New Dessert for a New Nation

Ryan Gannon enjoys the founders’ favorite after-dinner treat.

Disembarking from the port city Le Havre in late 1789, Thomas Jefferson, his term as U.S. minister to France complete, set sail for his home in Virginia. Stowed in his luggage were several ice molds and a waffle iron. Among his entourage, a chef trained in French culinary delights. On his person, a diary containing not only notes and comments on the nation’s wines from a three-month trek round the country but a recipe for ice cream.

Six egg yolks, two bottles of cream, salt, and a half pound of sugar: boiled, stirred, “set...in ice an hour before it is to be served”—and made possible by a sorbetière, a French mixing contraption to be placed in an ice pail.

After being sworn in as president in 1801, Jefferson ordered the addition of an icehouse to the Executive Mansion. With its aid, the head of state fascinated guests with the then-unusual dessert. Massachusetts House representative Manasseh Cutler recorded: “[V]ery good, crust wholly dried, crumbled into thin flakes; a dish somewhat like a pudding...very porous and light, covered with a cream sauce” and served alongside “a great variety of fruit.”

So infatuated was he with the European dessert, Jefferson would draw up designs for the construction at Monticello of another icehouse, completed a year later in 1802. No longer would he have to suffer the use of an ice subscription service, as he did in the years prior (as in 1796, when his kitchen inventory included just “2 freising molds,” among other utensils).

Not to be outdone, George Washington—first in war, first in peace, and first in his love of ice cream—acquired during his two terms as president 36 serving pots (akin to a deep cup), 12 dishes, four molds, and “2 Iceries Compleat.” Writing of Martha Washington’s weekly Friday gatherings, Abigail Adams noted the sweet complement to one evening’s meal. For the final course, attendees were “entertaind with Ice creems & Lemonade.” Records at Mount Vernon indicate that George Washington later invested in a “cream machine for making ice” as well as his own icehouse, reportedly stockpiled with $200 worth of ice cream in the summer of 1790 alone (approximately $7,000 today).

Flavors of the day ranged wildly, but some classics shone through. In 1791 Jefferson requested 50 vanilla beans to be sent from France, which he commented are “much used in seasoning ice creams.” At James Madison’s second inauguration, First Lady Dolley Madison served strawberry ice cream. A tour guide at Mount Vernon once told my group, however, that George Washington preferred oyster the most. Benjamin Franklin? Parmesan.

Whatever the flavor, it’s become as American as apple pie—and is perhaps best with it.

Ryan Gannon

Producer