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Chattanooga: With ice-cream freezers, family togetherness part of the process

By: Anne Braly
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Tossing a half-gallon of ice cream into the shopping cart may be convenient, but readers who remember hand-cranked ice-cream freezers say these nifty machines cranked out more than just ice cream.

“I have so many good memories of family get-togethers where the men turned the crank as we (kids) took turns sitting on top to hold it still. When it began to freeze, it was harder to turn the crank,” said Carol Hixson.

Joy Duvall of Chattanooga has similar memories. She grew up on a farm in rural Mississippi with no convenient place to buy store-bought ice cream. So her mother learned to make her own using an ice-cream base, then pouring it into small jars and adding fruits of the season. Once tightly sealed, the jars would go into a three-legged cast-iron pot.

“Daddy would go to town and get a block of ice from the ice house and bring it home wrapped in one of her homemade quilts,” Mrs. Duvall recalled. “We would chip it up with an ice pick and pack it around all those jars along with some rock salt, then cover the wash pot with the quilt and take turns rocking the pot ... putting our feet up on the edge of the pot and slowly rocking it back and forth till the ice cream froze. We called this ‘rock the pot ice cream.’

“Then, we would pick through the jars looking for our favorite. Mine was always black walnut.”

These days, electric ice-cream freezers do most of the work, some not even requiring the addition of salt and ice. Because the ritual of making homemade ice cream often accompanies family get-togethers, memories are still part of the process.

PERFECTING THE RECIPE

Ice-cream freezers are sold with recipe booklets, and some families have techniques passed down through the years.

Chip Chapman of Hixson said his secret to perfect ice cream “is experimenting and not staying on the recipe track.”

Of utmost importance, once you’ve settled on your ingredients, is keeping everything, from the bowls to the beaters to the freezer canister itself, as cold as possible, he said.

“Make sure you’ve cooled the freezer, including the ice-cream cylinder, first. Then, because summer’s so hot, put the whole shooting match in a big cooler with a couple of inches of ice all around it,” he said. “It works better this way, I think, because you use a lot less salt and ice it seems. It’s like adding another layer of cold around the cylinder.”

Equal amounts of kosher salt and ice-cream salt work as well as ice-cream salt alone, he said.

His favorite recipes come from “Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book.”

“It has regular and low-fat ice cream, ice milk and frozen-yogurt recipes in it,” Mr. Chapman said. “The first summer I had that book, I gained 11 pounds in six weeks.”

He starts with a basic vanilla ice cream, then may add strawberries, peaches or mixed fruit, depending on his particular craving that day.

Some people still prefer to make ice cream the old-fashioned way with a freezer that must be hand-cranked.

“I use a hand-cranked White Mountain freezer, still available from several online sources,” said David Barker, adding that the best recipe in his collection comes from an old Pillsbury cookbook. “The recipe requires a little work and time, about two hours from cooking to freezing, but the results are very satisfying.”

Homemade ice cream beats store-bought hands-down, he said.

It just has a “different taste, different texture from any commercial brand ice cream,” Mr. Barker said.

Mango-Rum Ice Cream

Rum blends nicely with mangoes to give Ray Neal’s ice cream a flavor of the Caribbean.

2 cups pureed ripe mangoes (or frozen chunks pureed in a food processor)

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup brown sugar

6 tablespoons dark rum

1 tablespoon lime juice

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Freeze in an automatic ice-cream freezer, then remove to a bowl and put in home freezer until firm. Makes 8 servings.

Honey-Thyme Ice Cream

This vintage recipe from Ray Neal shows how ice-cream flavors have changed.

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

6 tablespoons honey

4 egg yolks

2 cups half-and-half

In small saucepan, bring to a boil the water, thyme and honey. Simmer over low heat for one minute. Remove from heat and let rest for 10 minutes. Pour through a sieve to remove the thyme leaves. Reheat slightly if too thick to pour. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks, then beat in the honey mixture. Heat the half-and-half until it steams. Pour the half-and-half into the egg mixture, then pour back into the saucepan and cook over low heat until custard thickens and coats a spoon. Refrigerate until cold, then freeze in automatic ice-cream freezer until thick. Remove to bowl and freeze in home freezer until solid. Makes 6 servings.

Ben & Jerry’s Kiwi Ice Cream

Joy Duvall now has an ice-cream freezer rather than a cast-iron pot and loves making Ben & Jerry’s version of kiwi ice cream.

