Elite Gourmet Old Fashioned 6 Quart Vintage Appalachian Wood Bucket Electric Ice Cream Maker Machine, *Bonus Classic Die-Cast Hand Crank for Churning, Uses Ice and Rock Salt Churns Ice Cream in Minute

Ah, Grandma's house, 4th of July, every year hamburgers, watermelon, etc. AND last but not least homemade ice cream. She had a ready workforce of kids excited about making (and eating) homemade ice cream. Rock salt, a few bags of ice, and about 40 min. or so of boredom, I think it was 3" of ice and then a scoop of rock salt. Over and over, finally, when the motor stops and you can smell those motor windings burning, that cool retro humming sound, it's time to unplug it. "Oh boy, can we have some now Grandma?" "Oh no, you've got to put it in the freezer to ripen." "How long does that take Grandma?" "Well best to let it freeze overnight, but at least an hour or two." Of course we always badgered her and she caved after an hour, still pretty "soft-serve" like, but we didn't care, we wanted it now! now! now!!!This trip down memory lane was to make clear to those not fortunate enough to have had the experience, or just don't remember as well, even the good ol' machines didn't pop out ice cream on demand. It always has "soft-serve" consistency right from the machine.I've had a couple of the old machines thru the years, always the same. But I think personally I like this cheap, plastic thing better. Much less mess, cost (ice isn't cheap) and hassle.It is a new learning experience. 1st batch, I forgot to buy evaporated milk, it was pure half & half and some vanilla. It was ok, consistency was off because I churned it too long, all pumped with air. 2nd batch was perfect, it was great, just like the good ol' days. Made with heavy whipping cream, evap. milk, vanilla, right out of the recipe book. 15 min. churn time was the magic, perfect. Now making my 3rd batch and I had problems. Being a bit more cost conscious than back then, I saved my evap. milk in the fridge for a few days. It and the whipping cream were very cold and that evap. milk is extremely viscous, I had to scrap it out of the container with a spoon. And that was a problem. It was too thick for the motor. Seen that video on these reviews of the dasher going back & forth rather than round and round? It's the motor protecting itself from a jam. I think pound for pound this tiny motor is more macho than the old electro-shock models, although I must grant they had a tougher job, as they turned the 1 gallon canister around in the ice jacket, while the dasher was held rigid. But anyway, this motor is fine, it's obviously heavily geared down, it barely even gets warm. But everything has limits. So I scraped out as much of the mix as I could back into my Pyrex measuring cup, nuked it for about a minute in the microwave and it began turning the dasher properly. But I don't know if we're going to overcome all the time spent fooling with it and loss of coldness. I'm ok with having a few learning trials with a new machine though, and I'm confident it's a winner in the end.Which brings up another point. I see many people worried about having everything as cold as possible. The freezer container has plenty of retained cold in normal use, and last successful time I used room temperature evap. milk, which I'll do in the future as well.MY errors notwithstanding, I can't find much to fault with this machine. The cheap plastic tabs for the motor concern me, but we'll see. Not fond of the retro turquoise, hey guys, back then everything was white, fridges, stoves, everything, what's wrong with white? It seems to be a generic recipe book that it comes with, but it's just for getting started anyway, you'll find the magic recipe you like eventually. Personally, I like any flavor, as long as it's vanilla. I do kinda miss that shocking dose of rock salt that always leaked inside though, guess I can just put my salt grinder on coarse and add a little.So cons, barely worth mentioning. Buy it, you'll like it, just be prepared to mess up a few times before you get it right.

We LOVE homemade ice cream! The taste is best, fresh natural ingredients, you control the sugar, and also all of the additions. The first thing I tried was homemade vanilla with tiny chocolate cacao chips straight from a farm that was purchased on a trip to Honduras. The texture, taste and quality was amazing! I did not overfill the container, but made just enough for three servings. My husband likes his creamier, so I scooped his soft serve right out of the container. I scooped mine into a bowl and put it in the freezer for about 5 minutes. The consistency was a little firmer and just right for me. I put the leftover into a plastic pint container, put the lid on it, put it in the freezer, and we shared it the next night. Much to my surprise it was not hard, and was still the perfect consistency! The instruction manual had quite a few recipes in it, and also a QR code you can scan for additional recipes. I have a larger Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker like this that I have had for years, and I use it when our children and grandchilder are visiting. I must say that this little gem had the same outcome, if not better, and on a much smaller scale., and the price was amazing! I can't wait to try several other recipes! It's also small enough for me to take with us in our RV. Extremely happy with my purchase!!

Looks like an ideal size.Was a gift.

Make sure to read the directions!Many people keep saying this has no power and doesn't properly make ice cream, more of a soft serve, but allow me to introduce you to a unit that is MUCH cheaper than its competitors (Ninja Creami, talkin' to you) and is versatile depending on how you use it.1. Freeze the freezer unit for at least a full 24 hours. This ensures it is cold enough to create ice cream/froyo/soft serve.2. Follow recipes specifically designed for the amount of ice cream you're making. You can alternate ingredients for taste/diet purposes, such as using a DF alternative or sugar substitute.3. Run it for a LONG TIME. It takes a while to freeze and create your frozen snack, like a half hour. It WILL make ice cream that's harder, it just takes longer.4. Clean the unit properly before AND after using. This helps with the freezing process and keeping it just generally clean.It takes up little space, its noise level is a minimum, much less than bigger units I've tried, it's more convenient because you don't need to make a single serve/mix and freeze ingredients beforehand, and it's cheap. It make an amazing Oreo froyo/ice cream for my husband and I and works if you follow the directions.