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The (ice cream) Cone


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As we celebrated the 4th of July at our house with a lot of people, I wanted an easy dessert, and when I stopped at the market to get Kingsford, I recalled a mess of ice cream in the freezer. Voila! Cones! What is more 4th of July than watching kids eat cones, dripping down their one forearm with a sparkler in the other arm.

But, what kind of cones? The market had several kinds: the old fashioned "Joy Cake Cones" (most specifically the #40's on Joy's web site), some waffley ones, sugar cones (embossed with those waffle squares) and waffle cups. The waffle cups were out; I didn't want to deal with running over spoons the next time I mowed the yard. So, I opted for the cake and sugar cones.

My, were we a house divided. The kids all opted for the sugar cones, but the adults wanted the cake cones.

All us adults remembered trips to the DQ in late-50's rag tops (in my case, with my uncle and his bride to be in a Studebaker) at the DQ, with those cake cones (I seem to recall the brim being embossed with something like "safe-t-cups), smashing the ice cream with our tongues into the bottom of the cone -- that part with the little "cubicles that crunched so nicely, and the definitely not sweet taste combined with the ice cream.

And, we all agreed that waffles are for waffles, not for cones.

What do you all say about cones?

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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I've always preferred the cake cones, and I'm pretty sure ours also had something embossed on the rim. It wasn't just smooshing the ice cream down into the corners. The rim, with its little stiffening partitions inside, was a great place for ice cream to lurk. The best-packed ice cream cones had the top scoop smooshed down hard on top of the cone, so the little crunchy not-sweet cubicles in the rim yielded soft cold bites of creamy soft sweetness.

I felt cheated the first time I got a sugar cone. It was so hard! And it was too sweet for the ice cream, and it didn't have little holes for the ice cream to hide in. Maybe that's a waffle cone. I'm not sure of the difference. I just know I'm still a cake-cone girl, if there's to be a cone.

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GF, who's famous for not reading the "fine print" on packages, brought home a carton of Edys Chocolate Chip Cherry ice cream and a box of cones yesterday. Only problem was that the cones are "Kid-Sized". That is, they're only about 1.5" tall and 1" across at the top, and hold at the most 2 Tablespoons of ice cream each! :rolleyes:

60 of them fit into the same sized box as 12 regular sized cones. :biggrin:

However, they prove to be the perfect size for GD Jenna, 11 months old. :laugh::laugh::laugh:

SB (who, for propriety's sake, has not eaten an ice cream cone in many years because of his luxurient mustache :cool: )

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Soft serve = cake cone (I remember the ones that said Safe-T-Cup too!).

Scooped ice cream = sugar cone.

Just my personal prejudice, I'm not really sure how it got formed.

"There is nothing like a good tomato sandwich now and then."

-Harriet M. Welsch

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I'm with munchymom with my preferences..but have to say about waffle cones..when I was a kid..in the summer..there was a waffle stand in front of the Woolworths at the strip mall..they had bricks of ice cream (sometimes checkerboard) and would cut a slab off and stick it between two freshly made waffles..oh yeah..good times!

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Cake cone, and I feel a deep sadness for anyone who doesn't get to have a cake cone- nothing compares, not even a pretzel cone from Magnifico's(East Brunswick, NJ). Well, OK, ice cream sandwixh cookies are on a par, but that's chocolate versus the 'awesome-for-some-unquatifiable-reason' wafer taste of a cake cone- not a fair competition.

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I, also, am with munchymom.

Our late lamented standard poodle, Kuno, however was strictly a sugar cone man.

That dog could eat a double scoop ice cream cone far more neatly than any human. We used to attract crowds when we let him have his cone right outside the shop.

Give him a cake cone though and he would eat the ice cream, but leave the cone.

With the sugar cones he would carefully lick down to the cone level, then very carefully nibble all around the cone, then lick some more ice cream. He'd continue until the last little bit which he's gulp.

Anyone else have a dog who loves ice cream cones?

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When I was a little girl, I liked cake cones and couldn't fathom why anyone would eat those hard, brown, sugar cones. My preferences have reversed with time. But, on the rare instance I have ice cream now, I prefer NO cone/in a dish!

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I have to say it all depends on the ice cream itself.

With soft-serve or frozen custard, which is my favorite coming from west central Indiana, you have to go with the cake cone.

For traditional hard ice cream or not so traditional hard ice cream like that from Cold Stone Creamery or Ben & Jerry's, my vote is for the waffle cone. I particularly like it when the waffle has been half dipped in chocolate.

Here in Germany, where the ice cream is somewhere in between hard and soft serve, I unfortunatly, usually go without, because they almost always only offer sugar cones which I can't stand.

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With the sugar cones he would carefully lick down to the cone level, then very carefully nibble all around the cone, then lick some more ice cream. He'd continue until the last little bit which he's gulp.

Anyone else have a dog who loves ice cream cones?

My Boston Terrier loved soft serve cones! She couldn't do that trick with the cone though and hard ice cream, she couldn't really handle on a cone. It's hard eating that stuff when your face is flat; it goes up your nose.

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Waffle and/or sugar please.

Those cake cones (with the flat bottoms) remind me of styrofoam.

But actually, ditch the cones altogether, and give it to me in a dish. More room for hot fudge/caramel/chocolate sauce ! :wub:

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These days, I belong to the no cone crowd.

But if I have to have a cone, it's gotta be a sugar cone or a waffle cone. I hate cake cones. Why does anybody want to eat styrofoam?

