While one perspective suggests honoring tools used to make holes, another points to a day created to throw a few punches at a punching bag. However, we will direct you toward the thirst-quenching version instead. Besides, this delicious, refreshing drink sparkles with celebration. A wide assortment of drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, fall into the category of punch.
A combination of fruit juice and a carbonated beverage, the colorful, bubbly drink sparkles with party personality. In fact, parties, weddings, and other celebrations serve punch as part of the centerpiece at the beverage table. Large wide bowls known as punch bowls provide a beautiful vessel for serving punch.
The word punch is a loanword from Hindi panch (meaning five). Originally, punch was made with five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water, and tea or spices. It was called paantsch.
Soft drink manufacturers today distribute many types of “fruit punch” beverages. Most punch mixes are red in color. However, despite the name, they contain a small fraction of fruit juice. Sugar, corn syrup, citric acid, and artificial flavors make up the main ingredients.
Make some punch and make a toast! Thousands of punch recipes make the beverage versatile and easy to make. Check recipe books and online. Be sure to share your favorites, too! Use #NationalPunchDay to post on social media.
On August 2nd, National Ice Cream Sandwich Day encourages us to cool off with one of our favorite frozen treats. Whether it’s vanilla, strawberry or Neopolitan between two chocolate wafers, the dessert sure will hit the spot on a hot summer day.
The original ice cream sandwich sold for a penny in 1900 from a pushcart in the Bowery neighborhood of New York. Newspapers never identified the name of the vendor in articles that appeared across the country. However, the ice cream sandwiched between milk biscuits became a hit. Soon, pushcarts popped up around the city and country during the summer months selling the portable treats. Early pictures show beachgoers at Atlantic City getting their ice cream sandwichs for 1¢ each.
Once ice cream sandwiches became popular, recipes for home cooks filled the papers. The sandwich layers included everything from angel food and sponge cake to shortbread cookies. Restaurants offered the ice cream sandwich as a decadent dessert for travelers. By 1940, grocers sold sandwiches made with crispy wafers.
One account claims the modern ice cream sandwich with the chocolate wafer was invented in 1945 by Jerry Newberg. The ice cream maker sold his creation at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, PA. At the time, the storied location was home to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers.
If the chocolate brownie wafer doesn’t appeal to you, don’t hesitate to mix it up. All variety of cookies make excellent sandwich parts. Change up the ice cream, too. Around the world, ice cream sandwiches go by a variety of names including the Monaco Bar, Giant Sandwich, Maxibon, Cream Between, Vanilla Slice, and many more.
Dish or cone? That’s all we need to know. National Ice Cream Day on the 3rd Sunday in July offers up every flavor on the menu to honor the day! The holiday also lands in the middle of National Ice Cream Month.
Thousands of years ago, people in the Persian Empire put snow in a bowl, poured concentrated grape-juice over it, and ate it as a treat. Even when the weather was hot, they would savor this sweet treat. Their trick? They placed snow in underground chambers known as yakchal where the temperatures kept the snow from melting. The Persians also hiked to the mountain tops by their summer capital to gather snowfall.
The Chinese, under the Tang Dynasty around 697 AD, took to freezing dairy with salt and ice. However, the results aren’t exactly the ice cream we enjoy today. Frozen treats and beverages later, culinary folks point to Naples, Italy as the birthplace of the first ice cream. They give credit to Antonio Latini. He was born in 1642 and created a milk-based sorbet.
In the United States, the Quaker colonists earn the nod for bringing their ice recipes over with them. They opened the first ice cream shops, including shops in New York and other cities during the colonial era.
U.S. Ice Cream Facts
Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson enjoyed ice cream.
1813 -First Lady Dolley Madison served ice cream at the Inaugural Ball.
1832 – African American confectioner, Augustus Jackson, created multiple ice cream recipes as well as a superior technique to manufacture ice cream.
1843 – Philadelphian, Nancy Johnson, received the first U.S. patent for a small-scale hand-cranked ice cream freezer.
1920 – Harry Burt puts the first ice cream trucks on the streets.
An astonishing fact regarding Thomas Jefferson – his recipe for Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream is believed to be the oldest recipe for ice cream in the USA. The recipe below is provided by the Library of Congress. The transcript is word for word for ease of following along.
Thomas Jefferson’s Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe
The Original Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream Recipe
Ice cream.
