The history of ice cream is a very long, slightly confusing story. From the ice boxes of the Middle East to the courts of India, our favorite frozen treat has been around the world for thousands of years.
The oldest record we have of ice cream is in 500 BC, during the reign of the Cyrus the Great in Persia. However, this was different from our ice cream. This ice cream was made of crushed and sweetened ice mixed with different flavors and toppings.
In A.D. 618-907, during the Tang dynasty in China, they heated and fermented milk and then mixed flour and camphor into it. They then put it in the ice storeroom to cool.
Rome and Greece also had forms of ice cream, and Alexander the Great was said to have snow sent down from the mountains so he could mix it with milk, wine, honey, and fruit. The Egyptians also made ice cream.
The freezing process using salt and ice is believed to have been invented by the Chinese, but it wasn’t written down until the 4th century, in India. A more detailed recipe was written down by historian Ibn Abu Usaybi (A.D. 1230-1270).
So, to recap, ice cream has been around longer than coins (invented in 600 BC in Lydia), and some form of it has existed all over the world; more specifically in Asia and the Middle East.
In 1295, Marco Polo returned to Italy from his journeys in the East. He brought back a frozen drink recipe similar to sorbet or granita.
Italian court enjoyed eating icy granitas in their luxurious and elaborate gardens.
Sometime before 1533, the Medici family of Florence decided to hold a competition to find “the most unusual dish you’ve ever seen”; the competition was won by Ruggeri, a seller of chickens. His invention was a sorbet, and when Caterina de Medici went to France to marry Henry, the future king of France, she brought Ruggeri with her to prove that Italian chefs were better at cooking than the French ones. Ruggeri went with her, but decided to go back to Italy after a time. He left Caterina his recipe for sorbet.
Later, in 1565 Bernardo buontalenti inveted gelato. He served it at a banquet for the king of Spain. He was the Medici’s party planner and a well-known architect.
In 1671, King Charles II served ice cream at the feast of St. George. In 1686, Francesco Procopio moved from Palermo to Paris and opened the first cafe in Paris, where he served ice cream.
In 1744, a letter mentioned ice cream in America. In 1777, an advertisement for ice cream showed up in the paper. And in 1784 George Washington bought an ice cream machine. And according to accounting records of that time, Washington spent $200 ($6,300 in today’s currency!) on ice cream. Who knows how he managed to do it, but he did. During his 8 years of presidency, Washington bought a lot of ice cream-making equipment.
In 1843, Nancy M. Johnson invented the first hand-crank ice cream machine. Because her invention made it easier to make ice cream, it made it more accessible to the general public. For most of history, frozen desserts have been reserved for the privileged and wealthy, but after Johnson’s invention, it became the treat of the general public.
There are several companies that claim to be the very first ice cream company, such as Bassets Fessels and others.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter which one was the first. There is no true inventor to be credited. Almost every country had a hand in the creation of ice cream as we know and love it today. It’s a collective work, something that belongs to everyone, every country, and every people.
Maybe that’s why we all love it so much.
