Plain Ice Cream

This is an uncooked custard: seven whole eggs are stirred into cold milk and cream and taken straight to the freezer, with no heating step at any point. That is the reason it cannot be made as printed.

• The eggs are never cookedNothing in this recipe raises the mixture above refrigerator temperature. Raw shell eggs carry a risk of Salmonella Enteritidis, which can be present inside an intact, clean-looking egg, and a single contaminated egg is distributed through the whole gallon.
• Freezing is not a kill stepChilling and freezing halt bacterial growth but do not destroy the bacteria already present. A frozen custard holds surviving organisms in suspension for as long as it is kept, and they resume growing as the dessert softens on the plate.
• Homemade ice cream is a documented vehiclePublic health investigations in the United States have repeatedly traced salmonellosis outbreaks to homemade ice cream made with uncooked eggs, often at gatherings where a large batch was shared. A gallon batch built on seven raw eggs and served to a crowd fits that pattern.
• The milk of the periodIf the milk used here was unpasteurized, as household milk often was before pasteurization became general, that would add Brucella, Campylobacter and tuberculosis to the risks. Modern retail milk removes that particular hazard, but it does nothing about the eggs.
• Not an ordinary raw-egg caseRaw egg in a cake batter or a boiled custard is fine because heat follows. Here the egg is eaten as it went in, which is the line this recipe crosses.
• If you want this dessertUse a current cooked-custard ice cream recipe, which brings the base to a measured temperature before churning. That approach produces the same style of dessert without the uncooked egg.
• Reading the measuresFor historical interest: a half pint of "sweet cream" is one cup, sweet meaning fresh rather than soured.