Today, many people still opt to use an old fashioned ice cream maker; why is that? First, if you love ice cream, then you are going to want a hand-powered machine because they truly do make a better ice cream. This is because the human (you) doing the cranking, can sense when the cream is starting to freeze and thus crank faster to work more air into the mix. Another advantage is the quantity of ice cream that you can make. Hand powered models typically come in 4 or six quart capacities, so if you want to make ice cream for a lot of people you either need lots of the newer style electric machines, or an old fashioned one. And if you want to make ice cream “off the grid,” it’s a quick stop to the bait shop for some ice, whip up the mix on your camping stove and voila!–home made ice cream in the middle of the boonies.
As for the negatives of the older machines, while you cannot reduce the quantity of ice required, bags of ice are really inexpensive and so I don’t believe it actually matters. And if you are going to the store, to get the ingredients for the ice cream mix, you may as well pick up some bags of ice, and that goes for the rock salt too. Another complaint of the older ice cream makers is the mess. As the ice thaws, it might leak between the slats of the outer barrel of the machine. The simple answer is to put the machine in a very shallow tub. That way, the rock salt and ice slurry stays in the shallow dish and is easily discarded. Now about hand cranking, if you can’t bring yourself to invest the 20 minutes to half an hour of manual work into your favorite frozen dessert, there are electrical motors that can do the work for you. Of course, you could also divide the labor among family members and by that I mean; put all those freeloaders to work. Also, to make the ice cream maker more steady for hand cranking, my granny, would place a towel over the machine, and have my kid brother sit on it while we took turns cranking it.
By this point, I hope that you’re wondering, where to buy an old school ice cream maker? If you are dead set on a new machine, you just about have one choice: the White Mountain Ice Cream Freezer Company, now owned by Rival, is about the sole company making a machine of reasonable quality and they cost about $200. Because they last so long though , I don’t think the price is such a lot of a consideration. Many of the older ice cream machines are still a viable option so you might also want to hit up your favorite internet auction. If you decide to go this route, please take caution. Before purchasing, you will need to know if the vendor has a good reputation and also if the machine is working or not. If the vendor doesn’t know, find a different seller.
Hopefully by now, you’ve been convinced that old fashioned ice cream makers are more than a Luddite’s dream but instead a connoisseurs route to the perfect bowl of ice cream. At the very least, it’s about the only way possible to enjoy a batch around a campfire.
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