If he had not tasted it before, Jefferson no doubt encountered ice cream during his time in France (1784-1789), and it was made and served in his kitchens for the rest of his life. Recipe for ice cream in Thomas Jefferson's hand. There are accounts of ice cream being served in the American colonies as early as 1744. Hannah Glasse’s popular Art of Cookery (1751 edition) contained a recipe for ice cream. Ice cream recipes appear in French cookbooks starting in the late 17th century, and in English-language cookbooks in the early 18th century. Although Jefferson himself did not note the source, Jefferson’s granddaughter Virginia Jefferson Randolph Trist recorded a virtually identical recipe sometime later in the 19th century and attributed it to “Petit,” indicating that Adrien Petit, Jefferson’s French butler, was the original source of this recipe.

One of only ten recipes surviving in Thomas Jefferson’s hand, the recipe for ice cream most likely dates to his time in France.

Jefferson also likely helped to popularize ice cream in this country when he served it at the President’s House in Washington. While the claim that Thomas Jefferson introduced ice cream to the United States is demonstrably false, he can be credited with the first known recipe recorded by an American.

Vanilla ice cream