Making Ice-Cream With A Hand-crank Freezer
| Field | Food |
| Went Obsolete | Mid-20th Century |
| Made Obsolete By | Soda shops, pre-packaged ice cream in stores |
| Knowledge Assumed | Some cooking skills, patience |
| When useful | All the time, since homemade ice cream rules |
There are two kinds of hand-crank freezers. One is relatively easy to use and has a sealed area with a liquid designed to remain very cold, and all you have to do is put it in the freezer overnight. The more complex kind is a device consisting of an outer bucket which is filled with ice and rock salt (salt, seemingly paradoxically, makes it even colder), then an inner bucket made of metal. Either way, both devices have a structure above that goes into the unit with a paddle that is turned by a crank.
You can put a lot of things into the ice cream maker. For example, I like to put Coke in mine to make a homemade Icee. If I want a quick and simple frozen dessert, I'll put chocolate milk in. But real ice cream is a more complex recipe with cream, sugar, and any number of ingredients to add flavor. You can find them on the Internet easily.
Whatever you put in your ice cream maker, slowly turn the crank for a few minutes, then change direction, and repeat until you get a consistency like that from a soft-serve ice cream machine. Agitating the mix breaks up large ice crystals.
Once you're done, either serve as it is or put in the freezer to harden it a little.