Today was the day in 1904 that a guy at the St. Louis World’s Fair took a pastry cone, put two scoops of ice cream inside, and changed the dessert world forever.
Well, except for two things: there are a whole bunch of origin stories of the ice cream cone at the St. Louis World’s Fair.
And there were ice cream cones way before the fair.
There are so many stories about where the ice cream cone came from!
When I was growing up, the story I heard was that there was a guy running a waffle cart somewhere, next to a guy selling cups of ice cream.
Supposedly when the ice cream guy ran out of cups, the waffle guy rolled up one of his creations and suggested he put a scoop on top.
Here’s what we actually know: one historian found a reference to cone-shaped containers for ice cream all the way back in 1724.
And the first image of a person eating ice cream out of a cone was in 1807.
That said, cones definitely weren’t the standard way to eat ice cream back then.
In those times, ice cream was usually only available to wealthy people, and they typically ate it out of a dish or a glass.
Later in the 19th Century, when ice cream was more broadly available, people could get a taste of ice cream from a street vendor through what was called a “penny lick.”
That was a glass dish that people would use like a cone, and they weren’t always washed when one user finished licking and the next began.
So, along with your dessert, you could get a side of tuberculosis.
In the years leading up to the St. Louis World’s Fair, a guy named Italo Marchiony obtained a patent for edible waffle-like cups with little handles.
Then, in 1904, seemingly every person at the Fair invented and sold their version of an ice cream cone.
Even if they weren’t invented there, we do know that the Fair made ice cream cones more popular than ever.
People liked the idea of being able to buy an ice cream and then take it with them, so they didn’t have to hang around the ice cream vendor to give back a cup or dish.
Today we go through huge numbers of cones a year, and in a couple different shapes.
Writer and historian Anne Cooper Funderburg says that the cones with points at the ends were the standard all the way until the 1940s.
That’s when Joseph Shapiro of the Maryland Cup Corporation came up with a cone that was flat on the bottom, so Dairy Queen employees could set them on the counter as they filled customers’ orders.
Yesterday in 1940 was the birthday of game show giant Alex Trebek.
The US Postal Service is remembering Trebek this year with a stamp that includes a Jeopardy-style clue that reads: “THIS NATURALIZED U.S. CITIZEN HOSTED THE QUIZ SHOW ‘JEOPARDY!’ FOR 37 SEASONS.”
Remember to phrase your response in the form of a question!
Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla : a history of American ice cream by Anne Cooper Funderburg
The Murky History of the Ice Cream Cone (TIME)
The USPS Commemorates Alex Trebek With a Forever Stamp in the Form of a ‘Jeopardy’ Question (Laughing Squid)
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