The U.S. dairy industry produces more than 1.6 billion gallons
of ice cream a year, according to the International Dairy Foods
Association. Americans eat 48 billion scoops of ice cream a
year—$20 billion worth. Photo courtesy Carmela Ice Cream. Last
Updated April 2013 The History Of Ice Cream & The Ice Cream Cone
Plus The Sundae, Ice Cream Sodas, Frozen Custard & Frozen
Novelties Page 1: Ancient China Invents Frozen Desserts This is
Page 1 of an eight-page article on the history of ice cream.
Click on the black links below to visit other pages. 2000
B.C.E.: An Ancient Treat It’s logical to think of ice cream as a
modern food because freezing technology is relatively recent.
But mankind has been enjoying ice cream for thousands of years:
up to 4,000 years ago, the Chinese elite enjoyed a frozen
dessert. The earliest may have been a frozen syrup. According to
Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat in her History of Food, “They poured
a mixture of snow and saltpeter over the exteriors of containers
filled with syrup, for, i