6 ripe kiwifruit

2 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

2 cups heavy or whipping cream

Peel the kiwifruit and mash them in a bowl until pureed. Stir 2 tablespoons sugar into the fruit, cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in 1 cup sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the cream and whisk to blend. Stir in the kiwifruit.

Transfer the mixture to an ice-cream maker and freeze following manufacturer’s instructions. Makes 1 quart.

Fat-Free Watermelon Sherbet

No ice-cream freezer needed for this cool treat. Your home freezer makes this a simple summertime dessert. It’s also a favorite of Joy Duvall’s.

2 cups cubed, seeded watermelon

1/2 cup sugar

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/3 cup cranberry juice cocktail

Place watermelon cubes in a blender container or food processor bowl. Cover and blend or process until smooth. (There should be 3 cups of the mixture.) Stir in sugar.

In a small saucepan combine gelatin and cranberry juice cocktail. Let stand for 5 minutes. Stir mixture over low heat until gelatin is dissolved. Stir the gelatin mixture into the melon mixture. Pour into an 8- by 8-by 2-inch baking pan. Cover and freeze for 2 hours or until firm.

Break up frozen mixture and place in a chilled mixer bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed or until mixture is fluffy. Return to pan. Cover and freeze for 6 hours or until firm. Makes 8 (1/2-cup) servings

Make-ahead directions: Pack in airtight freezer container; seal, label, and freeze up to 1 month.

— www.razzledazzlerecipes.com

Lou’s Ice Cream

Lou Fuller of South Pittsburg, Tenn., starts making ice cream at the beginning of the summer, and this is her favorite recipe. If she can find good peaches — she says the best are from Chilton County, Ala. — she turns vanilla ice cream into peach.

1 large can evaporated milk

1/2 pint whipping cream

1 can condensed milk

11/2 cups sugar

1/2 gallon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix evaporated milk, whipping cream, condensed milk and sugar. Be sure that sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla. Pour into freezer. Add milk to fill line. Freeze until hard. Remove dasher and pack. This ice cream keeps well in freezer without becoming icy.

Note: To make peach ice cream, add 2-3 cups of very ripe mashed peaches to the milk mixture.

Grandmother’s Lemon Sherbet

Marge Pasch says her Cuisinart ice-cream maker makes this easy to prepare. However, “The bowl holds only up to 11/2 quarts of liquid, so you can’t make huge amounts at one time,” she said.

1 cup cream

1 cup milk

1 cup sugar

Juice and grated rind of two lemons

1 drop yellow food coloring (optional)

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate overnight. Strain out the lemon rind, then pour the liquid into Cuisinart ice-cream maker and churn for 20 to 30 minutes.

Cook’s tip: “Lemon sherbet has been a standard in our family for many years,” Mrs. Pasch said. “I usually serve it with gingersnap cookies and have made a pie using a gingersnap crust and the sherbet.”

Butterfinger Ice Cream

Shelia Smith makes this delicious ice cream every summer, and her husband, Randy, says it’s unbelievable.

6 Butterfinger candy bars, crushed

1 tub of Cool Whip

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 gallon of chocolate milk or enough to meet fill line on canister (preferably Mayfield chocolate milk)

Combine all ingredients. Mix and freeze in 1-gallon ice-cream freezer per appliance directions.

Banana Split Ice Cream

Cindi Knappen says this tastes just like a banana split. Use whole milk or regular half-and-half for a more authentic creamy consistency, but low-fat products work, and they’re “pretty much guilt-free,” Mrs. Knappen said.

Split ingredients:

1 medium coarsely smashed banana

1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 cup smashed and sugared (about 2 tablespoons sugar) strawberries (see note)

1/4 cup chocolate syrup

Vanilla base:

2 cups regular or fat-free half-and-half

3/4 cup (1 percent) milk (or milk of your choice)

6 drops yellow food coloring

1 tablespoon vanilla (imitation or real)

3/4 cup sugar

Combine all fruits, and put the fruit in the refrigerator to make sure it is well chilled when adding to the ice cream later. Also have the chocolate syrup cold, but do not mix it with the fruit.

