Old-style ice cream maker from Ice Cream Makers Shoppe
As I type this, I have ice cream ripening in my Handy Freeze electric ice cream maker. The metal on the maker is all rusted and the paint has peeled off but, for being at least 50 years old, it is a workhorse and outlasted the plastic maker I owned in the late 1980′s.
There is only one type of ice cream that can be made in my grandparent’s Handy Freeze. Not because of the limitations of the freezer. No. It is because of tradition. When I took a quick taste of the ice cream after it had finished churning, it took me back to my grandparent’s back yard in North Hollywood. The women would be in the house, cooking and gossiping, and my father and grandfather would be sitting on lawn chairs in the driveway with the ice cream freezer. The children would stand around them in gleeful anticipation of Grandma’s Ice Cream.
This is just a plain old vanilla ice cream. I have added fresh peaches or strawberries in with the mix, but there would surely be a photo of this ice cream in the dictionary next to the “comfort food” entry.
Here is a link to an article on how to use an old-fashioned ice-cream freezer by Patricia Mitchell.
Ice Cream Recipe (by Lois Mears)
Gallon freezer
2 cans Eagle Brand sweetened milk
2 eggs (I used pasturized egg substitute)
3 Tb. vanilla
1 pint cream
1 quart 1/2 and 1/2
Fill rest with milk (canister should only be filled 2/3 full, total)
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Whenever I see one of those old ice cream makers, I think of my mother. She used to make chocolate ice cream in hers. She would start by melting several Snicker candy bars and letting them cool till they were just warm. Then she would add the melted bars to the vanilla base and start the ice cream maker. Yum!
Both my family and my husband’s have traditions of homemade ice cream. In fact, my husband’s recipe is similar to yours, Dr. J., except that his uses evaporated milk and no cream. We also replaced the raw eggs with pasteurized egg subs and I, for one, feel better about it. Like you, my husband would not think of using any other recipe. He will add peaches or strawberries in season — that’s it. My dad believed in a cooked base and plenty of farm-fresh cream. He, too, would not experiment but preferred his own recipe.
We note no sugar in your recipe. Ours calls for plenty of sugar, and again, that won’t be changing. But personally, I think the sweetened condensed would make it sweet enough — and maybe more refreshing. We over-do the sweetening, I think.
Help! I just bought a Handyfreeze ice cream maker at an antique shop but the canister must be replaced (rusted through)…..but it was so fun I had to buy it. Any idea where to find a replacement??
Christopher
Rival, White Mountain, and Aroma still make wood barrel ice cream makers that look similar to the Handyfreeze makers. I’d do a search for those brands and see if you can find replacement part ordering information (I found lots of sources just doing a quick and dirty search). Then order a canister that is the same size as the one you bought.