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By the 17th century, beginning first in France, cafe culture began to spread, where these shops offered coffee and tea. However, ice cream began to also appear on menus in some of the well to do cafes that could afford to keep ice. Recipes for ice cream also appeared, which not only spread interest in making ice cream but also it encouraged experimentation. Eating ice cream with strawberries and milk were considered to be a particular treat with the frozen desserts. The 18th century saw the expansion of ice cream, where many shops and ice cream makers operated. It was during the colonial period that ice cream was introduced to the United States, perhaps via Quakers who brought their recipes books with them as they came to the colonies. Ice cream soon caught on in popularity, as many of the founding fathers in the United States widely consumed ice cream. In the summer of 1790, George Washington spend $200 on ice cream. Thomas Jefferson had a well known 18-step recipe for creating ice cream. In the inauguration of James Madison, ice cream was served to guests.
It was at around 1800 that ice house insulation improved, allowing the ice houses to be even colder and the presence of ice houses increased widely. The wider presence of ice houses allowed ice cream to be more common throughout different regions across the United States and Europe in the early part of the 19th century. In the rest of the century, several technologies began to facilitate the production of ice cream. These included steam power, mechanical refrigeration, the homogenizer, electric power and motors, packing machines, and improvements in the freezing process. Jacob Fussell, a Quaker from Baltimore, created an ice cream business by selling ice cream at a larger scale. He was able to streamline the procurement of milk from dairy farmers and he often had a surplus of cream that he would then begin to use for ice cream. Popularity of his brand caught on and spread as he was able to widely distribute his product.
It was during the 1870s that the sundae developed. At that time, ice cream had now become prevalent. Experimentation on new types of ice creams were common and one of these added soda with ice cream along with fruits and other sweet topping. However, there was a backlash on eating such foods on a Sunday, a religious day, so the innovators simply took out the soda water and the mixture of ice creams and toppings was eventually called the sundae, although it was spelled sunday initially (changed to avoid criticism from religiously minded people).
