Our old fashioned homemade ice cream recipe is a summer staple to remember. Mix the vanilla ice cream base using this family favorite recipe; then freeze it, using an old fashioned ice cream maker. Ultra creamy homemade ice cream for family gatherings, reunions, backyard BBQs, and summer holidays!
Along with old fashioned banana ice cream and strawberry ice cream, my family’s favorite old fashioned ice cream recipe has been a part of every summer since my childhood, as far back as I can remember. While it’s morphed from person to person, it’s pretty much the same homemade old fashioned ice cream recipe I remember enjoying with family on special summer occasions gone by.
This recipe is made using an old fashioned ice cream maker, which is a little different than the freezer bowl ice cream maker that I use to make raw milk ice cream. Back in the day, we used hand-crank ice cream makers, but thankfully you can buy an electric ice cream maker just about anywhere nowadays.
Why You’ll Love My Old Fashioned Homemade Ice Cream
- It makes an ultra creamy vanilla ice cream base that’s velvety smooth.
- This recipe uses an old-fashioned ice cream maker. It’s a little bit different than a freezer bowl ice cream maker, in that it uses both rock salt and crushed ice to freeze the ice cream.
- Old fashioned homemade ice cream has a soft-serve, custard-like texture and a richer flavor than regular ice cream. Of course, you can firm it up more by placing it in the freezer for a few hours, but it’s so good fresh out of the ice cream maker!
- I’ll show you how to make this recipe with step by step instructions. Homemade ice cream is so easy to make, and it tastes so much better than store bought.
Ingredients and Substitutions Notes
Before you get started, you may want to check out our complete guide to ice cream accessories and tools for making ice cream at home. It’s the ultimate list for every ice cream lover’s kitchen and especially helpful if you’re planning an ice cream social.
- Large Eggs – You’ll need the whole egg, yolks and all, to make the custard base. Do keep in mind that consuming raw or undercooked eggs may increase your risk of food-borne illness, especially if you have certain medical conditions. We have always made this recipe with raw eggs without a problem, but I’ll also show you how you can temper and properly heat the eggs if you’d rather play it safe.
- Cane Sugar – You’ll need cane sugar. Sugar lowers the freezing point of the ice cream, keeping it from turning into a block of ice.
- Vanilla Extract – Your vanilla ice cream will only taste as good as your vanilla extract. Any real vanilla extra will do, but my favorite is this Mexican vanilla.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk – My dad always loved using Eagle Brand; sometimes I use that, and sometimes I use Aldi’s brand to make this homemade ice cream with sweetened condensed milk and whole milk.
- Evaporated Milk – My mom and grandma always preferred to use Milnot evaporated milk; but I’ve always used what I can easily get.
- Salt – If possible, use a good quality sea salt.
- Whole Milk – I highly recommend that you use whole milk, because it will make your ice cream much creamier. You can even use part heavy cream to get a creamier texture.
- Ice and Rock Salt – You’ll need crushed ice and rock salt to freeze the ice cream. While you can find rock salt online and smaller bags or boxes at the grocery store, sometimes you can get a bigger and less expensive bag at a hardware store or feed store. So just keep that in mind.
Can I Make Old Fashioned Homemade Ice Cream Without Raw Eggs?
Yes, you can make this old fashioned homemade ice cream recipe without raw eggs. But first, I want to explain a few points below:
- It’s true– raw eggs give rich flavor and a more yellow color to homemade ice cream. They act as a stabilizer and provide a custard base that turns to ultra smooth, creamy ice cream when finished. That is why you’ll usually see them in old fashioned homemade ice cream recipes.
- But it’s also true that they can increase your risk of food-borne illnesses, especially with certain medical conditions. That said, my family personally has never had an issue from the raw eggs in this recipe over many decades of making it.
- If you would rather play it safe and cook the base, you will need to temper the eggs to 160ºF. If you’ve never done this before, you can read Nielsen-Massey’s detailed guide on how to temper eggs for custard. Otherwise, I highly recommend making my egg-free version below so you don’t have to alter this classic churn method!
- If you’d still rather make an egg-free version, my raw milk ice cream without eggs is the best. Don’t worry, you can substitute with store bought milk and heavy cream if you don’t have access to raw milk.
How to Make Old Fashioned Homemade Ice Cream
Before getting started, be sure your ice cream freezer, especially the freezer bowl or canister, is washed out good. We store ours in the garage, so we always have to wash it before we use it. This recipe fills a 4-quart ice cream maker, but you can easily halve the ingredients for a 2-quart ice cream maker, or 1.5x the recipe for a 6-quart ice cream maker.
