Ice cream is often called "The Greatest American Dessert." Although the product is usually American, the United States cannot claim its origin and source.

Ice cream is a frozen dairy dessert made from cream or milk, often combined and manufactured with other flavors and fruits. Most of the time it contains sugar, though sometimes other sweeteners are used.

The chosen ingredients are stirred slowly while the product is being cooled.  This allows the air to be integrated and prevents the forming of ice crystals. The result is then a smooth, semi-solid foam that is highly malleable and can easily be scooped.  I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Not much is known about the early history of ice cream; however the product is definitely known to have originated in Europe.  But now the United States has taken the lead among all the other countries in the large and intense production of ice cream.

Before the dawn of the modern refrigeration, ice cream was a luxury that was reserved to be eaten on very special occasions. It had to be made with a source of ice which was often originally cut from lakes and ponds during winter time.  The ice would have been stored in the ground, for example in brick ice houses insulated by straw.

The ice cream industry used to grow at a slower pace than it is moving today.  Until the 1900s, the total American output of ice cream wasn't able to exceed 30 million gallons annually.

The yearly manufacturing and production of it has been climbing on a steady and exponential rate with the introduction of hard and soft ice cream, now created at more than a billion gallons per year.  According to the International Dairy Foods Association, "approximately 1.53 billion gallons of ice cream and related frozen desserts were produced in the U.S. in 2011."  Wow!

This translates to the annual per capital consumption of not less than 20 pounds.  And, remarkably, this means that 9% of total milk production is going into the ice cream industry as a whole.

Where's the chocolate in all of this?  Of course chocolate ice cream is always near the top in flavors.  (Why does vanilla always win?)

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Joanna Maligaya

Staff Writer/Content Developer at Chocolate University Online

Ever since she can remember, Joanna has always considered chocolate as the ultimate food for her soul. She believes in the saying, “9 out of 10 people love chocolate, and the 10th always lies.”

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