Ice cream was once a rare luxury that only royalty and the very wealthy could afford.

In the 1700s, ice was cut from frozen ponds and packed in straw to stay cold. George Washington spent about 200 dollars on ice cream in the summer of 1790. This would be worth over 5,000 dollars today. Thomas Jefferson also loved the treat and kept a vanilla ice cream recipe that is now in the Library of Congress.Making ice cream by hand was difficult and slow. People put cream in a pot and surrounded it with a mix of ice and salt. Salt lowers the freezing point of ice, which makes the cream cold enough to freeze. In 1843, Nancy Johnson invented a hand-cranked machine that made the process easier and the texture smoother.Jacob Fussell opened the first ice cream factory in Baltimore in 1851. He used extra milk and cream to make large amounts of ice cream at a lower price. This allowed middle-class families to buy it for the first time. Before this, serving ice cream was a way for leaders to show they were powerful enough to control temperature.In the 1920s, electric refrigerators became common in homes. This allowed families to store ice cream in their own kitchens. Modern ice cream is a mix of air bubbles, fat, and tiny ice crystals. The size of these crystals determines how smooth the ice cream feels when you eat it.