- Start by creaming (or mixing) the eggs and the sugar together. I like to use an electric hand mixer or a blender.
- Then add in the vanilla extract, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and salt.
- Pour the mixture into the metal canister of your ice cream maker.
- Finish topping off the canister with whole milk, making sure to fill it about 3/4 of the way full, leaving room for expansion as it freezes. Your metal canister should have a fill line.
- Put the lid on, and place the metal canister down into the bucket of your ice cream maker.
How to Freeze Ice Cream with an Old Fashioned Ice Cream Maker
Freezing the mixture to make old fashioned ice cream is fairly easy, especially once you get it going. You will need to stay with it so you can monitor if it needs more ice, rock salt, or needs unplugged when done.
- Crush a big bag of ice, gradually pouring ice around the canister. Tip: You can add up to a gallon of water if needed, as well. We sometimes do this because our motor will seize up. Adding a bit of water will help it keep turning.
- Add 2-3 cups of rock salt as you add the ice, making sure to top it off with rock salt.
- Let the motor run until it stops. Once the ice cream is frozen, the motor on your ice cream maker will stop churning. Unplug it immediately. This should signal that the ice cream is completely frozen.
- Wipe any excess ice or rock salt off the lid and out from around the top of the canister. Then remove the lid, and carefully remove the churning paddle.
Serve the ice cream immediately. If you’re not ready to serve it up just yet, you can always leave the lid on, remove the motor, top the canister off with ice, and place a towel or two over it to insulate it and keep it cold.
What to Serve With Homemade Ice Cream
Homemade vanilla ice cream pairs really well with peach cobbler, blueberry cobbler, and apple crumb pie. I LOVE a scoop of vanilla ice cream on this Dutch oven cherry cobbler! You can use frozen leftovers to make delicious homemade ice cream sandwiches and ice cream cones.
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQs
I’ve shared how to make the ice cream, but here are a few tips for things to avoid when making and freezing homemade ice cream.
- Avoid low-fat ingredients, for example, skim milk. You’ll get the best ice cream with a creamy texture when you use full fat ingredients, like whole milk.
- If possible, try not to mix by hand. Blend the ingredients really well, using either a blender or a mixer. Either one works just fine. This will ensure you have a smooth, creamy mixture going into the ice cream maker.
- Try not to overfill the ice cream canister in your ice cream maker. Overfilling will lead to one big mess if it overflows while freezing. Remember… Freezing means expansion. Always leave room for expansion, and don’t go over the fill line on your ice cream maker.
- When freezing the ice cream in an ice cream maker, place the maker down in a sink, or freeze it outside on a porch. You’ll flood your countertop with a mess from all the ice, water, and rock salt if you don’t.
- When the ice cream is done, don’t open the lid ’til you’ve wiped all the rock salt and ice off the top. That way you avoid getting any of the gunk in your ice cream.
Yes, you can make this recipe in a freezer bowl ice cream maker. Just keep in mind that it might be slightly more soft-serve consistency than with a traditional, salt-and-ice ice cream maker.
If you prefer a more firm ice cream than soft-serve that you can actually scoop, just place your ice cream in ice cream containers and stick it in the freezer, ’til it reaches the preferred consistency. It’ll usually firm up enough to scoop onto an ice cream cone within 3-4 hours.
Store your leftovers in the freezer for up to 1 month. We always have a lot of leftover ice cream when we make it homemade, so we purchased some of these freezer containers to hold all the leftovers. If you have an upright freezer, I’d place it on the shelves, rather than the door, so it doesn’t melt or have a higher risk of freezer burn.
Optional Add-Ins & Ice Cream Toppings
There are so many things you can mix into your ice cream to make it even more fun, especially with kids.
- Fruit or Fruit Jam – We especially love mixing strawberry jam or old fashioned blackberry jam into our ice cream or on top of our ice cream to make ice cream sundaes.
- Chocolate Syrup, Butterscotch Topping, Caramel Sauce, etc. – With whipped cream and a cherry on top, classic.
- Oreo Cookies – I especially love crushing up Oreo Minis. It’s my favorite way to add mix-ins, especially when enjoying a bowl of mint Oreo ice cream.
- Chocolate Candies – Like M&M’s, Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and more treats.
