It is a little unclear exactly what the history of ice cream is but it has often been said that the Chinese invented ice cream and that Marco Polo brought the idea to Europe in the thirteenth century.

This is more myth than historical fact backed by evidence, but it can be stated with some confidence that ice cream was invented in China in the first millennium. It is documented that in the thirteenth century they used a mixture of salt and ice (to help lower the temperature below freezing) which was then stirred as it was chilled in an ice house. This was the basic process until the freezer as we know it today was invented in the twentieth century.

Since the method of producing ice cream depended on a supply of ice, it was of limited use without that precious commodity. Ice could be gathered from ponds and lakes, in winter, and the storage of ice in ice wells and ice houses goes back several centuries. Ice remained a luxury and dependant on nature to produce it, and cumbersome methods to harvest it.