Of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making

Seven. Modern Times

seven Modern Times 155 At the turn of the twentieth century, ice cream was one of the country’s best-loved desserts, and the cone was about to become its constant partner . The ice cream cone had originated in the nineteenth century, but it didn’t become a popular street food until after the 1904 World’s Fair in Saint Louis.Many of the visitors to the fair ate an ice cream cone there for the first time and took a taste for the treat home with them afterward.They made the ice cream cone an American institution. The fair,or as it was actually named,the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, belatedly celebrated the centennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and welcomed in the twentieth century with great style. It was the biggest, most spectacular, most extravagant fair the country had ever known. The event was by all accounts a huge success and helped revitalize Saint Louis, which had been suffering the effects of the depression of the mid-1890s. Composed of 1,272 acres of exhibit halls, gardens, lagoons, and a mileand -a-half-long midway called the Pike, it cost nearly fifty million dollars, more than the price of the Purchase itself.1 In fact, one of its exhibits was the original Treasury draft of fifteen million dollars for the Louisiana Purchase . Other exhibits included everything from art from the Vatican’s collection to Jefferson’s original version of the Declaration of Independence. Some features were less exalted. There was a bear made from prunes, a palace made from corn, and an elephant made from almonds.2 The states constructed buildings in local architectural styles.Maine’s was a log cabin. California’s was a mission-style building. Texas built a structure in the form of a five-pointed star.Sarah Tyson Rorer ran the main restaurant and sold her World’s Fair Souvenir Cook Book. Ice cream cones were among the many refreshments sold at the fair, and there are many stories about its invention there. The cone—but not the ice cream cone—dates back many centuries. It can be traced back at least to the ancient Greeks, who made flat cakes cooked between two hot metal plates and called them obelios. The French initially called them oublies, either after the Greek or from the Latin oblata, meaning “offering” or “unconsecrated host.” A wafer-makers guild was established in France in the thirteenth century, and since its members also made hosts for the Catholic mass, they were supposed to be men of irreproachable character, not the sort who frequented prostitutes. They were so discreet that it was said lovers trusted them to deliver clandestine notes without arousing the suspicion of their spouses. The wafer makers sold their wares on the street, at fairs, and in front of churches on feast days. Some rolled their oublies into cornets and tucked them inside each other, selling five as a main d’oublies, or hand of wafers.3 The wafers were generally made with a batter that could be as simple as a flour-and-milk combination or as rich as a mixture of flour, eggs, cream, butter, sugar, and a flavoring. After the batter was mixed, it was cooked on two hot metal plates or irons that were hinged together. The wafer maker squeezed the plates together by the handles and held them over a fire until the wafers were cooked, then turned them out to dry. Other cooks baked wafers in ovens. Either way, the wafers were pliable before they dried, so they could be rolled into the shape of a cylinder, a cup, or a cone while still warm. As they cooled, they became crisp and held their shape. In the 1734 edition of French chef François Massialot’s Nouvelle instruction pour les confitures, les liqueurs, et les fruits (New Instruction for Jams, Liqueurs, and Fruits), a recipe for wafers concluded by noting that, when the wafer was ready,it should be rolled on a wooden implement made for the purpose, then put back in the stove to dry and crisp.4 More than a century later, in his 1866 book The Royal Confectioner: English and Foreign, 156 / Modern Times Charles Elmé Francatelli included a recipe for chocolate wafers, which he called “Spanish Wafers.” He wrote, “When done, curl them in the form of cornucopiæ, using a wooden form...