Making ice cream was a favorite way to celebrate birthdays when I was a kid. The men in the family took turns cranking the handle of the old ice cream freezer. I always suspected they had their own little private competition. The winner was whomever could turn for the longest amount of time before handing it over to the next guy!
Throughout the years I’ve learn some secrets that, when followed, result in smooth, creamy, and delectable batches of homemade ice cream.
Secret # 1 to Making Ice Cream
The faster the ingredients freeze, the smoother and creamier the ice cream will turn out. To understand this first secret, it is helpful to know how an ice-cream maker is made. It has a steel tub that sits inside a bucket. There are gears on top of the tub that must be turned to rotate the mixing paddles. The paddles must be tight enough that they scrape the inside wall of the tub. If you have a hand-cranked ice-cream freezer, a person cranks the handle to rotate the gears to move the paddles. If you have a motorized freezer, a motor turns the gears to the mixing paddles.
When you make homemade ice cream, you are simply removing heat from the ingredients that you had when you started. Tiny ice crystals form when those ingredients get cold enough to freeze. The faster they freeze, the smoother and creamier the ice cream.
Secret # 2 to Making Ice Cream
Use the correct combination of ice and salt. To freeze the ice cream ingredients quickly, ice and salt are placed in the bucket that holds the tub. The coldest ice and salt mixture will freeze the ice cream the fastest. The perfect ratio is 3 parts ice to 1 part salt. As the ice melts, this ratio is diluted, which is not a good thing. So you need to keep adding salt to the ice.
Keep cranking continually. As the paddles rotate, they keep mixing the cold mix with warmer parts of the mixture, lowering the temperature. If you stop, some of the frozen mixture will cling to the inside of the tub wall and the paddles cannot scrape properly.
During the churning process, air is folded into the ice cream and increases the volume by about 50%. This makes a successful batch of smooth and creamy ice cream.
Our Family’s Homemade Ice Cream Recipe
Our family used the following recipe for homemade ice cream. I do not know its origin; my mother had written it on the back of an old calendar sheet.
Recipe for Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
8 cups light cream
2 cups beaten eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla
In a large saucepan combine sugar, gelatin, and 1/8 teaspoons salt. Stir in half of the light cream. Cook and stir over medium heat till mixture almost boils and the sugar dissolves.
Stir about 1 cup of the hot mixture into the beaten eggs. Then return all to the saucepan. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Cool.
Add remaining cream and the vanilla. Freeze in an ice cream freezer that is at least 4 quarts in size. Makes about 3 quarts of ice cream.
Follow these two secrets when using any recipe for making ice cream. You will enjoy smooth, creamy homemade ice cream every time!
