We make gallons and gallons of home made icecream at our church using such a freezer.
We use real cream, eggs and sugar....and the eggs are raw...I know makes me nervous...but I stand back and attend to my own part of the festivitied.
The woman in charge begs empty 1/2 gallon milk cartons and fills them with ice a week before....and uses that ice beaten with a hammer and "ice cream salt" to freeze it. It's made on a sunday and placed in the freezers in half gallon icecream containers and on Monday morning they get it out and microwave each gallon container and whip it with an electric mixer and back into the freezer.
the things to be careful of are salty water in the ice cream!
Have fun...If you have trouble finding a recipe...ask and I am sure I can get Julie's recipe.
Linda C

Thanks Linda. The instructions read like a rocket science experiment, but I'm sure it will all make sense after the first batch.

The instructions say to empty an ice tray in the freezer, then put a measured amount of salt on top, then another layer of ice from an ice tray, etc. I don't know if we have any ice trays, so I guess I'll add.... hmmmm... a dozen cubes from the automatic ice machine for each layer of ice?

We have two ice cream recipe books (1 of them the Ben & Jerry's book) and I'm sure there are scores of recipes on-line, but thank you for the offer of the recipe, and also for the tips.

Some of the recipes call for heating the eggs w/cream into a very thick cream, so I'll probably choose one of those recipes for egg safety.

Jenn, for the ice: just put about two inches of ice, then sprinkle the layer liberally with salt and continue, ending with salt. Do stop a couple inches from the top so that dreaded salt water doesn't get into the ice cream container.

I've got an old wooden (electric) machine that I received as a wedding gift 32 years ago!!!

I usually buy a bag or two of ice from the store. I have better luck with that and don't usually have enough cube ice to do the job.

Basically after the cannister is in place, I put a layer of ice about 2-3" thick, then sprinkle on about 1/2 cup of rock (ice cream) salt, then ice, then salt etc to the top. Then I pour about 1 cup of water over the top and turn her on.

When the ice cream is done, take out the dasher and either leave the cannister in the machine with more ice to harden a bit more, put in the freezer, or just eat right away!

Really not hard and a lot of fun!

I use a recipe with raw eggs.... guess when I get to be an old lady :) I'll have to give that up!!

Grace

Thank you coconut; the instructions say to add the layers until the ice level reaches the top of the rotating ice cream can. Is that the "top" you're referring to?

Yeah...if you add ice and salt higher than that....you run the risk of salt water in the icecream.
May i suggest that you put it together once, and turn it on to give it a "dry run" so you can see how it all goes together and rotates and all...

Linda: That's what we'll do this weekend. I washed the parts and will get ingredients to make a recipe tomorrow.

I have another question I hope someone can answer: How long can will homemade ice cream keep in the freezer? If stored in a durable plastic container, would it still be like-new a week later? I plan to make it the day of the party... I'm just curious if a batch we make this weekend (the "dry run" batch) would be good enough for next weekend if there is enough left over.

Definitely good for a week. But since mine never lasts much longer than that, I just Googled it. This is from David Lebovitz's site, and he checked with the FDA, so that's two pretty good authorities:

A reader recently wrote to ask, "How long does ice cream last in the freezer?"

Oddly, I never gave it much thought since it doesn't seem to linger too long around here. So I looked around and found the answer at the FDA website: 2-4 months.

The most common problem when ice creams and other frozen desserts spend too long in the freezer is the texture changes and if not covered properly (ideally with plastic wrap on the surface, then covered with a lid), they can get icy and pick up other flavors from the freezer.

If they do get icy, most sorbets and sherbets can be melted down and re-churned, as can Philadelphia-style ice creams made without eggs. But I find custard-based ice creams don't re-freeze as successfully, so don't let those sit around too long.

Putting plastic wrap on the surface to protect against the air inside the plastic container is smart. That's what I do with pesto, so why not ice cream?

Thank you, Maureen -- very helpful. If custard-based ice creams don't re-freeze as successfully, then perhaps we should make non-custard types for the party, since they tend to sit out longer while every one helps themselves. But then, there may not be any left to put back in the freezer!

Refreezing "soft" ice cream will be fine...but if it gets totally liquid it may not freeze so well....but it still will be much better than any store bought stuff!

My first batch of chocolate ice cream is chillin' in the fridge! I used the "Ben's Chocolate" recipe (from the Ben & Jerry's ice cream book). Since the recipes in this book do not cook the eggs, I followed the instructions in a different book (From Your Ice Cream Maker) for heating the eggs in hot milk to make a custard base. I used Trader Joe's 72% Dark Chocolate rather than the unsweetened chocolate called for in the recipe (because that's what I had on-hand), adjusting the amount of sugar.

Now it's chilling, and we'll churn it later.

I'll try making vanilla ice cream tomorrow, using a vanilla bean for flavor.

We'll give some to the neighbors. Who'd pass up homemade ice cream on a 100-degree day?

All that 72% TJ's chocolate...probably not good....better keep it for yourself.
I need to get on an ice cream making jag...I know from experience that chocolate leads to vanilla, to peach to coffee, to blueberry to raspberry....and then you start getting creative with orange pineapple and rum raisin...

LOL Linda, I see that coming. Tonight I'll prepare the mix for Philadelphia-style Vanilla ice cream (from the book From Your Ice Cream Maker) which includes no eggs so it will whip up fast. Next...... ????

The chocolate ice cream turned out very chocolatey and delicious!!! My husband thinks it may be a little too sweet, so next time I will use unsweetened chocolate (as the recipe calls for) so I don't need to make any adjustments to the sugar. It's firming up in the freezer now and I can't wait for a big scoop a little later.