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Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream RecipeTry The Original Version Of Thomas Jefferson's Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe
The Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream Recipe comes as a surprise to many people. Did you know that President Thomas Jefferson returned to America from his stint as ambassador to Paris in 1789 with handwritten French vanilla ice cream recipes and his own ice cream making equipment? It was not long after that Jefferson had a special icehouse built at Monticello so he could indulge in making ice cream and freeze desserts the year-round. Jefferson often served his distinctive frozen treats to favored guests at Monticello. He loved to eat French vanilla ice cream and on at least one occasion he had a special order of vanilla bean pods sent to him from Paris. During Jefferson's 1801–09 presidency, one White House dinner guest wrote that he enjoyed an unusual ice cream served "in the form of small balls, enclosed in cases of warm pastry" and that it was "very good, crust wholly dried, crumbled into thin flakes"; it was very similar to what is now called deep fried ice cream.  Get Grandma's Ice Cream Recipes
The Original Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream RecipeThe original copy of Jefferson's vanilla ice cream recipe is currently on display at the United States Library of Congress (see image below). It is America's oldest-known recipe for vanilla ice cream, and the transcript below is given word for word so you can follow it along.
Ice cream. 2 bottles of good cream. 6 yolks of eggs. 1/2 lb. sugar mix the yolks & sugar put the cream on a fire in a casse- -role, 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 casse- -role. when near boiling take it off and strain it thro' a towel. put it in the Sabottiere then set it in ice an hour before it is to be served. put into the ice a handful of salt. put ice all around the Sabottiere i.e. a layer of ice a layer of salt for three layers. put salt on the coverlid of the Sabotiere & cover the whole with ice. leave it still half a quarter of an hour. then turn the Sabottiere in the ice 10 minutes open it to loosen with a spatula the ice from the inner sides of the Sabotiere. shut it & replace it in the ice. open it from time to time to de- -tach the ice from the sides. when well taken (prise) stir it well with the Spatula. put it in moulds, justling it well down on the knee. then put the mould into the same bucket of ice. leave it there to the moment of serving it. to withdraw it, immerse the mould in warm water, turning it well till it will come out & turn it into a plate. How The Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream Recipe Was MadeThese early ice creams were laboriously frozen in a covered freezing pot called a sarbotiere. These pots were often made of pewter, and they were immersed in a finely crafted wooden bucket filled with chipped ice and either saltpetre or coarse rock salt.The ice cream mixture had to be beaten by hand and poured into the sarbotiere, which then had to be agitated to freeze the cream. The method used was to hold the sarbotiere by its handle and rapidly swish it up and down in the bucket of ice water while simultaneously rotating it right and left in a strenuous wrist action that often had to be maintained for up to an hour. Not an easy process. Occasionally, the semi-frozen ice cream mixture was scraped from the sides of the sarbotiere with a “houlette” or what the English called a spaddle, a small spade-like spatula with a long handle, and again beaten. It was a long and difficult process, but the results tasted delicious. Because of the excessive time and labor involved in making ice cream and the requirement for a year-round source of ice, for many years ice cream remained a treat reserved for well-off families that had servants. Thanks to today's ice cream machines, you can experiment with making ice cream using the Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream recipe, and you'll find it's an easier task than Jefferson experienced. 
Enjoy experimenting with the Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream Recipe, an historic recipe for vanilla ice cream from America's past.
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