With a wire whisk, mix the vanilla base ingredients together in a bowl, mixing well to combine. Then, per manufacturer’s instructions, add mixture to freezer bowl of ice-cream maker. Let the machine run for 20-25 minutes, checking to see when it’s starting to get pretty thick. During the last few minutes, spoon in the chilled fruit and let combine for another few minutes. Add in the chocolate syrup last, as you don’t want the chocolate to combine too much so it looks like chocolate ice cream. After adding the chocolate, turn the machine off and transfer the ice cream to a freezer storage container to finish the freezing process. If you like, you can serve it right away but it will still be kind of sloppy.

Note: If you use frozen strawberries from the store, omit the sugar because they are already sweetened. If you use fresh strawberries, let the strawberries and sugar macerate for at least 5 minutes to combine.

Cook’s tip: I use the Cuisinart 1.5-quart ice cream/frozen yogurt maker. It’s electric, easy and fairly simple.

Vanilla Ice Cream

Even though there are many variations of ice cream, Suzanne Dickey Driscoll of Calhoun, Ga., says vanilla remains her family’s favorite. “Only one alteration,” she said. “We no longer eat the eggs raw. I warm the mixture in a double boiler to be safe.”

5 eggs, beaten well

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

1 quart whole milk

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients thoroughly, put in chilled ice-cream freezer container, and process per manufacturer’s directions for freezer.

Vanilla Custard Ice Cream

This is a recipe David Barker has used since the 1970s. It is from a collection of Pillsbury recipes, he said.

4 eggs

4 cups (2 percent) milk

11/2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 cups heavy (whipping) cream

2 cups (2 percent) milk

Combine the eggs, 4 cups of milk, sugar and salt. (I combine this in a blender to get a good mix.) Cook over medium to low heat in a heavy-bottomed 5-quart Dutch oven. Stir mixture constantly until custard coats the back of a spoon. Takes about 40 minutes or so. When custard is cooked, cool thoroughly in a plastic container in ice water. The original directions called for placing the custard in the refrigerator overnight. This does make for a creamier ice cream.

After custard is cooled add the vanilla, heavy cream and the 2 cups of milk. Prepare freezer according to manufacturer’s directions and freeze accordingly.

Cook’s notes: I like Florida Crystals demerara sugar. It gives the custard a caramel-like taste and color. If you use Dixie Crystal sugar, the ice cream will be completely white, maybe a tad sweeter. Also, I use either Mayfield 2 percent milk and whipping cream, or Horizon organic milk and whipping cream. Nielsen-Massey is my preferred vanilla. All in all, this is about a two-hour project, but the results are well worth the effort.

Chip’s Ice Cream

This is Chip Chapman’s basic recipe that he uses for all kinds of flavors.

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups whipping cream

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Have everything cold! The mixing bowl, the beaters, the ice-cream cylinder and top. I usually chill down the plastic tub the cylinder sits in with a little ice and water as well. Once you start mixing the ingredients, do not stop until the mixture is in the cylinder and rotating.

Whisk the eggs until light and fluffy. Whisk in the sugar until thoroughly blended. Pour in the liquids, one at a time, until smooth. Transfer the mixture to an ice-cream maker and follow the directions. Avoid placing the ice-cream freezer in direct sunlight.

Cook’s notes: Use your imagination. You can use a Splenda/sugar mix instead of all sugar. You can use half-and-half instead of cream and skim milk instead of whole milk. I’ve also used about a third of a cup of honey in many batches, and it adds a distinctive taste.

For adding fruit or candy or anything else:

Additions like this should be the last thing you put in the mixing bowl before it goes in the cylinder.

* Fruit — Strawberries, mixed fruit, etc. should be cold but not frozen. Fruit should be cut into smaller pieces, or as you’re mixing it in, let the beaters do the work for you.

* Candy — Stick it in the freezer until frozen, then hit it with a rolling pin to get the consistency desired. You don’t want big pieces of anything. Many candies like Heath Bars and Hershey Bars come in baking-size pieces. These work great.

Here’s the deal about big pieces: They sink to the bottom of the mixture, so everything you’ve added gradually works its way to the bottom. Even on fruit, I’ve found it’s better to blend it in with the beaters. That way, it comes out consistent in size and distribution throughout the final product.

* Beginning with ice, alternate the ice and ice-cream salt in layers, finishing with ice on top. Be careful to avoid getting any ice-cream salt in the mixture itself. Keep an eye on the freezer, and regularly add a layer of salt followed by a layer of ice.

* When putting the ice cream into a container, you want to find a size-appropriate container. The less air you have between the ice cream and container lid, the longer it’ll keep its fresh taste. “Burp” the container before putting it in the freezer for storage.

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