Abbott did it for Costello. Sonny did it for Cher. Behind every
star is the straight man, humbly standing in the shadow of his
glitzier partner. A lot of foods play this role too — pie
crust, hot dog buns and dry vermouth spring to mind. But our
vote for Best Supporting Actor in a Classic Food Combination
would have to be the cone.
Granted, it’s no mystery why the ice cream gets top billing.
Even the cheapest vanilla doesn’t need a cone to dazzle
its fans. But the cone most definitely depends on ice cream to
get any attention at all.
“When people ask me what I do, I say we make ice cream
cones,” said Joe George, president of Joy Cone Co. in Hermitage,
Pa., one of the country’s oldest cone manufacturers, dating
to 1918.
“They say, ‘Oh.’ And I know what’s going
on in their minds: People are very surprised to learn that there
is a factory devoted solely to making ice cream cones.”
But the past few years, things have started to look up for this
silent — albeit crunchy — sidekick that celebrates
a centennial this year: 100 years ago it teamed with vanilla
ice cream at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. So let’s
give it a hand (literally).
Before the cone became a sensation on the Pike (a.k.a. the Fair
boardwalk), explained Suzanne Corbett, culinary historian with
the National Park Service in St. Louis, “it was not considered
polite to be walking around eating in public.” Then came
the fair with its many handheld foods, including the ice cream
cone. “It changed the way everybody thought,” she said.
The cone may have helped change perceptions, but for many years
nothing much changed about the cone. Unlike ice cream, with its
gazillion flavors, varying percentages of butterfat and myriad
add-ins (from pecans to gummy worms), cones have spent much of
the last century playing the same old tune: Will you have a sugar
or a cake cone with that scoop of double-espresso-chocolate-walnut?
“It’s been looked at as a peripheral item,” said
Sam Weiner, president of EdgeCraft, which makes waffle-cone makers
for home kitchens. “The cone is sort of a holder; that’s
why it was invented. But as with many things, as people have
become more enthusiastic about a food, they become enthusiastic
about every aspect of the food.”
These days, whether you’re at ice cream parlors or grocery
stores, “cone-sumers” are getting more choices: Commercially
made waffle cones have paved the way for waffle bowls — Joy
Cone started selling these in supermarkets two years ago — as
well as cones dipped in chocolate and sprinkles; this is true
in ice cream parlors as well as the supermarket.
Handcrafted at home
Now handmade cones are an option for home cooks. Three years
ago Chef’sChoice introduced the WaffleCone Express. Its
success inspired the PetiteCone Express, which makes smaller
cones geared to savory fillings. Both electric appliances are
variations of waffle irons and pizzelle irons, which produce
the wafer-thin Italian cookie.
“Initially, like any new product, it takes a little bit
of time to get it integrated into the mainstream,” Weiner
said. “After about a year or so, (the WaffleCone Express)
started blossoming.” He would not give specific sales data,
but said that the appliances are selling in the “tens of
thousands” in the U.S.
Clearly, the cone’s time has come. And not just because
of its 100-year history as backup to ice cream.
Think of the cone, said Joy Cone’s George, as an environmental
steward: “We’re the ideal food container. When you
eat the cone, you eat the package. It’s ecologically a very
sound container. The ice cream cone is a very convenient treat.”
