The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-18
OUR BIG ICE CREAM TRADE.
lN ANERKoAN INDUSTRY OF FAST
DIN ENSIONS.

and Foreign Producta-Ltttio AdultcrntiOn.
One industry which has Gourlshcd in this
country for many years, despite tho fiuctuation
OF the tariff and tho internal revenue laws, de-
spite political changes and other things which
10 10 make most trades uncertain, has been
the manufacture OF Ice cream. Tho ice cream
business Is essentially American. In no other
country is half no much OF It made and eaten
rs in tho United States, where 1t is the luxury
Of both rich and poor.
In tho last Eve years, dealers say, the Ice
cream business in the vicinity Of Now York
has increased 20 per cent, and year AFTER year
tho demand becomes greater. The conditions
in Now York apply to other parts of the coun-
try, tho manufacturers horoabout say. ana
rs nearly as they can estimate, the American
people nre eating TO day something hko twice as
much leo cream u week as all the rest OF tho
world. Franco is the only European country
where tho leo cream industry amounts to any
thing. The French people are fond of frozen
sweets, but, like the people OF England, they
care moro for icos and frozen custards and pud-
dings than for what Americans call leo cream.
IL is in America and America alone that leo
cream In popular nbovo all other desserts, hot
or cold, and is tho standard table luxury.
It would surprise some persons very much to
know how much ice cream Is turned out and sold
in this city and Brooklyn in u single day. On
Anniversary Day in Brooklyn, when tho school
children parade. and are then treated to Ice
cream, Strawberries, and cake at the churches,
tho sale of leo cream Is very large. In May
last ono company alone sold to the churches
in Brooklyn 10000 quarts OF American ice
cream. This did not include tho regular sales
OF tho day, but was merely what was sent to the
churches for tho Sunday school children. On
the Fourth of July. or rather the fifth. when the
holiday was celebrated, tho same concern sold
10000 quarts of American leo cream In this
city. This probably represented half of what
was sold in New York on that day, the hun
dreds of candy stores throughout tho city
which manufacture their own cream and ono or
two smaller ice cream companies making up tho
balance.
America got the ice cream idea from France,
and a century ago in one or two places in this
country It was possible to purchase small guam
titles of ice cream. The price was out of all
reason, however, and only the rich could afford
TO pay It. Ice cream making was not an In
dustry then, because there was practically no
demand. The only persons who made ice cream
woro French confectioncrs and bakers, who
learned the art in their Owl country and brought
It over here with them. They had a hard time
training the, American appetite. but their
labors were not in vain. as tho leo cream bust
ness of to-day shows.
Back in the early fortics the first man to go
snto the manufacture of leo cream as a regular
business in this city opened q small shop In
Chatham street, now Park row. His name was
Hall, and he made n frozen custard. which he
called leo cream, tho only ingredients being
milk and eggs. The leo cream expert of a big
concern in this city was asked a short time
ago to write II brief history Of the product, and
no told o SUN reporter the other day that he
couldn't get any further back than Hall. Halls
t,,,;,A., x-na IN Sr,n1l npa af firat hn coil hnt
Increased rapidly until he was able to keep q
horse and wagon. He used to make u regular
trip around the city every afternoon announcing
his presence and his business by shouting, Ice
tired Of the ice cream or the aualityiei off. 20
Halls business went to pieces in a few years,
and it was a long time before anybody started
Tho next trace OF ice cream that the expert
got was in the t%ifties, when Jerome Bonaparte
and his family came to this country and set
tied In Baltimore. Bonaparte had u chef who
couli mako ice cream, and 1t had long beer, a
All Baltimore was eating ice cream a year after
<the Bonapartes came there, and the chef had
demand. At that time the ice cream Industry
began in earnest in this country. Only the
highly favored and very sweet tranch cream
for the poor, the greatest consumers to-day.
1t was about thirty years ago that the Ameri-
1t seemed to please the popular palate, and
that, as much as the low price at which 1t was
EDlu, WIS TtSpOuSiDlc u u SucttSS u II H1uT-
ketable product. Tho price in those days was
not what would BIO called cheap now. 1t was
sale s'a accordins to the grade. Which, wa; "hyiG a
little moro than half OF what the French ice
cream had cost the consumers, To-day the
to what 1t was a quarter of u century ago.
WHOLESALERS at 25 cents and 80 cents a quart.
which has to be 'super-froZen. as the ice
cream men say, and requires more ice to keep it.
went into the manufacture OF leo cream as a
business, and to-day there Is said to be some
try. The Hns S SS1 : daily ahy's sale Of Il ice &c or cream anii ia ef this
city and Brooklyn during, the warm months Is
about $1,000 quarts, which does not include
and sold out Of push carts by Italians to chill
'dren in tho street. This branch of the business
There Is a widespread belief that ice cream
is greatly adulterated and that genuine cream
Sun reporter heard a man say a short time
ago that chemicals were used in brick Ice cream
s smo oeSR y The superintendent Of the beat
known ice cream company in this city. who has
studied Ice cream r an In every very ,, country in the
the stories of adulteration:
'4They are ridiculous. because anyone who
it would hardly pay an ice cream manufactur-
or to use anything but the best materials. Wa
cream or the processes we employ in making it.
In American ice cream we use Orange county
cream, powdered or granulated sugar. and the
that Is all there is in it. and competent men
can mako the best ice cream with these three
articles. In the manufacture of French ice
cream, cream. milk, eggs, and favoring OK.
tracts arc used. More care has to be taken
with tho French cream, and the process OF
making 1t differs in several ways from that EN-.
ployed IN. the manufacture OF American ice
cream. The whole world may know how we
make our French cream, We make no secret
on 1t. We mix the yolk of the egg with
sugar. and; aftersbeating them up well. intro,
milk obtainablc. This is boiled in a kettle
and 1t is this boiling that decides the quality
OF tho leo cream. The mixture must be- taken
on at just the right time or:it Is useless. Amori
cans cannot do this work, and In making the
French and Italian ice creams, which are prac.
IcaIIy the same, we have natives who have
been in the business all their lives. The cor,
applies 70 the Frenehmen and Italians in the
cannot mako 1t SO that it is fit to eat.
After being taken from the fire the mixture
tity of cream ia added, and the whole Is put
into n Vienna freezer with the fayoring. Ii Il
frozen very slowly, and quito differently from
tho way American cream is frozen. The spad.