Banana Split
“Three scoops of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream lined along a split banana, topped with chocolate and strawberry sauces, pineapple, whipped cream, nuts, and a maraschino cherry.”
Where it comes from
Created in 1904 by 23-year-old David Strickler, an apprentice pharmacist at Tassell Pharmacy in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He served the new sundae for 10 cents — twice the price of a regular sundae at the time, but worth it for the spectacle. The dish spread through American drugstore soda fountains in the 1910s-20s, when ice cream parlors were the social centre of small-town life. Latrobe still claims the title; a competing 1907 origin in Wilmington, Ohio is also recognized by the National Ice Cream Retailers Association.
On the plate
Eat across, not down. The vanilla bite carries pineapple sweetness; the chocolate scoop hits cocoa-on-cocoa; the strawberry side stays bright and seedy. Banana underneath turns half-cold, half-warm — a baseline of fruit holding the whole thing together. Whipped cream collapses into the melt within minutes, which is why the dish has always been a race against itself. Finish before the chocolate sauce reaches the bottom of the dish.
How it works
Banana split is plate composition more than cooking. The architecture matters: banana underneath insulates the bowl from the cold and slows scoop slump; the long shape spreads the ice cream so heat from sauces doesn't pool. Each scoop pairs with one sauce because mixing all three flavours creates a muddy brown-grey colour — visual integrity is part of the dish. The cherry-on-top tradition predates the banana split and was inherited from earlier sundae forms.
Created 1904 by 23-year-old apprentice pharmacist David Strickler at Tassell Pharmacy, Latrobe, Pennsylvania — sold for 10¢, twice the going sundae price. Wilmington, Ohio claims a 1907 rival origin recognized by the National Ice Cream Retailers Association.
Variations
Latrobe still claims first; Wilmington, Ohio's Hazel Hauser version (1907) is the rival; Friendly's chain-restaurant Jim Dandy is the suburban benchmark; New Orleans-style banana split at Brocato's adds candied citrus and pistachio gelato.
On the Palate
Ingredients
Serves 1
How it's made
6 steps · Show ↓8 min active
How it's made
6 steps · Show ↓- 11 min
Chill an oval glass dish or boat-shaped sundae bowl in the freezer 15 minutes ahead. Cold dish slows ice-cream melt — load-bearing for a sundae built this slowly.
Watch outWarm dish + room temp toppings = melted soup before the cherry lands.
- 21 min
Peel 1 ripe but firm banana, halve lengthwise, and lay both halves cut-side up along the dish, curving inward like rails.
Watch outAn overripe banana goes mushy under the ice cream — pick one with no brown spots.
- 32 min
Place 3 scoops of ice cream side by side between the banana halves: vanilla in the centre, chocolate on one side, strawberry on the other. Use a 60ml disher for clean spheres.
- 41 min
Spoon 30ml warm chocolate sauce (Hershey's syrup or hot fudge) over the chocolate scoop, 30ml strawberry sauce over the strawberry scoop, and 30ml crushed pineapple in light syrup over the vanilla scoop. Each scoop, its own dressing.
- 51 min
Pipe whipped cream in three rosettes — one between each scoop. Sprinkle 30g chopped roasted peanuts or walnuts across the top.
- 62 min
Crown each rosette with a maraschino cherry, stem on. Serve immediately with a long sundae spoon.
