Sundae

In the United States, one of the most familiar ice cream desserts is the ice cream sundae. A typical sundae consists of a dish of ice cream topped with sauce or syrup (often chocolate, caramel, butterscotch, or strawberry-flavored), chopped peanuts, whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry.

Related Topics:
United States - Ice cream - Chocolate - Caramel - Butterscotch - Strawberry - Peanut - Whipped cream - Maraschino cherry

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Various American localities claim the invention of ice cream topped with syrup. Thomas Jefferson enjoyed maple syrup on a dish of vanilla ice cream, so the invention of the sundae, if not the name, will have to be in the late 18th or early 19th century.

Related Topics:
Thomas Jefferson - Maple syrup

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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origin of the term sundae is obscure. The newspaperman H. L. Mencken invented a story that credited the competition of a pair of soda fountain owners in the Wisconsin towns of Two Rivers and Manitowoc, whose rivalry purportedly gave birth to the ice cream sundae. Mencken later allowed that his tale was something of a hoax. Mencken's take: the sundae came into being in 1881 when Ed Berners of Two Rivers decided to make a special dish to sell in his store. Berners charged five cents and only served the dessert on Sundays, hence the name. However, after certain Christian customers complained about using the name of the Lord's Day to advertise ice-cream, he changed the spelling to Sundae. It is also reported that the first ice cream sundae may have originated in Plainfield, Illinois, or that it was invented to circumvent "blue laws" of Evanston, Illinois that banned the dispensing of soda water on the Lord's Day.

Related Topics:
Oxford English Dictionary - H. L. Mencken - Soda fountain - Two Rivers - Manitowoc - 1881 - Ed Berners - Plainfield - Illinois - Blue law - Evanston, Illinois

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Of the many stories around the invention of the sundae, one common theme is the suspected sinfulness of the Ice Cream Soda, which certainly was considered unhealthy and subversive by religious conservatives at the time, and the resulting need to produce an equivalent of that overwhelmingly teen-popular treat for consumption on Sunday.

Related Topics:
Ice Cream Soda - Sunday

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Gretchen Sachse of the Tompkins County, New York and the DeWitt Historical Society provides this account of how the sundae came to be: One hot Sunday afternoon in 1891, John M. Scott, a Unitarian Church pastor, and Chester Platt, Platt & Colt Pharmacy partner created the first known sundae. Mr. Platt covered dishes of ice cream with syrup and candied cherries on a whim. The Platt & Colt soda fountain featured sundaes thereafter.

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