Friday, February 16, 2007

How to make ice cream with duct tape...for real this time

So a couple of people asked me about my last post, and how to ACTUALLY MAKE ice cream using duct tape.

First, you need two metal coffee cans. A big one (4lbs or so) and a small one (1lb). Of course, they don't actually need to be "coffee" cans. Anything with a replaceable top will do, but the important thing is for the outside one to be able to roll on the ground. By the way, if you don't feel like buying a can of Maxwell House, Pirouline cans do quite well and taste better.

First, fill the smaller can with the following:

-two pints whole milk or cream
-two tablespoons vanilla
-1 cup sugar

Now, close the small can and seal the cover tight with duct tape. Put the small can into the big can, and pack the big can with ice cubes. Add about a cup of rock salt (the kind you use on your driveway, I'm sure you've got some right now). Close and seal the big can with duct tape as well.

Now, have a seat on the floor with your kid proceed to roll the can back and forth for at least 20 minutes. This mixes things up quite nicely. Depending on the warmth of the room, it may pay to open the big can and add more rice/salt mixture again.

After 20 minutes, if the planets have aligned, you've got yourself some fine vanilla ice cream.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sigh... so I was so excited that I could easily make ice cream at home that I emailed the recipe to a bunch of friends at work... damn engineers turned a fun recipe into this thread...

Person 1:
When you go pick up your two cans of coffee, grab me a half gallon of ice cream from the frozen section...

Person 2:
I'm just waiting for Todd to come up with rules for an entirely overly complicated competition involving all of the ingredients.

Person 3:
You can also do this with one large (gallon size) and one small (sandwich sized) ziploc bag. It doesn't make as much ice cream, but if you wrap it all in a T-shirt or pillow case, you can throw it back and forth instead of rolling it.

Person 2:
So basically if you cool the ingredients of ice cream enough, it freezes into ice cream. That's amazing.

Person 3:
No wisea$$.

If you throw a bowl of milk and sugar in the freezer, you will get a solid block of ice. To get ice cream, you need to keep it moving while it crystallizes. The more you move it, the smoother it comes out.

Person 2:
The more you move it, the smoother it comes out.

I see.

Person 3:
That applies to a lot in life.

Person 4:
Anyone wanna come over and watch me make slow churned ice cream?

Person 2:
What if you just tie the can to a Wiimote and then play Boxing or Tennis for an hour?

Wii-scream!