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The history ice cream cones is fascinating. Did you know it was invented completely by accident? In fact, many foods that we love had accidental beginnings. On today’s episode I’m going to dive into some of my favorite snacks and their accidental origins.
Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Toll House chocolate chip cookies were invented by Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1938. While trying to bake a chocolate cookie, Ruth discovered she had run out of baker’s chocolate. She cut up a standard candy bar thinking it would melt into the perfect cookie. The chocolate morsels remained intact during baking. This surprised Ruth. This unintended result quickly became America’s favorite cookie.
The History of Ice Cream Cones
Ice cream cones were invented about a year apart in 2 separate places. In 1896 Italo Marchiony invented the ice cream cone in New York City. He was awarded a patent for this marvelous invention in December of 1903.
In 1904 at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Ernest A. Hamwi, a Syrian immigrant, was selling a crisp waffle like pastry. He was selling his pastry next to a man selling ice cream. One thing led to the other and he started rolling up his pastry into a cone shape to accommodate the ice cream. The duo was a winner and a wild success. The history of ice cream cones shows what can happen when two people have an amazing idea.
All About Potato Chips
In Saratoga Springs, New York, George Crum was working as a chef at the Moon Lake Lodge. In 1853, French fries were a very popular food. A man came into the restaurant complaining the fries were too thick. This man kept sending the fries back. This angered the chef. As a result, Crum kept going thinner and thinner with the potato until he had a thin and crispy snack.
However, instead of being angry, the customer devoured them. Furthermore, the word quickly spread and soon the potato chip caught on nationwide. It is now America’s #1 snack food!
The History of Popsicles
Frank W. Epperson invented the popsicle at age 11. Frank loved making sodas. In 1905 Frank lefts soda making equipment outside overnight. The next morning he found the concoction had frozen. He spent the next 20 years making these amazing creations for his friends, and later kids. He later patented the invention as a “Frozen handled confection, or ice lollipop”, Known as an Epsicle, in 1923. A few years later, they were rebranded as popsicles.
The Disturbing Origin of Pink Lemonade
There are two origin stories for pink lemonade. One of these admittedly is disturbing, at least for me. The both stories take us to the circus. The first is when Henry E. Allott, a circus employee, dropped red-colored cinnamon candies into a vat of lemonade. He decided to let it be and served the drink as is. It gave the lemonade a pink hue and it was wildly popular.
The second story is where I start to lose my mind. It is said that Pete Conklin developed the drink in 1857. He was making lemonade and ran out of water. He grabbed a bucket of dirty water that a performer had just finished wringing out her pink colored tights. This gave the water a pink color. He marketed the drink as strawberry lemonade and the rest was history. I think the first story here was definitely more plausible.
The Creation of Cheese Puffs
Cheese puffs were once garbage. In the 1930s the Flakall Company in Wisconsin had a machine that would crush grain for livestock feed. Corn was added to the process to keep the machine from clogging. The machine generated a lot of heat that would make the corn puff in ribbons as it fell from the machine. An employee, Edward Wilson picked these up, took them home, fried them, added seasoning, and the rest is history.
Nashville Hot Chicken
Fried Chicken is huge right now. It seems to be a dish that we can’t get enough of. There is one variation of this amazing dish that has an interesting history. In Nashville during the 1930’s the famous Nashville Hot chicken was born. Legend has it that Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack was the first to do chicken this way. Thornton Prince had a girlfriend who thought he was cheating on her. So as punishment, she served him up some fried chicken that she had doused in a spicy oil. However, he liked it so much that he added it to the menu.
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