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Ice Creams

Practical Points for Beginners.

To begin with, proper and clean utensils and good materials are essential points. In the first place a pure, good cream should be obtained of a reliable dealer and be kept cold or "iced up," as the ice-cream maker terms it; that is, the can which contains the cream should be placed in a tub or box constructed for this purpose, allowing enough space around the can for the ice. Next in order will be a tin-lined copper kettle to boil the cream in, porcelain-lined or enameled cans, or earthenware dishes to receive it and cool it (this is for creams which require boiling, also water ices, sherbets, etc.). Flavoring extracts should be of the best quality, the eggs fresh and the fruits ripe and sound. Stale eggs and overripe fruit make miserable ice cream. No milk or artificial thickener can give the smooth, rich flavor of pure frozen cream. Pure cream when well frozen will double in bulk, while if milk, or water, or other thinner is used to reduce cost, the ice cream will become hard and icy and will not swell like pure cream, and therefore be almost as costly and not nearly so good. Also use nothing but the very best Mexican vanilla extracts in flavoring ice cream. We recommend our American Double Standard Vanilla as the most suitable vanilla on the market. Artificial or cheap vanilla extract made with some tonka beans may be used in baking or even in making syrups, but if this class of extract is used in ice cream it is bound to show. The best cream will bring the best trade both in the class of customers attracted and the volume of the business done. A good freezer is a necessity; we have them in various styles from 4 quarts to 40, hand or power. In making ice cream, cream 2 or 3 days old will produce better results than cream only 1 day old; it will work up smoother and will double itself in every run without difficulty-provided, of course, that proper proportions of ice and salt are used and the machine run at proper speed. New cream -cream fresh from the separator-cannot be worked profitably; it will double readily and it will stand forcing, because it is too much worked upthat is to say, the butter fat has not had a chance to congeal and stand another whipping. Besides making up short, the first cream is likely to go into butter, thus giving a fatty product. Hand-skimmed cream may be worked fresher than the other, as the butter fat has not been shaken up as in the separator product. Opinions differ greatly as to the proper amount of sugar. For unboiled creams 7 ounces, or a little less, sugar to the quart of cream should be the average quantity. Creams sweetened to excess, that is, more than half pound of sugar to the quart, will lose the flavor of the cream and the other ingredients, as well as being injurious to the stomach, and will also take more time to freeze. On the other hand, using too little sugar will make the ice cream coarse and is apt to transform it into little pieces of ice; this can especially be observed in water ices, as ices need considerably more sugar than creams; the more sugar used the smoother the ices will be, remembering not to over-do it; using too much sugar makes it difficult to freeze the batch, and a hard matter to keep it at the proper consistency. From 1 pound to 1 pound and 4 ounces to the quart is the right proportion for ices. Another and essential point is to keep the goods iced up properly, replenish ice and salt as often as necessary. This operation has twofold results: First, it will keep the cream up to the same quantity, remembering that all creams during the process of freezing will take up a certain amount of air, the same as egg whites beaten into a foam. By allowing the cream to become soft, the air will escape and consequently reduce the bulk. Second, it will tend to become watery and form into small pieces of ice. Creams while being frozen should not be turned too fast at the start; in this case they are apt to get buttery, but when nearly done the speed of the freezer should be increased until the batch is done. This will tend to lighten the cream and cause it to gain in bulk. A 40-quart freezer will require about 20 minutes to finish with a speed of 80 revolutions a minute. It is not necessary to vary the speed of the machine or the proportions of ice and salt with the age or degree of ripeness of the cream. Coming back to the starting point of freezing; the freezer is packed with crushed ice mixed with rock salt, in the proportion of 4 pounds of ice to 1 pound of salt. The ice must be broken fine enough to go down in the tub readily. Good results will never be got if the ice is so coarse that it stays on top of the lid until partly melted. It must be borne in mind, too, that it is not the ice and salt themselves that do the work; it is the brine that actually takes up the heat. And if your tub leaks or the bung is left out, the freezing will be retarded and the cream is likely to become coarse and flaky. These are simple points, but are important in the profitable manufacture of ice cream and should be looked after carefully. All frozen goods are packed and repacked with this mixture, with an addition of more or less salt, as the case may require; more salt will tend to freeze quicker but will consume more ice. When a batch of cream is frozen it should be repacked or transferred to another can and left standing at least half an hour to "ripen" before being served. As stated before, the sweet cream should be kept iced up in a clean place, for any odor or smell is absorbed by the cream. Cream to be boiled should especially be taken care of in hot or changeable weather, as it will easily curdle. This may be pre-vented by adding a pinch of soda and constantly stirring until it reaches the boiling point; when eggs are added they should be previously mixed with cream or milk. Right here your attention is called to a mistaken practice that is followed by many workmen. That is to transfer a finished batch from the machine can to a stack can, strain in the fresh batch and use the same ice for a second run. It is a wrong thing to do, for the strength of the ice and salt is gone; it has done its work. At the end of each run remove the can from the machine, wet the sides and bottom and slide the contents into a packing can -every spoonful of cream will come out readily, and your machine can is ready for another run. Now, to utilize the ice that is left in the tub, just dump it into the break box, then throw it on to the can just transferred and put on another shovel of salt. Your cream will become nice and firm and will keep until next day if you need to carry it over. This practice saves time and money and is the only sure and economical way to manufacture good ice cream.