Old ice cream makers churn a sweet mixture inside a cold environment to create ice cream. Here's a breakdown of how they function:
-
Components:
- Metal Canister: A container holding the ice cream mixture.
- Dasher: A paddle or blade inside the canister, connected to a hand crank, that scrapes the mixture from the sides and incorporates air.
- Wooden Bucket: An outer bucket holding the ice and salt.
- Hand Crank: Used to turn the dasher.
-
Process:
- Preparation: The ice cream mixture (cream, sugar, flavorings) is poured into the metal canister.
- Cooling: The canister is placed inside the wooden bucket. Ice and salt are packed around the canister. The salt lowers the freezing point of the water, creating a colder environment than ice alone.
- Churning: The hand crank is turned, rotating the dasher inside the canister. This performs two crucial actions:
- Scraping: The dasher scrapes the freezing ice cream mixture from the sides of the canister, preventing large ice crystals from forming.
- Aeration: The dasher incorporates air into the mixture, resulting in a smoother, lighter texture.
- Freezing: The churning process continues until the ice cream reaches the desired consistency. This can take 20-30 minutes. The salt ice bath ensures the mixture freezes properly.
- Hardening: After churning, the ice cream can be hardened further by adding more ice and salt to the bucket and letting it sit.
In essence, old ice cream makers rely on the principle of brine freezing combined with mechanical agitation to create ice cream. The hand crank facilitates both the scraping of the sides of the can and the mixing in of air to produce the desired consistency.
