Glossary: ice-cream makers (freezers)

Generally speaking, there are two basic styles of ice-cream maker'"manual and electric. They can be simple or fancy and can cost from $25 to almost $1,000. In addition to ice cream, they can be used to make ice milk, frozen yogurt and frozen drinks. All of them work on the same principle'"a canister with a central, vertical paddle (called a dasher) is placed inside a container that holds the freezing agent'"either ice and salt, a chemical coolant or an electric refrigeration unit. The inner canister is filled with an ice-cream mixture that the dasher stirs (gently scraping the sides of the canister) when rotated. This stirring action aerates the mixture and keeps it smooth by preventing ice crystals from forming while it freezes. There are several different kinds of ice-cream freezers. Among the manual-style ice-cream makers are the old-fashioned, wooden buckets with a metal inner container for the ice-cream mixture. They require ice, rock salt (which lowers the temperature of the ice) and plenty of physical stamina to turn the crank that rotates the dasher. They usually take 30 to 40 minutes to make 4 to 6 quarts of ice cream. Some of these wooden bucket-style makers have an electric motor that sits on top of the unit, saving manpower. A newer form of manual ice-cream maker is the prechilled chamber freezer, which ranges in size from 1 pint to 11a

From THE NEW FOOD LOVERS COMPANION, Fourth edition by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst. Copyright © 2007, 2001, 1995, 1990 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc.