Ice cream won't solidify?

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Likwid_Flux

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jul 2, 2013
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2
Location
Alpharetta Georgia
So I'm trying to make ice Cream using the freezer pot method. I put a bowl of ice on my table on top I put another metal bowl. And in that metal bowl i put one cup of milk 1 tablespoon of sugar half a teaspoon of vanilla extract in the bigger bowl that is on the table I put a lot of ice and all that I poured salt an cold water. I am currently trying to make it first I tried using an automatic mixer now I'm using a wisk. Look at the link:
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the image you see is the ice cream I'm trying to make. it is very frothy and isn't solidifying very well. Please help me out on how to make the ice cream turn into real ice cream. Thank you
 
You seem to be trying to create the "frozen container" that's similar to what ice cream makers such as Cuisinart have. We have one of those devices and with the machine constantly churning, it takes quite a while for the ice cream mixture to begin to firm up. I mean, it can take as long as 30 minutes, all with constant churning.

In view of that, you don't say how long you beat/whipped/mixed your mixture. Also, I'm not sure you actually needed the water with your ice and salt. What might be more effective is to shatter or break the ice so it can "hug" your bowl, then add the salt, which helps to make the ice colder.

I am not that experienced in making ice cream in the manner in which you are attempting but, perhaps, someone else here on the forum can offer additional assistance.
 
Katie is right in that you didn't need to add saltwater, just salt. You want the ice to be higher than your liquid and you really need to have the whole thing covered. If you look at commercial ice cream makers, the container is completely covered with ice. I'm not familiar with the method you are using since we have a regular ice cream maker. You want to use a paddle not a whisk to just stir the liquid. Not sure if this helps or not. Maybe someone familiar with this method can help you better.
 
Use just rock salt and ice. The melt water is just a byproduct. Ice, in its frozen state, is at 32F, it's freezing point. Salt lowers the freezing point of the ice. Since it's no longer at its freezing point, the freezing point now being lower, it begins to melt. But to melt, it needs heat from somewhere. (Remember, it's heat that is being moved in all similar refrigeration processes, not cold. There's no way to "give off" cold, only take in or give off heat.) The somewhere that the heat has to come from is the cream in the metal bowl. As enough ice melts, it takes enough heat from the cream that the cream freezes. And the ice will indeed continue to melt, because there's nothing actively removing from it.

Were it not for the salt, we could only cool the cream as the ice slowly melted from taking heat both from the cream and from the environment. With the salt, we're pumping heat from the cream. Stirring it is necessary to allow heat to move from the whole mass of cream and to keep it from freezing solid where it touches the metal bowl.

And a wisk is okay, but an electric beater is better at keeping it smooth and speeding the process. You can use the wisk with the method of just putting the bowl in the freezer, because freezing will be much slower.
 
Use just rock salt and ice. The melt water is just a byproduct. Ice, in its frozen state, is at 32F, it's freezing point. Salt lowers the freezing point of the ice. Since it's no longer at its freezing point, the freezing point now being lower, it begins to melt. But to melt, it needs heat from somewhere. (Remember, it's heat that is being moved in all similar refrigeration processes, not cold. There's no way to "give off" cold, only take in or give off heat.) The somewhere that the heat has to come from is the cream in the metal bowl. As enough ice melts, it takes enough heat from the cream that the cream freezes. And the ice will indeed continue to melt, because there's nothing actively removing from it.

Were it not for the salt, we could only cool the cream as the ice slowly melted from taking heat both from the cream and from the environment. With the salt, we're pumping heat from the cream. Stirring it is necessary to allow heat to move from the whole mass of cream and to keep it from freezing solid where it touches the metal bowl.

And a wisk is okay, but an electric beater is better at keeping it smooth and speeding the process. You can use the wisk with the method of just putting the bowl in the freezer, because freezing will be much slower.
It's worthwhile and easier to buy one of the gadgets with a bowl that you freeze overnight and a paddle that rotates electrically. They are very inexpensive - I have two and I don't think I paid more than £15 for either of them. (IIRC there's about $1.50 to the £1) Even with these the ice cream doesn't freeze hard and when the machine stops you need to decant it into a bowl or plastic box and put it into the freezer to finish off. I keep my bowl in the freezer so it's ready when I want it.

If you don't want to go to this expense you can make quite safisfactory ice cream by freezing it part way and then beating several times it to break up the ice crystals. Very time consuming but nowhere near as tedious as your method sounds. Great-grandmama's method may seem to have a degree of charm but she had a proper ice cream churner which she turned fior ages until the ice cream was ready. She must have had muscles like a navvy!
 
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