It is not certain that the earliest confections going under this name were the same with the delicious ones now made. Mrs. Hamilton (1855) seems to have been mistaken in her claim. See 1744.
1688. All such Fruits, Iced Creams, &c. … as the Season afforded.—London Gazette, No. 2383. (N.E.D.)
1744. Among the rarities of which [the dessert] was compos’d was some fine ice cream, which, with the strawberries and milk, eat [ate] most deliciously.—‘Journal of Wm. Black,’ May 19: Penna. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., ii. 126. [This entertainment was given by Governor Thomas Bladen at Annapolis, Md. The compiler is indebted for the citation to Mr. Albert Matthews.]
1769. “To make Ice-Cream.”—Receipt in Mrs. Raffald’s ‘English Housekeeper’ (1788), p. 249. (N.E.D.)
1789. Nor any lady changes colour with trepidation at the severity visible in her husband’s countenance when the chickens are over-roasted, or the ice-creams melt with the room’s excessive heat.—Mrs. Piozzi, ‘Journey in France,’ i. 181. (N.E.D.)
1796. Samuel Richardet announces that “Tea, Coffee, Soupes, Jellies, Ice Creams, &c.,” will be supplied by him at the City Tavern, Philadelphia.—Gazette of the U.S., April 21.
1800. Bosse, French cook, at the New Caveau Hotel, Phila., supplies “Ice Cream and other refreshments.”—The Aurora, March 7.
1806. A few years ago, when the democrats were bawling for Jefferson and Clinton, one of the polls was held in the city of New-York at a place where ice-cream was sold.—The Balance, May 13, p. 146/3. (Italics in the original.)
1819. They seemed to enjoy the appearance which this caricature of a man made, holding a glass of ice cream in one hand, and with the other occasionally arranging his bushy hair.—St. Louis Enquirer, Sept. 15.
1822. [He had] no bills to exchange, except a ragged note, which he intended to barter for an ice-cream, a glass of punch, and a cigar.—Boston Patriot, Sept. 7.
1822.
| There’s calv’s foot jelly sister Bet | |
| Can make as well as Peter; | |
| And Ice cream I will never get | |
| For any living creature. | |
Pennsylvania Intelligencer, Dec. 3: from The Microscope. |
1829. [Such was the confusion at the President’s levee] that wine and ice cream could not be brought out to the ladies, and tubs of punch were taken from the lower story into the garden, to lead off the crowd from the rooms.—Mass. Spy, April 8: from The Village Record.
1837. They actually halted at a confectioner’s on their way from church, and called for ice-creams!—Knick. Mag., ix. 262 (March).
1844. One who cared as little about the picturesque as a shovel-nosed shark for an ice cream.—Watmough, ‘Scribblings and Sketches,’ p. 110.
1853. Happy Folks. A child with a rattle, two lovers walking by moonlight, a gent imbibing a sherry cobbler, a boy sucking new cider through a straw, and two country misses over ice-cream.—Daily Morning Herald, St. Louis, Feb. 22.
1855. Mrs. Alexander Hamilton once told a friend that she was the first person in the U.S. for whom ice cream was made [ascribing the introduction of it to a cook from Paris].—Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, Kas., June 2.
