Different Styles Of Ice Cream Makers

A wood ice cream maker such as that made by White Mountain, is built to last a lifetime. If you are really serious about making large amounts of ice cream, then a wooden bucket model is one of your best options.

White Mountain makes 4 and 6 quart machines with hand cranks or electric motors. If you ever want to use a hand crank but own an electric model, you can get the crank assembly. White Mountain uses New England tongue and groove Pine and extensive wood preservation treatments combined with metal bands.

The high quality 12,000 RPM motor operates smoothly and is more quiet than many people expect out of something that can churn that fast.

Fried ice cream often gives the inexperienced a start. How on earth do you fry something that is frozen after all? Fried ice cream is made by an easy but structured process. Ice cream is scooped out into balls and covered with wax paper and frozen for several hours.

The balls are then rolled in a crunchy mixture such as coconut and corn flakes and frozen for another half hour. After this the ice cream balls are dipped in egg and then more crunchy mix until they are entirely coated. Balls are deep fried at 400 degrees for 30 seconds to a minute depending on size of ball.

While there are few small machines for people to do this, you can purchase a small deep fryer for very little and use it for making fried ice cream from the ice cream you have made at home using an inexpensive maker.

A vintage ice cream maker is usually hand cranked and features an inner canister and churn. This canister and churn hold the ice cream mix and they are placed in a bucket that salt and ice are added to. Vintage style makers can be made of many type of materials. Less expensive but highly functional vintage ice cream makers have plastic buckets and aluminum or plastic cylinders.

More expensive vintage ice cream makers have wooden buckets that have been treated for durability. The inner cylinder is often made of stainless steel as is the churn. Motorized ice cream makers only became widely available in the 1950s

An antique style ice cream maker usually means that it is a churn style machine with a bucket. A true antique or one styled after an older model usually has a bucket made of some sort of wood. White Mountain Ice Cream Makers for example are made using New England pine.

The canister constaining the churn is placed in the bucket and ice and salt are packed in around the canister. Very old models operate by a hand crank while vintage models from the 1950s and beyond often have an electric motor.

For an authentic ice cream party, you might consider a manual ice cream maker. These come in several styles with the most common being the classic crank churn style machine. Some companies make fun manual machines that are essentially just a hollowed out ball. Users just put salt and ice in one end and ice cream mix in the other. Kids or adults can toss the ball around until the ice cream is made.

Using a manual machine encourages more involvement with the group that is to be enjoying the ice cream. There is a sense of creating something delicious as a group. Young kids will get to exercise and play and then enjoy a great treat to cool off!

A compressor ice cream maker works essentially the same way your home freezer does. It contains a compressor for cooling and freezing ice cream and other frozen treats as it is made. This means that users don’t have to worry about freezing bowls ahead of time. Some freezers don’t freeze bowls hard enough leading to a lot of ice cream making frustration.

The downside to compressor ice cream makers is there additional up front cost. Many models cost several hundreds of dollars. At the same time if you want the ability to make a lot of frozen treats it can be more cost effective to invest in a compressor model initially.

The reason for this is that the ice and salt required for a lot of churn style makers can add up in cost over the years, especially if you don’t have a reliable ice maker.

Older ice cream makers sometimes have some life left in them, especially if they are of the wooden bucket variety. Parts on older machines are sometimes interchangeable so they can be refurbished. Unless you have a very good brand, it is sometimes easier and most cost effective to just buy a new machine and get started making ice cream as soon as you can.

If you don’t have a lot of experience with ice cream makers it can be hard to determine the exact cause of any malfunctions. Small parts and such can be very hard or impossible to find. Second hand stores can have ice cream makers for sale but you are often buying at your own risk. With the availability of inexpensive and high quality machines, there is often not much reason to buy second hand and the problems that can come with it.

If you are looking for a bargain, sometimes Amazon will have a warehouse deal where an ice cream maker can be purchased that has damaged packaging or been returned because someone ordered the wrong item. This is a better option than risking your money at a thrift store or similar.