History of Homemade Ice Cream and Recipes
Learn how to make homemade, old-fashioned ice cream using a hand-crank freezer! Plus, discover the history of ice cream and seven delicious ice cream recipes.
Homemade Ice Cream Recipes
For inspiration, here are a few of our favorite ice cream recipes. Follow the tips below, too!
- Vanilla Ice Cream
- Creme Fraiche–Blueberry Ice Cream
- Avocado Ice Cream
- Classic Strawberry Ice Cream
- Sweet Potato Ice Cream
- Peach Ice Cream
Plus, here’s a recipe to make cookies to stand up to Ice Cream Sandwiches!
Read Next
Tips for Making the Best Homemade Ice Cream
- Use the freshest ingredients available to you, especially fruit if you’re making fruity ice cream.
- Before you start, scald the can and the dasher. Make sure you have the rock salt (available at most hardware stores) and the crushed ice is at the ready. Make sure the can and the ice cream mixture are well chilled after you scald it.
- Never fill the can more than three-quarters full—somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters is ideal—because if the can gets overcrowded, your ice cream will become grainy.
- The ideal proportion of ice to salt in your ice cream mixture should be three to one. While you’re cranking your ice cream mixture, don’t add ice as it melts away, don’t take any water out, and don’t add more salt.
How to Make Old-Fashioned Ice Cream
- With everything ready to go, pour the prepared ice cream mixture into the can and nestle the can into the tub fitting. Gradually layer the ice and the salt around the can in the proper proportions, turning the crank slowly to let it settle. Let the mixture sit in the iced tub for about 5 minutes to chill.
- Begin churning so that the can is turning clockwise. Turn slowly for the first couple of minutes, then pick up speed for the next 10 minutes or so until the ice cream is solid. The handle will become more and more difficult to turn until suddenly it resists, which might make you think that you broke it. Don’t worry! This just means, “It is now ice cream!”
- Wipe the top of the can clean of ice and saltwater and check to see if it is done. Let the ice cream “ripen;” remove the dasher and pack the ice cream down into the can with a long spoon. Put the cover back on tightly and place a cork in the hole where the dasher was. Put it back in the tub, pack it in with four parts ice and one part salt, then protect the tub with a thick covering (old carpet, a blanket folded over a few times) and let it sit in a shady spot for at least 2 hours.
Congratulations! Fresh, homemade ice cream knows no equal when it comes to cooling you and your family off after a hot summer’s day. Try some of our cool ice cream recipes on your own!
A History of Homemade Ice Cream
Ice cream has been a favorite dessert for a long time. When the family gathered, and the temperature soared on summer Sunday afternoons, the ice cream freezer, sack of rock salt, fresh ingredients, and a tub of ice were brought out for the weekly ice cream ritual, one almost as unbreakable as the visit to church earlier in the day.
Even though this summer Sunday ritual has faded along with taking a turn on the crank of the ice cream freezer, ice cream is still marked by the strong loyalty of its devotees, a loyalty with a surprisingly long historical reach.
If it’s true that I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream, these cries have come up through the ages from some impressive vocal cords: Marco Polo (a devoted sherbet fan), Catherine de Medici, Richard the Lionheart, and our own George Washington, who was rumored to have run up some rather astounding ice cream bills during the hot summer months.
In the early days of the colonies and into the 19th century, ice cream was made by agitating a container of sweetened cream in a tub of salt and ice. The ice cream freezer that is still with us today was invented in 1846 by Nancy Johnson, an otherwise obscure figure on the culinary scene. In fact, it may have been her invention that brought ice cream down from its regal, aristocratic pedestal and onto the tongues of the middle class.
After the turn of the century, street vendors known as hokey-pokey men peddled their confections to eager young customers. The ice cream cone was invented, and shortly thereafter, the indelible names of Good Humor, Eskimo Pie, and Howard Johnson crested the horizon of frozen desserts.
