The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
ICE CREAM LOVERS TAKE TURNS ON CHURN
Maker yields cool treat on hot day
For National Ice Cream Day, visitors to Lorain County Metro Parks’ Vermilion River Reservation celebrated with a frozen treat made the old fashioned way.
The real old fashioned way, with cream, sugar and vanilla extract on the inside.
Ice and rock salt on the outside.
And lots and lots of arm power.
On July 15, park aide Emily Dunegan guided visitors through a simple recipe mixed inside the vintage White Mountain Triple Motion Ice Cream Freezer.
The ice cream maker uses a barrel within a barrel technique to whip and chill the ingredients.
The edibles go into a metal container that is sealed and set within a wooden keg. Ice and rock salt are packed around the metal and a hand operated crank fits on top to stir the contents within.
It’s a method that has worked for decades and still does, even when the temperatures hit the high 80s in the shade outside the Benjamin Bacon House at Mill Hollow.
The program was scheduled to last 90 minutes and a group of ice cream aficionados spent much of the time taking turns on the crank. Then more turns. Then more turns. Linda Rau of South
“We were going to go to Cedar Point, but it’s so hot, we decided to come down where there’s more shade and more natural stuff."
— Dennis Krucinski
Amherst recalled her college days mixing ice cream with friends. She and her son, Jacob, each turned the handle, while her son Jonathan opted to rest in the shade.
Karen Edwards of Lorain took her turns. She also recalled her mother’s family having a farm on Jerusalem Road nearby.
Remy Krucinski, 3, of Mansfield, worked the handle, but everyone agreed the job was best left for grown-ups.
“We were going to go to Cedar Point, but it’s so hot, we decided to come down where there’s more shade and more natural stuff,” said his father, Dennis Krucinski, a Lorain native who visited with his parents, Doug and Lynn Krucinski of Lorain.
As the afternoon went on, the results came out better and better when Dunegan removed the lid and dipped plastic spoons inside.
“It was good,” Dennis Krucinski said.
“Very good,” Doug Krucinski said.
“It’s like soft serve ice cream,” Lynn Krucinski said.
Those who stayed for the entire program were treated to their own bowl of fresh vanilla ice cream.
“It was good, very interesting,” Edwards said.
“I think we’re going to do it again,” Linda Rau said. “It was really fun. It was delicious.”
Compared to the ice cream program in summer 2017, the mechanics of old-fashioned ice cream in the heat this year were “harder than I remember, longer than I remember,” Dunegan said. And the ice cream? “Better than I remember,” she said.