Thomas Jefferson's Handwritten Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe

"Accord­ing to Monticello.org, ice cream began appear­ing "in French cook­books start­ing in the late 17th cen­tu­ry, and in Eng­lish-lan­guage cook­books in the ear­ly 18th cen­tu­ry." And there "are accounts of ice cream being served in the Amer­i­can colonies as ear­ly as 1744." Jef­fer­son like­ly tast­ed his fair share of the dessert while liv­ing in France (1784-1789), and it con­tin­ued to be served at Mon­ti­cel­lo upon his return to Vir­ginia."

"mix the yolks & sug­ar put the cream on a fire in a casse­role, first putting in a stick of Vanil­la. when near boil­ing take it off & pour it gen­tly into the mix­ture of eggs & sug­ar. stir it well. put it on the fire again stir­ring it thor­ough­ly with a spoon to pre­vent it's stick­ing to the casse­role."

Ice cream appeared in French cookbooks in the late 17th century and in English-language cookbooks in the early 18th century. Accounts record ice cream being served in the American colonies as early as 1744. Thomas Jefferson recorded ten surviving recipes, including a vanilla ice cream recipe. Jefferson likely encountered ice cream while living in France (1784–1789) and continued to serve it at Monticello after returning to Virginia. By the first decade of the 19th century, ice cream became increasingly common in U.S. cookbooks. Jefferson's vanilla recipe uses cream, egg yolks, sugar, a vanilla stick, tempering and straining, and chilling in a Sabottiere with ice and salt.

Read at Open Culture