Even though National Ice Cream Day is over a week away, we feel it is our responsibility to make sure everyone is ready! After all, to truly celebrate, you might need time to collect the right supplies if you want to level up your observation of this very important occasion when it arrives on July 18.
Ever since the first frozen treats were invented 2500 years ago, ice cream has delighted trillions of taste buds around the world. With technological inventions, it has become a ubiquitous dessert that holds a valued place in many of our traditions and celebrations: birthday parties, hot summer days, ways to celebrate achievements, church socials, and everything in between. In this modern age, a world without ice cream is inconceivable.
Whether you grab a container at your favorite grocery store to serve up at home, flag down an ice cream truck, go to an ice cream parlor, or make it yourself, almost everyone screams for ice cream. It can be licked directly from the top of a sugar cone or a wafer cone. You can eat it with a spoon from a waffle cone, a paper cup, or a glass dish. You can serve it with toppings like a sundae, or whip it with milk to make a milkshake and drink it with a straw. You can mold it into a cake or serve it between two cookies like a sandwich. There is even fried ice cream and baked Alaska. Ice cream has captured the imagination and creativity of our taste-buds and the possibilities are endless for how, when, where, what, and why you partake of ice cream. Even flavor choices have exploded far beyond the traditional chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry into much more exotic combinations like cinnamon-basil, curry, green tea, lavender, and sweet corn, just to name a few.
Back in 1984, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the third Sunday in July as National Ice Cream Day. This decree not only commemorated ice cream, which is enjoyed by over 90 percent of the US population, but it also glorified the entire dairy industry in The United States America. In the intervening years, ice cream has evolved even further and is now made from all sorts of alternative non-dairy milks so that even more people can share in the cooling power of ice cream.
Local grocery and convenience stores carry any number of brands, from expensive pints of Jeni’s Splendid (a Columbus, OH based retailer), Hagen-Daz, and Ben and Jerry’s, to more affordable half-gallons of Breyers, Edy’s, Blue Bell, and various store brands.
If you want to venture out for a special occasion with friends or family, you can choose from various flavors and preparations at these local joints in Southern Indiana:
- Baskin-Robbins
- Bliss
- Cold Stone Creamery
- JB’s Barnyard Ice Cream Truck
- Lic’s
- Milk and Sugar Scoop Shoppe
- Tastee Freeze Ice Cream in Boonville
- Rivertown Ice Cream and Grill
- Ben and Penny’s
- GD Ritzy’s
- Pangea Gelato
- Zax Creamery (formerly Big Olaf)
Alternatively, making ice cream at home from scratch is a ton of fun. There is something magical about pouring in the liquid mixture, putting it through the churning process and then having solid yet creamy fresh ice cream at the end. Not only does it make for an extra special event, but the chemistry is how it happens is incredible. There is no shortage of recipes to be found online, but if you have never made it before, you might try an eggless recipe before you move on to a cooked base with egg yolks.
Basic ice cream simply contains milk, heavy cream, sugar, salt and vanilla: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/old-time-vanilla-ice-cream-3644441
Fancier versions are cooked on the stove first add tempered egg yolks: https://addapinch.com/old-fashioned-vanilla-ice-cream-recipe/
Additionally, you will need the proper equipment to freeze the enriched dairy mixture.
If you want to church ice cream the old fashioned way, you will need a hand cranked device plus plenty of ice and rock salt. After pouring the mix into the canister, inserting the dasher, and placing the canister into the barrel, add alternating layers of ice and rock salt. As you start churning, the salt melts the ice, creating temperatures below freezing, which then activate the ice cream mixture to thicken up and freeze into a denser mass. When it is too hard to churn, remove the dasher, lick off the excess, and allow the ice cream to set and harden up before serving. You can read more about the magical science behind this method HERE:
A similar method can be used with a machine cranked device.
Both of these methods usually make a whopping 4 quarts of ice cream and take some time and attention and create a bit of a mess, so it is best done outside.
However, there are a host of various ice cream makers that can make smaller amounts of ice cream (such as one quart at a time) in the convenience of your kitchen, without the big production of the above method. You can find ice cream makers that use compression technology to freeze the ice cream, or you can find devices that use a frozen container.
You probably don’t need any advice about how to enjoy ice cream on National Ice Cream Day. Only your imagination can limit the possibilities. You are probably wondering “what does National Ice Cream Day have to do with real estate?” When our clients are happy, we are happy, and spreading the good news about ice cream is a recipe for happy homeowners and happy REALTORS®! Get yourself a delectable scoop and then, Let’s Talk!
