The exact historical origins of the ice cream that young and old alike adore are shrouded in mystery. Before this popular dessert was invented, Marco Polo had returned from the Orient with a recipe for sherbet. Hundred of years earlier, the Roman emperor Nero had snow and ice rushed to Rome from the mountains by special teams of runners. He then flavored the ice with fruit juices. Ice creams like the modern variety were probably invented in Italy, where it quickly became an expensive treat for the very rich. King Charles I of England bragged of his secret recipe for ice cream; Henry II of France served a different flavor to his court each day for a month to mark his marriage. In America, Thomas Jefferson also bragged of his secret flavors. George Washington, according to a merchant’s book, spent almost $200 on ice cream in 1790. And Dolly Madison served ice cream at her husband’s Second Inaugural at the White House. It was pointedly evident that the cream was from the president’s cows; the fruit, from the White House garden. Not until the nineteenth century, when insulated icehouses for keeping ice and hand-cranked ice-cream freezers were invented, were the lower classes able to afford ice cream.