Making Ready

Put the ice into a strong canvas bag, or wrap it in a piece of stout cloth, and pound it fine. Use ice-cream salt; fine salt will not do. Scald can, dasher, and cover. Fit the can into the socket in the pail, pour in the mixture to be frozen, put on the cover, adjust the cover to the cross-piece, and turn the crank to make sure that all is in working order.

Packing

Fill the space between the can and the pail with alternate layers of ice and salt, putting in three measures of ice, then one of salt. The ice and salt should come a little above the height at which the cream will stand in the can. As the mixture expands in freezing, fill the can not more than three-fourths full. Pack ice and salt solidly, turning the crank a few times to let the mixture settle.

Freezing

Turn the crank slowly and steadily until the cream is rather stiff, then turn more rapidly. Do not draw off the water unless it stands so high that there is danger of its getting into the can. The cream should take about twenty minutes to freeze. Cream frozen too rapidly, or not well stirred, is coarse-grained.

When the dasher turns very hard, the cream is sufficiently frozen. Remove the crank, wipe the outside of the cover and the upper part of the can (to avoid letting in any salt water), and take off the cover. Take out the dasher. Scrape the cream from the dasher and from the sides of the can, and pack it down level. Put a cork into the hole in the cover, and replace it. Draw off the salt water, repack with ice and salt, and cover with an old blanket or a piece of carpet. Let the cream stand in the freezer at least one hour, two, if possible, to "ripen" before serving. This greatly improves its flavor.

Water-Ices

Freeze water-ices like cream, except that the crank need not be turned constantly. A few turns every five minutes is enough.

How To Make Ice-Cream Without A Freezer

Ice-cream can be made in a tin pail packed in a wooden pail. Whirl the pail round by its handle, taking off the cover occasionally to scrape down and beat the cream. A small quantity can be made in a baking-powder can set into a pail or saucepan. Before using the can, fill it with water to see if it leaks. Most cans require soldering. A tinman will do it cheaply, or you can get a stick of solder and do it yourself.

Plain Ice-Cream (French Ice-Cream)

By varying the flavor this cream may be used as the foundation for any kind of ice-cream. It may be made with three eggs and no cream, but even half a cupful of cream is a great improvement.

Milk, 1 pt. Sugar, 3/4 c.

Flour, 1 tb. Thin cream, 1 pt.

Eggs, 2.

Scald the milk, mix the sugar, flour, and eggs together, and make a custard according to the directions for making Soft Custard (p. 285). When cold, stir the cream and flavoring into it, and freeze. Fruit must not be added until the cream is about half-frozen.

Flavorings

Vanilla Cream. Add one tablespoonful of vanilla, just before freezing. - Chocolate Ice-cream. Add two ounces of unsweetened chocolate, melted, or one-fourth cupful of cocoa, and an extra one-half cup of sugar to the custard and cook until smooth. - Strawberry Ice-cream.

Add One Box Of Berries, Crushed, And An Extra Cup Of Sugar

Peach Ice-cream. Add one quart of peaches, pared and mashed, and from one-half to three-fourths of a cup of sugar.

American Ice-Cream

Thin cream, 1 qt. Sugar, 3/4 c.

Vanilla, 1 tb.

Mix the ingredients and freeze. This ice-cream may be varied, as plain ice-cream is, by using other flavoring, or crushed fruit, or fruit-juice.

Instead of one quart of thin cream, one pint of thick cream and one pint of milk may be used.

Junket Ice-Cream

Lukewarm milk, 1 qt. Sugar, 1 c. Cold water, 1 tb. Junket (rennet) tablet, 1.

To be made into junket according to the recipe on p. 98.

Thick cream, 1 pt.

or Thin cream, 1 qt.

Vanilla, 2 tb.

or Crushed and sweetened fruit.

Make the junket. When it has set, stir in the cream, and flavoring or fruit, and freeze.

Junket gives the ice-cream more body than could otherwise be obtained without using more cream. (What is the effect of rennet on milk?)

Lemon Ice

Lemons, 4 large ones Oranges, 1.

Sugar, 1 1/4 lb. Water, 1 qt.

Make a syrup of the sugar and water by boiling them together five minutes. Add the grated rind of the orange and of one lemon. Add the juice of the orange and lemons. When the syrup is cool, strain and freeze.

For sherbet, add the beaten white of an egg. Sherbet does not melt so fast as water-ice does.