2 bottles of good cream. 6 yolks of eggs. 1/2 lb. sugar mix the yolks & sugar put the cream on a fire in a casse -role, first putting in a stick of Vanilla. when near boiling take it off & pour it gently into the mixture of eggs & sugar. stir it well. put it on the fire again stirring it thoroughly with a spoon to prevent it’s sticking to the casse–role. when near boiling take it off and strain it thro’ a towel.
put it in the Sabottiere then set it in ice an hour before it is to be served. put into the ice a handful of salt. put ice all around the Sabottiere i.e. a layer of ice a layer of salt for three layers.
put salt on the coverlid of the Sabotiere & cover the whole with ice. leave it still half a quarter of an hour. then turn the Sabottiere in the ice 10 minutes open it to loosen with a spatula the ice from the inner sides of the Sabotiere. shut it & replace it in the ice. open it from time to time to de- -tach the ice from the sides.
when well taken (prise) stir it well with the Spatula. put it in moulds, justling it well down on the knee. then put the mould into the same bucket of ice. leave it there to the moment of serving it. to withdraw it, immerse the mould in warm water, turning it well till it will come out & turn it into a plate.
Enjoy National Ice Cream Day by sharing some with your family and friends! Experiment with different flavors or go to your favorite ice cream shop. Give them a shout out, too! Post on social media using #NationalIceCreamDay.
On July 7th, it is time to indulge on National Strawberry Sundae Day. Each year on this day, Americans combine vanilla or strawberry ice cream, strawberry sauce, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream. Make several strawberry sundaes, and enjoy this delicious treat with friends and family.
While the oldest known record of an ice cream sundae is an Ithaca, NY advertisement, the originator of the dessert is cooly debated. The October 5, 1892 ad in the Ithaca Daily Journal spelled the ice cream treat with the conventional day of the week spelling – Sunday.
However, Two Rivers, Wisconsin claims that Druggist Edward Berners served the first ice cream sundae in 1881. According to the story, customer George Hallauer ordered an ice cream soda on a Sunday. Since ordinances at the time prohibited the sale of ice cream sodas on the Sabbath, Berners came up with a compromise and served the ice cream in a dish minus the soda. He topped it with chocolate syrup and called it a Sundae. One interesting catch – Berners was 18 at the time the story takes place.
Ithaca’s claim to the ice cream sundae takes place at Platt & Colt Pharmacy in 1892 where Reverend John M. Scott stops to order a bowl of ice cream. When Chester Platt, proprietor, began preparing the ice cream for his customer, he didn’t stop at just a couple of scoops of vanilla. Platt drizzled cherry syrup over the ice cream and topped them with a bright red, candied cherry. The dessert looked and tasted so delightful it required its own name. Since the day was Sunday, it was named for the day it was created. Ithaca also has historical evidence supporting the story, including an advertisement for a Cherry Sunday.
While an origin story for the strawberry sundae hasn’t surfaced, it isn’t a stretch to imagine a strawberry replacing a cherry. Or strawberries topping chocolate. Celebrating sundaes with strawberries and whipped cream just seems worthy of a holiday no matter who created it.
It’s summer! Strawberries and ice cream just go together. What better way to celebrate than with a sundae? Set up a strawberry sundae bar and invite the neighbors to make their own. Maybe they would like to try this sundae recipe. Post on social media using #StrawberrySundaeDay.
What makes I scream, and you scream! We all scream for ice cream of course! July is national ice cream month, and what a perfect time to cool off with a scoop of your favorite flavor (or try what other weird flavors that exist out there).
Like with other foods, the exact origin of ice cream is unknown. What we do know, however, is that the origin of ice cream likely dates back a long time ago. For example, Nero of Rome was said to have enjoyed harvesting ice or snow, then flavoring it with honey or other flavorings. Alexander the Great supposedly enjoyed icy drinks that had flavorings such as honey or nectar.
The first instance of ice cream being in the Unite States, however, was in a letter in 1744 (the author of the letter was a guest of Governor William Bladen.). Early presidents also had a liking towards ice cream. In the summer of 1790, George Washington spent approximately $200 for ice cream (keep in mind that back then $200 was a fairly good sum of money).
Thomas Jefferson actually made his own recipe of ice cream too! Dolly Madison, the wife of President James Madison, served ice cream at the second inaugural ball. For a while, ice cream was only an occasional special treat, mainly for the rich.
In 1843, Nancy Johnson patented the hand crank ice cream maker. About 8 years later, in 1851, Jacob Fussell built the first ice cream factory. The invention of mechanical refrigeration helped kept large amounts of ice cream cool. Improvements and new inventions in technology helped ice cream spread towards the general public.
-You can make homemade ice cream in a bag! All you need is your ingredients (milk, sugar, and vanilla extract or other flavorings), ice, salt, and two plastic bags (one large one to hold the ice and salt, and one smaller one to put inside the large bag. The smaller bag hold’s your ingredients/eventual ice cream)
