ice cream
Origin: 1744
Italy apparently invented the delicious practice of adding sweetener and flavoring to cream and freezing it, and England heard of this iced cream before the colonies did, but we Americans can at least claim to have invented the modern name for it--dropping the d to make ice cream. In Philadelphia as long ago as 1744 there was mention of "some fine Ice Cream" served with strawberries and milk. For centuries after that, Philadelphia ice cream was the name for ice cream of a distinctive type, made without eggs. Philadelphia was also the birthplace of the ice cream soda. That first combination of America's favorite treat with America's favorite beverage took place in 1874 at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
The rest of the country, too, participated in the enthusiasm for ice cream. When we did not make it by hand at home, we went in colonial days to ice cream houses, then in the early 1800s to ice cream gardens and ice cream saloons, and finally, toward the end of that century, to ice cream stands and ice cream parlors. And the process of making it was improved by Nancy Johnson's invention of the ice cream freezer in 1846.
A major invention of the late nineteenth century was the ice cream sundae. Its odd name comes from Sunday, but why is still anyone's guess. Some say it was first sold only on that day of the week. In 1904 St. Louis was the birthplace of what became known as the ice cream cone. It was invented at the world's fair there, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, supposedly when a vendor of ice cream ran out of cups and had edible ones made by a pastry shop next door. The twentieth century has also seen the American invention of the ice cream bar, which is on a stick with a coating; the ice cream sandwich; soft ice cream, which is dispensed from a spout; premium ice cream with the richest of ingredients; and imitation ice milk with the poorest.