MilkMade Ice Cream 2009-2019. Now sharing some old recipes to get you through quarantine.
It’s Washington’s Birthday and we’re paying tribute in the best way we know how. By making (and eating) ice cream.
Did you know that George Washington also had a penchant for ice cream? In fact, he spent over $200 on ice cream during the summer of 1790. That’s like $5,080 today. (That’s based on the increase in CPI from 1790 to today, just so you know).
He also was an ice cream maker himself. Inventory records show he had two pewter ice cream pots, and his journal from 1786 documents his “ice operation”:
“Renewed my Ice operation to day, employing as many hands as I conveniently could in getting it from the Maryland shore, carting and pounding it." (via NPR)
He’d get ice from the Maryland shore in winter, store it until the spring when cows were producing dairy, and then, using fruit, cream and sugar (nope - no vanilla or chocolates, ice creams were all fruit flavors back then), he’d prepare a slushy, creamy version of ice cream. It was served as a delicacy, in portions of one or two ounces in tiny porcelain teacup-like dishes.
So here’s to him - our lemon ice cream served in tiny teacups. Happy Birthday GW.