On Food and Cooking

brine and a sealed cylinder containing the ice-
cream mix and a mixing blade, whose shaft
protruded from the top and could be cranked
continuously. Five years later, William G.
Young of Baltimore modified Johnson’s
design to make the mix container rotate in the
brine for more efficient cooling. The Johnson-
Young freezer allowed large quantities of
fine-textured ice cream to be made with a
simple, steady mechanical action.
The second fateful advance toward mass
production came in the early 1850s, when a
Baltimore milk dealer by the name of Jacob
Fussell decided to use his seasonal surplus of
cream to make ice cream, was able to charge
half the going price in specialty shops, and
enjoyed great success as the first large-scale
manufacturer. His example caught on, so that
by 1900 an English visitor was struck by the
“enormous quantities” of ice cream eaten in
America. Today Americans still eat
substantially more ice cream than Europeans