Old-Fashioned Homemade Ice Cream

Cookbook Category: Desserts

When I was a kid, we waited impatiently while first mother and then daddy turned the crank on the ice cream freezer. When it wouldn't turn anymore, mother took out the dasher (which I was allowed to lick), and the cannister was packed with ice and covered with old towels. Once it was finally ready and dished up, I would eat it too fast and get an "ice cream headache". I couldn't help myself. It was worth a little headache.

6 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
13-ounce can evaporated milk (1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons)
1 gallon whole milk
chipped ice
rock salt

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add sugar gradually, stirring constantly. Add salt, vanilla and canned milk. Add about a pint of the fresh milk and mix.

Pour mixture into ice cream freezer can. Add enough of the remainder of the milk to fill can to the middle of the top board of dasher. (If the freezer can has a "fill" line on it, fill no higher than that line.)

Assemble the ice cream freezer. Add alternating layers of chipped ice and rock salt to barrel around freezer can. Crank freezer until ice cream begins to freeze (cranking will become harder as ice cream freezes), adding more ice and salt, as needed. When handle becomes difficult-to-impossible to turn, remove turning mechanism, and carefully remove top from freezer can; remove dasher. Replace top. Cover can with more ice and salt. Cover ice with an old towel, allowing ice cream to "cure" for at least 1 hour. If yours is an electric freezer, follow manufacturer's directions, but the curing step is essential.

Makes about 5 quarts of ice cream.

Prep time: 1 hour 40 minutes; Cooking time: N/A; Total time: 1 hour 40 minutes