in at the Myers Park Ben & Jerry’s.