I don’t ever remembering a freezer at home that didn’t have a container of homemade ice cream [with a spoon in it], in addition to the ‘boughten’ ice cream from the weekly Schwann Ice Cream home delivery truck.
It was a family affair to make the ice cream. Mom usually made the recipe, ready to pour into the freezer can. There were lots of recipes floating around the extended family and community, and everyone said their recipe was the best. Reunions usually had a lineup of about 8-12 or more freezers packin’ ice cream! And everyone brought toppings, cakes, pies and such–to go with the ice cream.
Sometimes it was just us at home after a long, hot summer day. Or friends might come over for a freezer of ice cream after supper and chores. Or we were out of ice cream in the freezer, and needed more. One really doesn’t need to have a reason to make [and eat] ice cream…as I see it.
Mom usually made the recipe, ready to pour into the freezer can. A dasher is inside the freezer can, which freezes the ice cream as it is turned surrounded by ice and salt in the ice cream bucket. I think we were born knowing how it worked. We took turns turning the handle, counting how many turns we made.
The prepared ice filled the space around the can in the freezer, with the rock salt added to super cool the ice slush around the can which freezes the ice cream. Preparing the ice began with a solid block of ice put into a burlap [feed] bag. The bag was put on the sidewalk and we smashed the block of ice inside the bag with the side of an ax until it was fine enough to put into the freezer with salt. Then as we cranked, someone had a special stick and kept pushing the ice down to the bottom of the freezer, also working the excess liquid out the overflow hole in the side of the bucket.
Soon the turning became harder and harder as the liquid began to freeze into ice cream. When it was almost too hard to turn, it was very important to keep turning even more to make the ice cream hard. Finally, dad said it was ready. He would make the final really hard cranks. Then the best part. Licking the dasher!
After the cranking ended, the crank was removed from the top and the lid was pulled off the freezer can, showing the fresh ice cream ready to be eaten. A shallow pan and spoons were ready to receive the dasher with ice cream hanging on as it was pulled and put into the shallow pan. Quickly the dasher was cleaned with the clicking of the spoons grabbing the lumps of frozen, white ice cream!
A piece of tin foil was placed over the top of the freezer without the dasher; or it was taken into the house and eaten immediately with toppings, fruit, cereal, and such. If we were transporting it to a gathering somewhere else, we would leave it in the freezer bucket, pack ice over the top and put a gunny sack over it all before it goes in the trunk of the car.