Yogurt Ice-Cream

A no-cook, no-egg frozen dessert built on cultured milk and citrus, sized for a hand-crank churn. The volume is the first thing to reckon with.

• YieldThe ingredients total roughly three quarts of base, which will expand as it churns. Most domestic ice-cream makers hold one to two quarts of finished product, so plan on two or three batches, or scale the whole thing by a third.
• The nameThere is no yogurt in it. "Yogurt" appears to have been used loosely in some early twentieth-century American writing for soured, cultured milk generally, and cultured buttermilk was widely sold. Plain whole-milk yogurt thinned to a pourable consistency substitutes if you want the title to be accurate.
• Orange rind"Very thin" means peel taken with a swivel peeler or zester, coloured layer only, no white pith. It steeps in the hot syrup for flavour and is strained out, so long strips are easier to handle than grated zest.
• Steeping the syrupThe recipe cooks the rind with the sugar and water and then strains it out. Bring sugar, water and rind to a boil and let the syrup stand off the heat before straining. Cool it before it meets the buttermilk, or the heat and acid together may curdle it visibly.
• CurdlingButtermilk plus citrus juice may look grainy. The cream added at the halfway point and the churning itself smooth the texture. Whisking the base well before freezing helps.
• PineappleThis may mean fresh pineapple, though canned was also available; either way the enzymes matter less here than in gelatin work since nothing needs to set. Canned crushed pineapple, drained, gives a more consistent result and the juice from the can can supply the cup of pineapple juice.
• "Freeze slightly, add the cream"This two-stage method belongs to the ice-and-salt bucket churn, where the lid comes off easily. In a modern machine, either churn the acid base ten minutes and pour the cream in through the opening, or simply combine everything cold and churn straight through. The result differs very little.
• HardeningStraight from the churn this is soft. Pack it into a chilled container, press paper or wrap onto the surface, and give it three or four hours in the freezer. Let it stand ten minutes before scooping.