Sometimes cones are appropriate. I had a mess of folks over on the 4th of July, including a lot of kids. I can't think of anything more quintessential than watching a bunch of kids, standing on the driveway, sparkler in one hand, cone in the other -- ice cream dripping down their arms. Plus, it was a lot of bowls I didn't have to put in the dishwasher, nor did I have to comb the lawn before I mowed to recover any errant spoons!

I really like the crunch of the cone with the ice cream!

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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These days, I belong to the no cone crowd.

But if I have to have a cone, it's gotta be a sugar cone or a waffle cone. I hate cake cones. Why does anybody want to eat styrofoam?

Sometimes cones are appropriate. I had a mess of folks over on the 4th of July, including a lot of kids. I can't think of anything more quintessential than watching a bunch of kids, standing on the driveway, sparkler in one hand, cone in the other -- ice cream dripping down their arms. Plus, it was a lot of bowls I didn't have to put in the dishwasher, nor did I have to comb the lawn before I mowed to recover any errant spoons!

I really like the crunch of the cone with the ice cream!

True that.

I did go through a period of buying those wafers they serve with ice cream and eating them like biscuits.

It's just I think I find them too sweet now, especially with ice cream, and I cannot stand cake cones.

May

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When I was a little girl, I liked cake cones and couldn't fathom why anyone would eat those hard, brown, sugar cones. My preferences have reversed with time. But, on the rare instance I have ice cream now, I prefer NO cone/in a dish!

Likewise, although my mother did always save the last bite of her dripping-filled sugar cone for me. Untold tastes later, it's become my preference: but only sometimes (see below).

I have to say it all depends on the ice cream itself. 

With soft-serve or frozen custard, which is my favorite coming from west central Indiana, you have to go with the cake cone. 

For traditional hard ice cream  or not so traditional hard ice cream like that from Cold Stone Creamery or Ben & Jerry's, my vote is for the waffle cone.  I particularly like it when the waffle has been half dipped in chocolate.

Exactly. Soft-serve, frozen yogurt, and frozen custard perfectly fill the nooks and crannies of cake cones. I know I'm not the only one who pushes the filling down with my tongue to ensure a completely-filled cone. The cone, which would otherwise taste rather like cardboard, adds a nice crunch to the soft-serve.

Another consideration is that the smaller openings of sugar cones necessitate a balancing act. I have sometimes noticed that cake cones get more generous servings, presumably because of that very issue.

On the other hand, on most days, I'd just as soon go without a cone - the mess factor, and having to juggle things like wallet/keys without being able to set down the ice cream momentarily make it a hassle.

David aka "DCP"

Amateur protein denaturer, Maillard reaction experimenter, & gourmand-at-large

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SB (who, for propriety's sake, has not eaten an ice cream cone in many years because of his luxurient mustache :cool: )

That is some devotion, right there. I don't think I could give up ice cream for a mustache, no matter how luxurious.

:biggrin:

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as a kid i was a devoted fan of sugar cones. the cake cones tend to taste like styrofoam to me. but now when i get ice cream from an ice cream parlor, i get it in a dish with a waffle cone on the side...which i then break pieces off of and use as a "spoon" for my ice cream :biggrin:

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Sugar cones, all the way. I'm not a fan of cake cones at all. They're too soft compared to the sugar cones, and I always end up scratching the skin behind my upper teeth on them. Why yes, I'm strange, why do you ask? :)

Joanna G. Hurley

"Civilization means food and literature all round." -Aldous Huxley

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That is some devotion, right there. I don't think I could give up ice cream for a mustache, no matter how luxurious.

It's not that bad. Even with my luxurious mustache, like this one :blink: , I can still enjoy ice cream on a stick, (If I'm careful), or from a bowl. :raz:

In fact, I wonder if maybe the Joy Waffle Bowl wasn't designed with me in mind? :rolleyes:

Edited by srhcb (log)
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I much preferred sugar cones as a kid (not for taste reasons but for perceived "classiness" reasons, I think). However, I just had my first ice cream cone of the summer on a cake cone, and I think my tastes have changed. As others here have noted, now I think sugar cones are just too sweet to go with already-sweet ice cream. Cake cones, on the other hand, while relatively tasteless, provide important texture, and work better in terms of engineering (don't leak, can handle more ice cream).

I guess I like styrofoam.

Nikki Hershberger

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Two oysters met two oysters

And they were oysters too.

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Sugar for hard ice cream and cake for soft. I am surprised nobody has mentioned the approved way of eating ice cream from a sugar cone, which is of course after a few cursory licks off the top, to bite the bottom of the cone off and suck the ice cream through the hole in the bottom.

Get your bitch ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie!!!

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I am surprised nobody has mentioned the approved way of eating ice cream from a sugar cone, which is of course after a few cursory licks off the top, to bite the bottom of the cone off and suck the ice cream through the hole in the bottom.

Amen to that! If we had cones around at home when I was a kid, they were of the cake variety (with Scoopy the clown on the label), but if we went out, like say to 31 Flavors, it was a sugar cone, all the way. I still prefer sugar and usually think that a fresh waffle cone (burned my fingers on more than a few during a summer job in a scoop shop, rolling them fresh off the griddle) is, dare I say it, too big, albeit rather tasty.

I'm now on a hard-core make it yerself kick, and use a bowl. Some part of me has real trouble paying $3.50 for a top-notch cone somewhere (though am dying to splurge on a cone from bi-rite creamery), when I can make a whole damn quart of ice cream for less than that.

"I just hate health food"--Julia Child

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