Best Homemade Ice Cream Maker?

[RZehr]

There's a 6 quart Immergood with an electric motor here:
https://www.cottagecraftworks.com/usa-i ... t-electric

They are using the White Mountain Chinese-made motors. According to the web site they are trying to design their own better motors.

According to their 3 year old blog post yes. Now they have their own motors made here in the US as I understand it.

How certain are you on them having US made motors? I don’t want a hand crank one, and I don’t want a Chinese motor.

[MaxPC]

They are using the White Mountain Chinese-made motors. According to the web site they are trying to design their own better motors.

According to their 3 year old blog post yes. Now they have their own motors made here in the US as I understand it.

How certain are you on them having US made motors? I don’t want a hand crank one, and I don’t want a Chinese motor.

I am not 100% certain. I agree, I would not want a Chinese motor either. It's just from what I've seen of posts around the web. Here's the store's customer service number so you can get all your questions answered: Customer Service (281) 638-0050

The most popular flavor was sorghum. I always meant to find a good recipe for sorghum ice cream to make at home, but never got around to it. Anyone have one?

I've heard of Homestead Heritage but never had a chance to visit. It sounds quite interesting. My wife says she has no recipe for Sorghum ice cream. It sounds delicious. If you find one, please post it here. I want to try that.

[Ken]

According to their 3 year old blog post yes. Now they have their own motors made here in the US as I understand it.

How certain are you on them having US made motors? I don’t want a hand crank one, and I don’t want a Chinese motor.

I am not 100% certain. I agree, I would not want a Chinese motor either. It's just from what I've seen of posts around the web. Here's the store's customer service number so you can get all your questions answered: Customer Service (281) 638-0050

The most popular flavor was sorghum. I always meant to find a good recipe for sorghum ice cream to make at home, but never got around to it. Anyone have one?

I've heard of Homestead Heritage but never had a chance to visit. It sounds quite interesting. My wife says she has no recipe for Sorghum ice cream. It sounds delicious. If you find one, please post it here. I want to try that.

I poked around on the internet and found a few:

https://www.farmflavor.com/recipe/type/ ... ice-cream/
https://gardenandgun.com/recipe/the-mos ... ream-ever/

They seem to be starting with a basic vanilla recipe, replacing the sugar with a combination of sorghum syrup and brown sugar and then leaving out the vanilla. The first recipe is sweetened with half sorghum and half brown sugar. The second recipe is sweetened with mostly sorghum and just a small amount of brown sugar.

I haven't tried any of these yet. I think I would go with more sorghum and less brown sugar and just sort of sweeten the base to taste. The sorghum syrup provides the flavor so you don't need to add anything else.

[RZehr]

I contacted Cottage Craftworks. Here is what they offered:

We have Country https://www.cottagecraftworks.com/usa-c ... m-freezers

Lifetime in a 6 and 8 qt https://www.cottagecraftworks.com/lifet ... ezer-maker

Immergood electric motor is not ready for market but we do have it in a tool battery model, it is the only triple-action motor on the market. https://www.cottagecraftworks.com/immer ... am-freezer

[ken_sylvania]

What is a triple action motor?

[RZehr]

I don’t know. I copied and pasted their reply.

[barnhart]

Maybe the triple action is referring to the design that allows the can to rotate opposite the beater.

[Ken]

I don’t know. I copied and pasted their reply.

Read the description further down in the link:

"Immergood has engineered its motors to operate in a triple action mode. Electric ice cream freezers up to this point have only allowed the freezer can to spin around the dasher, known as a double action. Compared to a hand crank freezer where the dasher spins in one direction and the freezer can spins in the opposite direction, known as a triple-action mode."

I think what they are saying is that in hand-cranked machines you have three moving parts: (1) the inner shaft of the beater, (2) the outer scraper part of the beater, (3) and the container itself. I was curious about this myself so I just went into the garage to study how my hand-crank White Mountain actually works, which I never really paid attention to before.

If you look under the drive gear of the hand-crank model there are actually two drive mechanisms counter-rotating in opposite directions. There is a large square socket on the outside that drives the freezer canister in one direction and a smaller square socket inside it that drives the beater shaft in the opposite direction.

In addition, if you look closely at the beater assembly you will notice that the outer part with the wood blades is driven from the drive shaft that goes through the lid in the canister. While the inner beater blade is driven in the opposite direction because it is connects to the bottom of the ice cream canister and turns with the canister.

So that is how they get the "triple action" The canister, inner beater, and outer beater are all working in opposite directions. Technically it is really only double action because the canister and inner beater are operating in the same direction. But you get the point.

Apparently on most motorized ice cream makers including White Mountain it is only the beater that is turning and the canister is stationary? Or maybe the canister turns and the beater is stationary? I don't have one to examine. But if you just attach a motor to the beater shaft, only the beater will turn and the canister will stay stationary. The only way to motorize an ice cream maker to produce the triple-action would be:

1. Create a gear-box drive-shaft that duplicates the counter-rotating double socket of the hand crank model, or
2. Drive the ice cream maker with a pulley and belt system off of the hand crank which is how my grandfather used to do it.

What Immergood is actually talking about is that they created a gear box with the counter-rotating double socket mechanism that will turn the canister and beater in counter-rotating directions just like the hand crank model. I'm sure it is just an ordinary electric motor, nothing special except that it is 12 volt (batter powered) rather than 120 volt. What is different is that they have built a double counter-rotating gear box to match the hand-cranked model.

Interesting....I learned something new about ice cream makers today.

[Ken]

Note:

I think I would be leery of a battery-powered ice cream maker. What do you do if your battery goes dead before you are finished? Just let the cream sit and melt or freeze solid while you recharge your battery? Looks like they are using drill batteries. How many amp hours of battery power do you need to crank an ice-cream maker to completion? How many backup batteries do you need to have ready?

A 120 volt motor or hand crank model seems more reliable. You never have to worry about it stopping before you are finished.

[MaxPC]

I contacted Cottage Craftworks. Here is what they offered:

We have Country https://www.cottagecraftworks.com/usa-c ... m-freezers

Lifetime in a 6 and 8 qt https://www.cottagecraftworks.com/lifet ... ezer-maker

Immergood electric motor is not ready for market but we do have it in a tool battery model, it is the only triple-action motor on the market. https://www.cottagecraftworks.com/immer ... am-freezer

Those cranks are tough to work after a few turns. I think what I will do is get a 6 Or 8 quart model; attach a gear to the crank; run a chain to a bike: then let the youngsters have at it.

Thank you for finding those recipes, Ken.