Making Ice Cream From Scratch Then and Now Part 1

Making ice cream in 1940 Caswell County North Carolina 

I learned from oral histories and sources, like this 1940 Caswell County North Carolina image from the library of Congress, that long ago, rural folks would purchase a block of ice and chip off what they needed with an ice pick to make homemade ice cream. Making ice cream from scratch required lots of churning of the dasher filled with ice, fresh cream, sugar, and the local fruit in season.  The ice cream series I did last year inspired reader Jackie Garvin to write, “I have vivid memories of homemade vanilla ice cream . . . The ice cream freezer was hand cranked by everyone that expected to eat the ice cream. We all had to take turns. The ice and ice cream salt was replenished as needed as the cranking went on and on and on.” She adds that childhood impatience would not allow us to wait “for the ice cream to properly “ripen.” As a result, “we dished it out in Dixie cups while it was a milkshake consistency.” With electric, and I would not be surprised to see solar powdered ice cream makers, children today don't have work so hard to enjoy delicious ice cream made from scratch. 

Ice Cream History: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2010/08/19/the-art-of-ice-cream

George Washington’s Ice Cream Recipe: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/20/147054700/george-washingtons-ice-cream-recipe-first-cut-ice-from-river

Mark Twain's Ice Cream Favorites: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/11/23/142669973/oyster-ice-cream-a-thanksgiving-tradition-mark-twain-could-get-behind