The household cook book

A little ice cream for the use of an invalid can be put in a baking powder can or tin pail, packed in salt or ice for 10 minutes, then opened and stirred w^ell, then let stand until the freezing is complete. Do not allow ice cream or fruit ices to stand long in tin or copper vessels, certainly not when above the freezing point, for the melting cream will decompose and develop acetic acid, which will attack the metal, producing a poisonous compound. Packing Down. — Newly=frozen ice cream is apt to be mushy, and lacks flavor and consistence, so that after being frozen it is best to pack it down and let it ripen 4 or 5 hours before it is served. In packing down ice cream which is to be kept some time, turn off the brine, pack in some coarser ice and salt, and cover with an old carpet or blanket wet in brine. Keep the carpet wet by rewetting it from time to time, as then much less ice is needed because the evaporation keeps it cold. As long as any ice lasts the temperature will not rise above the freezing point. The priyiciples involved in making ice cream are as follows: There are varions freezing mixtures known and occasionally used, some of which we give elsewhere, but for our present purpose the ingredients almost universally relied on are ice and salt. All freezing mixtures have some solid substance which turns to a liquid, and in so doing it absorbs heat from the surrounding substances and so reduces their temperature, and this is the philosophical principle underlying the whole process. The ice is submitted to the action of the salt, which has a great affinity for it and melts it very rapidly, and the ice in turning to water withdraws heat rapidly from the various preparations of cream, etc.. which are buried in it. and so reduces their temperature rapidly and freezes them. But from this it will be clear that the cream will not freeze until the ice around begins to melt. So also the smaller the pieces of ice the more readily the salt will act on them and melt them. It is a mistake to think that the freezing needs to be done in a cool place. In a warm room tlie ice melts more rapidly, and so draws the heat more rapidly from the mixture submitted to its action; but if the cream is kept after being frozen, it should be in a cool place, of course. The object of the continual stirring of the ice cream is to keep the ingredients from separating, and the heaviest of them from settling to the bottom, while any cream which washes up against the side of the can and freezes must be scraped off and mixed in with the balance of the contents. Unless the contents are thoroughly stirred before the freezing takes place the whole will be spoiled; either lumps will form, disfiguring and discoloring it, or the sugar will settle to the bottom, leaving the contents imperfectly sweetened. It is a mistake to turn the dasher of a freezing machine rapidly, as that prevents the cream from being smooth; turn fast enough to accomplish the above objects, but that is all.