Since Americans eat about 15 quarts of ice cream per capita each year, it is appropriate that the first recorded instance of the word (1744) occurs in the writings of an American, who mentions fine ice cream . . . with . . . strawberries and milk. The history of ice cream itself can be traced much further back, to the Roman Empire, China, and India. Ice cream was introduced to England in the 17th century and to America in the 18th. It seems to have been called iced cream at first (1673), in line with such expressions as iced tea and iced coffee, which we still use, but the form ice cream has taken over.