Saturday, December 6, 2008

Homemade Ice Cream

We had homemade ice cream for dessert on Thanksgiving. (My dad, never having seen our machine, asked, "Whose home was the ice cream made in?") But the machine we have uses a cooling pan with some kind of chemical sealed inside. You put the pan in the freezer before using it, then just add the ingredients and let the machine stir them up. Not much to it.

Meanwhile, over at Socks and Books, homeschoolers "Moomintroll" and "Snufkin" recently made ice cream the old-fashioned way, using rock salt and ice cubes. We did this years ago using two plastic bags, but they used a metal pot, which I think looks way more dramatic.

Go to their post to see how its done, complete with chemistry explanation. I'm saving this link for future reference!

3 comments:

Ruskin said...

How wonderful to feature in your blog. I get so much help and inspiration visiting here. Happy holidays!

Anonymous said...

Homemade ice cream is a wonderful learning experience for kids! They're motivated beyond just the science of it...to the treat they get to enjoy in the end!!!

Unknown said...

You could use a CO2 fire extinguisher too or dry ice. (We got some as packaging for some frozen food delivered by post.)

Loved your 100 species challenge post on GeekDad - have you considered using Simile (http://simile.mit.edu) - in particular Exhibit - to present the results?