It was sometime after this that ice cream took what some would consider its turn for the worse. Our fellow ice cream addicts, Catherine de Medici and George Washington, would scarcely recognize their beloved confection in today’s stabilized, emulsified form. The convenient freezer that most of us enjoy today rules out many of the pleasantries of this ancient delicacy. What we call ice cream, those solid bricks in our freezers can hardly compete with its 19th century counterpart in flavor or refreshment.
Temperature, for one thing, is one of the most important parts of ice cream flavor, and the common temperature of most freezers is just too cold to allow all the subtle flavors to emerge. But aside from temperature, the quality and freshness of the ingredients are the critical factors in the difference between then and now. You can still enjoy “old-fashioned” ice cream, though, by making it yourself in a hand-crank freezer. Freezers, much like Nancy Johnson’s original, are still produced and are widely available today. Learn more about the long history of ice cream.
Have you ever made homemade ice cream? What’s your favorite flavor? Let us know in the comments!
Edie Clark
ADVERTISEMENT
Over fifty years ago, my father would bring out the hand crank ice cream maker and we would take turns cranking. We always made simple, delicious vanilla. Sometimes we would drizzle a little homemade maple syrup on top. Vanilla is still a favorite with me, but I haven't found any as good as the homemade ice cream we made back then. Thanks, Dad!
Fudge Ripple and Mont Chocolate Chip are my favorites. Of course, vanilla is perfect. You can put other stuff with it like freshly sliced strawberries and peaches in season!:) I like fruity flavors in sherbet more than ice cream.
I have to be honest, I have never cranked ice cream. There were only three in my family and an ice cream maker makes too much.
The problem with electric freezers is that they don't have sufficient power, and tend to stop way before the ice cream is done enough. And of course hand cranking is takes a lot of muscle, especially once the ice cream begins to stiffen (the longer you can crank, the better the ice cream - just don't overdo it and break anything). But if you can find two freezers - one electric and one crank - with tops that are interchangeable, here's what I do. Start making it with the electric top. Let it go until the motor stops, then quickly switch to the crank top. Be careful not to let the tub float up and trap ice underneath! Now, (since you have two machines) you can immediately start a second batch, perhaps a different recipe or flavor, in the second tub with the electric motor. By the time it stops on this batch, the first one should be done so that the crank top can be switched over to batch two. This saves a LOT of cranking, plus you can make twice the ice cream in much less time!
I've looked all over the place online for a durable hand-cranker, and have had absolutely zero results. Everything offered nowadays is either electric, soft serve, or commercial use. We managed to lose TWO hand crankers in changing our residence 10 years ago. Would anyone on your site have an idea where I might find one without any plastic gears which have a tendency to break?
Thank you.
Does white mountain not make them anymore? They are the best hand cranked.
I’ve found some at flea markets and might look on eBay.
I found a very nice old one on eBay for $37 and it works great. There's a family owned business in the Midwest that still makes and sells them too. Lehman's I think is the name of it. They do all the old school stuff, hand crank washing machine, laundry mangle's, lots of stuff
I grew up in a large extended family that always made ice cream. The younger kids would take turns sitting on the machine while the adults cranked it. Such great memories! As an adult, we’ve purchased several ice cream makers over the years. They just don’t make them like they used to! Our favorite flavor is banana chocolate chip!
I am 60 years young now and I remember at first fighting with my brothers and sister on who would crank first and then fighting about who had to crank towards the end! We now have an electric one and plan to make ice cream on Father's Day. We attempted to make it on Mother's Day but my dad forgot the sugar. It was still good and we just added flavoring to our taste. So you can have sugar-free ice cream. My favorite flavor is pineapple.
I have not had much luck making peanut butter ice cream. It has come out almost tasting dry... not sure what I'm doing wrong. Anyone have a good recipe? I like to put some homemade fudge sauce on it, delightful!
As a child, myfamily would get the old ice cream maker and have fun turning the crank. My made used to make a custard with eggs, cream, sugar, vanilla and whatever fruit was available, sometimes just plain vanilla. YUM! I learned so much about the science of how it came to be ice cream. A great learning experience with some delicious results.
