While not an American invention, this popular dessert has stimulated American ingenuity as well as consumption. The US claims invention of ice-cream sodas (1879, Detroit, MI), sundaes (Evanston, Illinois, late nineteenth century), cones (1904, St. Louis, MO), packaged treats like Eskimo Pies and Popsicles (1920s) and soft ice cream (1939).

Offsetting summer overproduction in the dairy industry ice cream has also been the victim of postwar corporate conglomeration. This has created room for boutique brands like Haagen-Das and Ben & Jerry’s, whose inventive flavors evoke the Grateful Dead and other 1960s themes. Home ice-cream making, from hand-turned churns to electric machines, also has become a family summer ritual.