Published 17:55 IST, July 23rd 2020
First ice cream cone was created on this day in 1904, know more about your scoop here
The idea of filling a pastry cone with two scoops of ice cream and thereby inventing the first ice cream cone was conceived on July 23, 1904.
While the exact origin of the combination of an edible wafer or waffle with ice cream remains unclear, according to some accounts, the idea of filling a pastry cone with two scoops of ice cream and thereby inventing the ‘ice cream cone’ was conceived on July 23, 1904. The classic American food item’s origins are linked mostly to the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair. It is believed that it is from the time of the Fair that the edible ‘cornucopia’, a cone made from a rolled waffle, vaulted into popularity in the United States.
Anecdotes to the ice cream cone certainly existed before 1904, however, people had been eating ice cream from various cone-like containers and they didn’t eat the containers themselves. According to the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), the creation of waffle cone was introduced by Ernest A Hamwi, a Syrian concessionaire.
Part of ‘the great American institution’
The IDFA informed that Hamwi was selling a crisp waffle-like pastry in a booth right next to an ice cream vendor. When the ice cream booth ran out of dishes, it was then that Hamwi quickly rolled one of his wafer-like waffles in the shape of a cone and gave it to the ice cream vendor. As the waffle cone cooled in few seconds and the vendor was able to put some ice cream in it, ‘ice cream cone’ was invented and it became a part of ‘great American institution’.
According to IDFA, Stephen Sullivan of Missouri in 1906 then became the first known independent operators in the ice cream cone business. As the modern cone developed, two distinct types of cones also emerged. The rolled cone was a waffle baked in a round shape and rolled as soon as it came off the griddle. On the other hand, the second type of cone was moulded either by pouring the batter into a shell, inserting core on which the cone was baked, and then removing the core and then splitting the mould so the cone could be removed with little difficulty.
It was in the 1920s that the cone business was expanded. As per IDFA tally, in 1924 the cone production reached a record of 245 million. With slight changes in the automatic machinery, the ice cream cone today is one of the classic dessert food. Millions of rolled cones are turned out on machines that are capable of producing about 150,000 cones every 24 hours.
Updated 17:55 IST, July 23rd 2020