- Chocolate Chips and Sliced Strawberries
- Brownies or Cookies
More Homemade Ice Cream Recipes
If you love this ice cream recipe as much as we do (isn’t it a great recipe?!), you’ll love these flavors too…
- Old-Fashioned Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream
- Butterfinger Ice Cream Recipe
- Fruity Pebbles Ice Cream Recipe
- Homemade Gooey Butter Cake Ice Cream
- And if you want a no-churn recipe, my friend Kelly from Eat Picks makes a delicious no-churn cherry chocolate chunk ice cream.
If you try this recipe, why not leave a star rating in the recipe card right below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page? I always appreciate your feedback. You can also follow me on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And subscribe to my email list too!
Old Fashioned Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
Ingredients
Ice Cream:
- 6 large eggs *
- 1 1/4 cups cane sugar
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 24 ounces evaporated milk
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 6 cups whole milk *
Freezing Supplies:
- 16 pounds ice
- 3 cups rock salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix the eggs and sugar together using a mixer.
- Then add in the vanilla extract, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and salt.
- Pour the mixture into the metal canister of your ice cream maker.
- Finish topping off the canister with whole milk, making sure to fill it about 3/4 of the way full, leaving room for expansion as it freezes. Your metal canister should have a fill line.
- Put the lid on, and place the metal canister down into the bucket of your ice cream maker.
- Crush a big bag of ice, gradually pouring ice around the canister. Tip: You can add up to a gallon of water if needed, as well. We sometimes do this because our motor will seize up. Adding a bit of water will help it keep turning.
- Add 2-3 cups of rock salt as you add the ice, making sure to top it off with rock salt.
- Let the motor run until it stops. Once the ice cream is frozen, the motor on your ice cream maker will stop churning. Unplug it immediately. This should signal that the ice cream is completely frozen.
- Wipe any excess ice or rock salt off the lid and out from around the top of the canister. Then remove the lid.
- Carefully remove the churning paddle.
- Serve the ice cream immediately. If you’re not ready to serve it up just yet, you can always leave the lid on, remove the motor, top the canister off with ice, and place a towel or two over it to insulate it and keep it cold.
Fantastic! Tastes like my Grandmother’s recipe. Thank you.
This is how I remember my grandma’s ice cream when I was a kid in the 60’s. Her recipe was in her head so this is a special memory for me. Thank you!
I’ve used this recipe for years but last couple years it doesn’t freeze. My ice cream maker never stops. Not sure what my problem has been
A few things could be doing it that I know of. If you are following this recipe closely, then I think the most likely cause is that your ice water bath isn’t getting cold enough, probably because the ratio of salt to ice is wrong. Another possibility is that the ice water bath is absorbing heat from somewhere other than the ice cream batch. So, make sure that all of your ingredients are as cold as you can get without freezing them before you add them to the ice cream maker, put the ice cream maker’s paddle and canister in the freezer and get it cold before using it and make the ice cream in a cool area out of the sun.
Would it be possible to premake and store in the fridge till ready to place in the ice cream machine?
THIS is homemade ice cream, exactly what I grew up with on the farm in Iowa. Great memories of all the uncles taking turns cracking the old White Mountain hand crank.
Thanks for the tip of filling 3/4 full. My 6 qt metal container does NOT have a fill line, so I’ve just make the best educated guess I could make. Thanks!
Approximately how long does it take to get to ice cream consistency?
Haley, it usually takes about 30 minutes. I hope this helps!
When do you add the strawberry jam? I want to add hazelnut spread.
How can I adjust the ingredients for my Cuisinart 2 qt ice cream maker and will it work in it?
Thanks,
Christine
Hey Christine, this recipe is meant to be made with an old fashioned ice cream maker. If you want vanilla ice cream for your 2 qt Cuisinart maker, I actually recommend looking at this raw milk ice cream recipe instead: https://adventuresofmel.com/raw-milk-ice-cream/. Now, that recipe is basically vanilla ice cream, except I use our home-raised raw milk. But you can substitute whole milk from the store, and it’ll work just the same. I hope this helps!
Thanks so much!!
This was very easy to put together & came together well in our old-timey ice cream maker! I thought the 1 tsp. of salt was a bit too much, definitely had a salty flavor. We just added caramel sauce to our servings, salted caramel tasted great! Will definitely decrease that amount next time around. Thank you!
Those are some great ideas, Heather! Thanks for the awesome feedback!
Just the way my grandparents made it in the 60’s and 70’s when I was growing up. Perfect
That’s so cool!! Thanks for the great feedback.