Back in the mid-19th century, a young Louis C. Graeter said goodbye to small-town Indiana and moved to the big city, Cincinnati, to seek his fortune. It was there that the teenager decided to try his hand at crafting a sweet treat — ice cream — in an open-air market.
Ice cream was a novelty at the time because modern freezing technology was not yet available, so he relied on a wooden bucket containing a mixture of ice, salt and water, explained Richard Graeter, president and CEO of regional ice producer Graeter’s Ice Cream Co. and Louis Graeter’s great-grandson. He then placed a metal pail containing cream, milk and sugar into that wooden bucket, and hand-stirred those ingredients with a wooden paddle until they were transformed into rich, creamy ice cream.