Dining Out
Freeze a Little Today
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4. Now you can fill the tub with salt (rock salt is best) and crushed ice. The usual proportions are one pound of salt to six pounds of ice.
5. Start cranking. For hand cranking, start off slowly and turn faster when the freezing starts (after about 15 minutes of vigorous cranking). At this point it becomes hard to turn the crank because your muscles are out of shape and because the custard is turning into ice cream. For electric freezers consult your manufacturer's instructions. Generally, unplug them when the motor sounds as tired as your arm would feel after 15 minutes of hand cranking. Your ear will let you know when the motor is about to stop.
6. Remember to place a pan to catch water from the melting ice that flows through the drain hole in the side of the tub. Keep the can covered with ice and salt at all times.
7. Carefully scrape ice and salt away from the can. Remove can and crank mechanism, wipe can free of salt and ice and remove dasher. Cover the frozen mixture with waxed paper, replace the cover and plug the hole.
8. Allow the ice cream to freeze for two to six hours. (Six hours lets it ripen properly, two will get you by.) Either place the can in the freezer of your refrigerator insulated in a towel, newspaper, or piece of carpet, or whatever, or empty the excess water from the tub and repack it to the rim with four parts of crushed ice to one part of rock salt and cover with insulation.
Common Problems With Freezing Your Own
You might find that your efforts turned out a mushy, grainy, or icy product. Before you turn in your crank and run off to your local store, consider:
1. You used too little salt. (Salt lowers the freezing temperature of water—that's why Yankees throw it on their frozen roads to melt the ice).
2. Your ice is not crushed finely enough. (The smaller the better here, so that more surface area of ice comes in contact with the can.)
3. Your mixture is too sweet, so the freezing process is slowed down.
4. Your tub leaks. This problem should be obvious.
5. Your drain hole is clogged, whether with ice or something else, so some warm water manages to stay in the tub and warm up the can.
Recipes for a Freezer
Basic Vanilla
4 cups milk
Two pinches salt
2 cups sugar
2 4-inch lengths of vanilla bean, split and crushed in a mortar. Or 4 Tbs. of vanilla extract if the heat's already gotten to you.
12 egg yolks.
1. Scald the milk and cream in a large saucepan. Add sugar and vanilla bean. Remove from heat.
2. In a separate bowl beat the yolks with two pinches of salt until foamy.
3. Slowly pour the scalded cream mixture into the egg yolks, stirring constantly. Pour back into saucepan. Return pan to low heat on stove.
4. Stir constantly until the mixture coats a metal spoon. If your knack is not too good, place the mixture over a double boiler. Pour through a sieve into a bowl and chill thoroughly. Over-cooking will curdle it.
Other Flavors
For other flavors, add them to the basic vanilla mixture. Starred items are added just before the freezing process is finished. (Proportions for one gallon.)
Strawberry
Slice one pound of strawberries. Cover them with orange juice. Flavor this with kirsch and sugar to taste. Let the mixture stand for two hours. Pluck the strawberries from their juice. Place more sliced strawberries in the remaining juice. Let this mixture stand for two hours. Spoon these strawberries over the strawberry ice cream you just made. Lock your doors and eat it.
Chocolate
Add one cup of chocolate syrup before you begin cranking the freezer. Or add four squares of unsweetened chocolate after step one in the basic vanilla procedure.
Butter Pecan
Butter 8 Tbs.
Chopped Pecans—l cup*
Brown Sugar—3 cups (Substitute this for sugar in basic mixture)
Orange
Orange Juice—4 oranges
Lemon Juice—l lemon
Orange Rind—2 Oranges*
Sugar—1/2 cup
Peach
Peaches—One pound, crushed or sliced*
Recipes Without a Freezer
Espresso Coffee
11/2 cups heavy cream
11/2 cups of freshly roasted espresso coffee beans
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1. Cook cream and egg yolks over low heat or double boiler until thickened. Should coat a spoon.
2. Let stand several hours for flavor to develop. Strain.
3. Place in refrigerator tray, cover with foil, freeze until there is a solid rim of ice around the edge at least one inch wide.
4. Remove from tray, beat vigorously in a chilled bowl.
5. Refreeze. See number 3.
6. Repeat step four.
7. Freeze.
Fruit Granita
Juice of:
2 Oranges
1 Grapefruit
1 Lemon
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1. Cook sugar in water until it reaches 219 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
2. Mix fruit juice.
3. Stir every 1/2-l hour to prevent ice formations.
4. Serve slightly mushy.
Fruit Yogurt Ice Cream
3/4 cup orange juice or raspberry puree
1 cup yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon lemon juice.
Freeze in ice cube tray. Eat.
Now that you have the information and a few recipes, head for your kitchen. If you need statistical security for your foray, remember the Cornell University announcement that a person with average luck who ate ice cream daily would require only 100 million years to come down with a stomach ache. How much he or she would weigh, well, that's another question.
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