I have never used one of the old school hand crank ice cream makers. Sounds like it would be great fun on the trail. I'd love to hear from people with first hand experience using them.
Hand crank Ice Cream makers
- Thread starter rusty_tlc
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I have the hand-crank ice cream freezer we used when I was a kid. Growing up at our lake place, we must have made 12-15 gallons of ice cream a summer. With that said, 30+ years later, I have only taken ours out camping one time. The pros. while it was fun and it was a hit...make sure you have enough kids or willing adults to crank for 30-40 minutes. It won't be frozen hard, but more like the best soft serve you've ever had. The cons, the bulk of it all, ice, rock salt, clean up, and make sure you have either enough people who will eat the ice cream or another container to pack it in a cooler with lots of ice! If you are going to a "base-camp" type set up then throw it in with all of your other gear and don't forget some homemade chocolate and caramel sauce!
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D,
We still have a hand crank model. Never used it on the trail, but a few times at the park. We haven't used it since I got the new 2Qt Cuisinart for Andrea. More than anything, its the family involvement/effort that makes the hand crank so memorable.
I saw this one awhile back... Might give it a try with the kids on the next trip. May even give it to the dog to play with for 30 minutes... He'll push a damn basketball all over the yard trying to get it in his mouth and won't stop until you take it away from him.
Tent and Trails - Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker
J
We still have a hand crank model. Never used it on the trail, but a few times at the park. We haven't used it since I got the new 2Qt Cuisinart for Andrea. More than anything, its the family involvement/effort that makes the hand crank so memorable.
I saw this one awhile back... Might give it a try with the kids on the next trip. May even give it to the dog to play with for 30 minutes... He'll push a damn basketball all over the yard trying to get it in his mouth and won't stop until you take it away from him.
Tent and Trails - Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker
J
We had a hand-crank freezer when I was a kid. As someone else mentioned, it's fun but you need several people willing to crank on it for a while and it can be tiring. These days I just use my electric model when making ice cream at home. I don't think the ice cream made in the electric freezer is as good as that made in the hand-crank, but it's easier. It's the texture of the hand crank that I think is better, because it tends to freeze faster and it's coarse with ice crystals, which I like. Just personal preference, though.
On the trail, friends and I have done it in ziplock bags. The ice cream mix (nothing much more than milk/cream, sugar, and vanilla) goes in one (or doubled-up) ziplock, inside of a larger ziplock full of ice and a handful of rock salt. You pass around a pair of welding gloves and everybody takes turns kneading the bags for a couple of minutes at a time until it's done. My fishing buddies and I knead the ice cream while a cobbler cooks in a Dutch oven, so you can put the ice cream over the cobbler when they both get done. It's really a treat and really simple, but you do need to have ice (and beer
).
On the trail, friends and I have done it in ziplock bags. The ice cream mix (nothing much more than milk/cream, sugar, and vanilla) goes in one (or doubled-up) ziplock, inside of a larger ziplock full of ice and a handful of rock salt. You pass around a pair of welding gloves and everybody takes turns kneading the bags for a couple of minutes at a time until it's done. My fishing buddies and I knead the ice cream while a cobbler cooks in a Dutch oven, so you can put the ice cream over the cobbler when they both get done. It's really a treat and really simple, but you do need to have ice (and beer
).
- Thread starter
- #5
I think I will start looking at garage sales for an old hand crank ice cream maker. Sounds like it might be fun, I also have an old weed eater motor that is looking for a project.
Per spotcruiser I too had extensive experience using a wood hand crank ice cream machine while growing up and beyond. Aside from spending 4 bills and north for a real ice cream maker (with compressor for uber cold processing of same, minimal air incorporation ,etc.) it IMHO offers the biggest bang for the buck for making "real" ice cream.
I've owned and used a couple Cuisinart or similar where you freeze a gel filled "bucket", usually 1-2 quarts in size, and then simply insert the paddle and turn the machine on to let it churn its way to ice cream. They work OK but a far cry from top shelf ice cream IMO. Like most things...you get what you pay for, sometimes. With these relatively inexpensive ice cream makers the trade-off is in the cost-to-results category. The resulting ice cream is OK but no where near what a real ice-creamery can make.
FWIW: If you ever find yourself in Santa Cruz be sure to stop by Penny Creamery for a taste of ice cream for some of the best ice cream I've ever had...
I've owned and used a couple Cuisinart or similar where you freeze a gel filled "bucket", usually 1-2 quarts in size, and then simply insert the paddle and turn the machine on to let it churn its way to ice cream. They work OK but a far cry from top shelf ice cream IMO. Like most things...you get what you pay for, sometimes. With these relatively inexpensive ice cream makers the trade-off is in the cost-to-results category. The resulting ice cream is OK but no where near what a real ice-creamery can make.
FWIW: If you ever find yourself in Santa Cruz be sure to stop by Penny Creamery for a taste of ice cream for some of the best ice cream I've ever had...
- Thread starter
- #7
There are some great ice cream places on the S Oregon Coast as well. That probably has more to do with the quality of the ingredients than the process. The local dairy products in general are amazing in that area.
There is a big community wide garage sale coming up this weekend I could probably find a hand crank unit.
There is a big community wide garage sale coming up this weekend I could probably find a hand crank unit.
