"sueb" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>
> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>> On Thu 08 Sep 2005 07:37:48p, wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>>
>> > Hi, I'm sure this topic has been addressed in one form or another on
>> > the net. I've done some searching and found many threads about ice
>> > cream.
>>
>> Yep, you're right. Ice cream has been discussed to death here, but then,
>> so has everything else. :-) We just keep doing it.
>>
>> > The question I pose is pretty specific (in my mind) though. Does
>> > anyone else remember the vanilla ice cream that little old ladies made
>> > at church functions / social events? I can envision a certain taste, a
>> > certain texture that I still long for to this day. It's been at least
>> > 15 years since I had such an ice cream.
>>
> ........ deleted stuff
>> > I'm using a simple vanilla recipe from a Ben and Jerry's recipe book.
>> > Heavy whipping cream, milk, vanilla, sugar, eggs. Very
>> > straightforward, but it comes nowhere near the taste I'm looking for.
>>
>> A very good recipe, but most likely very wrong. It's highly doubtful
>> that
>> the ice cream you remember had any whipping cream in it, and very
>> possibly
>> no eggs. One reason was economics, as canned milk products were less
>> expensive. Another is that many recipes including eggs required that they
>> be cooked into a custard with milk - time consuming.
>>
>> More likely, those ice creams made for church socials were made with
>> evaporated milk, regular whole milk, sugar, and vanilla. Also, very
>> possibly, sweetened condensed milk. Remember, this wasn't gourmet ice
>> cream, although it tasted pretty darned good to most folks.
>
> Actually Wayne, I bet you are 180 degrees wrong. It's equally likely
> that the church social ice cream was made with better ingredients than
> he/she tried, because they were fresher. When my grandmother made ice
> cream, she used fresh eggs (from her hens), and fresh milk and cream
> (from her cows).
>
> The only thing they used from cans were things they put into cans. And
> cooking a custard was something done regularly, not thought of as
> particularly onerous or time consuming. People used to expect to have
> to take time cooking.
>
> I suggest getting a hand cranked ice cream machine and continuing to
> experiment. One thing that always gives me the "old timey" feel is the
> slight taste of the rock salt in the finished product, as horrible as
> that sounds.
>
> Susan B.

Our ice cream 'socials' in the late 1930's, the ice cream was always made
with everything from the farm, as above. Someone drove to town to buy ice
from the ice plant for the hand-cranked wooden ice cream freezer.
The ice cream usually in spite of the fact that it had 'cream' and eggs was
a bit runny when served, or should I say, it melted quickly when put in a
dish. We always had vanilla ice cream. I'll bet there was nothing really
anything exotic or mysterious about these recipes. I'd start with all good
products and an ice cream maker using salt and I'll bet you can reproduce it
in no time.
If I were you, though, I'd get a electric crank unless you have lots of
family taking turns.

One night on a very full stomach of ice creamcoming home (about 4 years old)
when my mom put me back in the rumble seat of the car, I can still remember
the stars overhead swirling around. I had eaten too much of it. Little did
I know until later in life I was lactose intolerant.
Dee Dee