Some hints for using your ice cream churn, freezer, maker or what ever you may call your machine.
| Is a "Hit Miss" engine better than a "Throttle Governed" engine for making ice cream? |
| It has been suggested that a throttle governed is easier on the churn. I don't think that it makes any difference. I like hit n miss engines because you can tell from the sound when it is almost ready. In my opinion, hit miss engines also attract more people. The 20 Country Freezer is made to take it! |
| What RPM should I run my 20 quart hit miss ice cream churn? |
|
I have mine running at about 45 RPM and it works very well. I think that 30 to 60 RPM is a good range. |
| How much salt? |
| Lots of salt! It will cool faster. You need about 5 parts ice and one part salt! |
| Rock salt or table sale? |
| Table salt works best. It melts the ice
faster and therefore gets the temperature down to 10 or 12 degrees
faster. It doesn't pile up in the bottom of your wood tub. We
have repaired many freezer bottoms that were ruined from the salt
grinding on the bottom. If you can tell me why your Mother or
Grandmother used rock salt please let me know. I think they used rock
salt because it was handy. They used it for preserving and pickling.
I found the following recipe for salt pork. |
|
"To Salt Pork.--Lay in the bottom of the barrel a layer of solar salt, one and a half inch thick; pack the pork edgewise as compact as possible, cover it with a layer of salt as thick as the bottom layer, then pack another layer of pork and the same quantity of salt, etc., until the whole is packed, finishing with a layer of salt. Make a brine as strong as possible of solar salt, put a weight on the pork, and pour on the brine, until it is covered several inches" (Haskell's Housekeeper's Encyclopedia, 1861, p. 362) "To preserve one hundred pounds of beef, you will need four quarts of rock salt, pounded fine; four ounces of saltpeter, pounded fine; and four pounds of brown sugar. Mix these well. Put a layer of meat in the bottom of a barrel, with a thin layer of the mixture under it. Pack the meat into the barrel in layers, and between each layer put proportions of the mixture, allowing a little more to the top layer. Then, pour in brine till the barrel is full ... if the brine ever looks bloody, or smells badly, it must be scalded, and more salt put to it, and poured over the meat." (Catharine Beecher Homekeeper and Healthkeeper's Companion) |
| How long should a batch take? |
| If you are using a 20 quart Country Freezer or a 20 quart White Mountain® and it is turning at about 35 to 30 RPM you should have your first batch done in about 35 to 40 minutes. After your first batch it should only take about 20 minutes, assuming you poured out the ice and brine into a chest cooler for re-use. When starting the second batch, put about ten pounds of fresh ice in the bottom and a layer of salt. Then strain out the ice from the cooler and fill up the freezer to the top. Then pour enough of the brine in to bring it up to the overflow. Some times I have been in a hurry and put too much salt in and have had ice cream in about 10 minutes! |
| Pulley size? |
| Check out our pulley sizing chart and remember you need to turn the freezer at about 30 to 60 RPM. Here is a link to a real RPM calculator that works great. |
| Where to get commercial ice cream mix? |
| I would check with your local milk distributor. Most of the dairies have a liquid mix that they distribute to ice cream parlors. The liquid mix is , great just dump it in. The drawback is has a very short shelf-life. We make a great mix that does not have to be refrigerated until just before you use it. Amish Ice Cream. I use our Amish Ice Cream mix or a 14% butterfat from Pet Dairy. I have used others, but this seems to be about as good as it gets! |
| Maintenance? |
| Make sure that you grease the head with
food-grade grease. I recommend taking the bottom off of the gear-head
and cleaning the gears and then put food grade grease directly on the
gears once or twice during the year. The grease Zerks work well,
but most people put way too much grease in and then it gets into drip
cup or the ice cream. Some people use Crisco to grease the
gears, it works well and is food grade. Make sure that you put some water in the wooden tub a few days before making ice cream. If it has dried out it will leak, sometimes too fast and will cause the ice cream to take too long to freeze. I put some old rags/rugs in the tub with some water this keeps it from leaking out while you are trying to get the tub to swell up. Some of my customers have tried different paint-on bed liner coating for the inside of the tub and in some cases worked well. We are now offering 20 quart white oak tub with the interior coated with Herculiner coating. Cost is $30 (new tubs only) |
| Parts? |
| What parts do you carry to hook up my own hit miss engine on a cart? |
| We carry most parts that you will need to
put together your own ice cream maker on a cart. You may want to
take a look at the list in this kit. 20
quart ice cream maker kit
We also have a gear-motor, belting, 20 quart freezer and hold-downs all in an Electric 20 quart kit. |
Top 10 Ice Cream Consuming Countries in the World
1) United States
2) New Zealand
3) Denmark
4) Australia
5) Belgium / Luxembourg
6)
Sweden
7) Canada
8) Norway
9) Ireland
10) Switzerland
Still working on this and I need suggestions!
Thanks