Not so very long ago, ice cream was not something that came from the supermarket in a cardboard box, but a magical substance that you had to work to make from country cream, sugar, fresh eggs and flavorings. During regular family visits to my grandparents when I was a child, ice cream making was a favorite activity, and one that produced more results than most. Someone would bring out the old hand-cranked ice cream freezer, and then Grandma would make an ice cream mixture, usually a caramel or fruit flavor. Grandpa would put large chunks of ice into a gunny sack and break them up with a heavy mallet. Then all of the uncles, cousins and aunts would go down to the basement and help chum the ice cream, taking turns pouring in crushed ice, adding rock salt and turning the crank. As the mixture began to freeze, two of us would help hold down the ice cream bucket and make it easier to churn. When the mixture got so stiff that only Grandpa could still turn the crank, it was a signal to the kids that the dasher was about to be removed and we would get a taste of the ice cream.
It has been many years since I turned ice cream in the basement of my grandparents’ house. During many of those years, the amount of ice cream produced at home in America diminished steadily. But in these days when people are returning to nature and producing more of their own food, home ice cream making is enjoying a revival. Old ice cream freezers are being dusted off and returned to use, and new ones are being manufactured and sold by the tens of thousands. But many family recipes for good home-churned ice cream have been lost. Grandmother may have made it by adding a little of this and a little of that, but the newcomer to homemade ice cream needs a recipe to follow, and even the experienced home ice cream maker can always use suggestions for new flavors and new combinations of ingredients. All the ice cream recipes in this book are intended to be churn-frozen in a home ice cream freezer. The quantities given will make about one gallon, unless otherwise noted. Home ice cream freezers come in all sizes, but fortunately no adjustments are necessary when reducing or expanding the recipes: you need only keep the proportion of ingredients the same when making any amount of ice cream. Don’t hesitate to experiment, to try new recipes and to develop your own. Developing new and different taste sensations is part of the fun.