In 1904, several children’s deaths were attributed to hokey-pokey in New York. Ice cream in particular was often suspected to be a source of deadly food poisoning. Of course, it was a dangerous time for food in general. With an unsettling dose of anti-Italian sentiment, hokey-pokey ice cream was declared to be a danger to children. When the newspapers weren’t looking down on the quality of hokey-pokey, they were wringing their hands over its safety. The Milwaukee Weekly Wisconsin described the flavor of hokey-pokey in 1890 as “a mingled taste of paregoric, petroleum and tallow.” They did concede that it was a bargain at 2 cents a bar. The second mouthful is cool, but suggestive of oleomargerine the third is waxy and sticky and then you take the last with a wry face and are disgusted for buying it feel that it has upset your heart and that you never want any more again.“ It’s given to you on a piece of brown paper it looks fascinating… At first it is delightful. “ You lay down your penny you demand your square. A syndicated column in 1891 declared that love is not like ice cream – it is like hokey-pokey ice cream: These are all acceptable dessert ingredients, but hokey-pokey got a bad reputation. Reproduction hokey-pokey cart in the Baltimore Sun, 1966įew recipes for hokey-pokey exist, but they tend to contain varying quantities of milk, sugar, eggs, gelatin and/or cornstarch.A 1902 classified ad in the Baltimore Sun read: “WANTED-A Man Who Understands How to Make Hokey-Pokey Ice-Cream.” The Hamlin, Kansas News Gleaner claimed in 1880 that “the hokey-pokey is made largely of corn starch and milk.” In 1889, the Hampshire Telegraph in England wrote that “it is difficult to say, nowadays, what is ‘hokey-pokey’ and what it is not.”Įven some would-be vendors were themselves not entirely sure. A traveler from Buffalo New York visiting London described a hokey-pokey vendor “taking from an ice-cream freezer a little square of something that looked like a slice of white castile soap” in 1879. Hokey-pokey quickly made its way to New York, to beach towns like Long Branch New Jersey, and eventually to Baltimore.įor something so wildly popular, very few people ever knew just what hokey-pokey actually was. The name is believed to be a variant of “hocus pocus,” or -some say- derived from vendors calling out “ecco un poco”: “here’s a little.” Unless that is a popular street-vendor call in Italy, I’m skeptical. Hokey-pokey first appeared on the streets of London in the mid-1800s, sold by Italian vendors.
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