High-End Ice-Cream Makers

Self-cooling ice cream makers: Best but expensive

This type of ice cream maker has its own compressor, so you don't have to wait for a bowl to pre-freeze. Another bonus is that you can use these machines to make frozen drinks. And since there's nothing to pre-freeze, there's no waiting - you can make a second batch as soon as you like.

Some self-cooling ice cream machines require an infusion of saltwater, and some are quite noisy. Others have non-removable bowls, making clean-up tricky. They're almost all heavy, too, with some weighing nearly 40 pounds.

The Musso 4080 Lussino (*Est. $700) receives Slate's top rating for the "sublime" ice cream it produces, and Cook's Illustrated calls it the Cadillac of ice cream makers. This ice cream machine has a stainless-steel housing, bowl and dasher. It can produce 1.5 quarts of ice cream in about 30 minutes. A transparent plastic dome allows you to check your ice cream's progress. Gourmet editors call the Lussino a "conversation piece," and it had better be - owners posting to Epinions say the 38-pound Lussino cannot be moved easily from countertop to cupboard. Most owners make room for it on the counter.

Gourmet editors praise the Musso ice cream maker's relatively quiet, powerful operation, but testers complain that the Lussino, which has a non-removable bowl, is tricky to clean. Not true, say several owners posting to Amazon.com. They recommend removing the dasher and cleaning the bowl with hot, soapy water and a sponge. Owners posting to Amazon.com and Epinions love this machine; in fact, nearly all agree that it's worth the high price. If you're going to make plenty of ice cream and want the very best, the Musso is the way to go.

We found a handful of reviews for Lello's Gelato Pro 4090 (*Est. $400) . Testers say that it delivers two quarts of creamy ice cream in about 30 minutes and cleans up easily. The Gelato Pro's feed tube is very small, and at 39 pounds, the machine is heavy. The few owner-written reviews we found at Amazon.com are mostly raves, with the exception of one owner who received a defective unit. A single Epinions review says that this relatively quiet machine makes excellent ice cream. However, the owner does grouse that the "buzz-beep" of the machine's timer is annoying.

The Lello Gelato Junior 4070 (*Est. $215) represents a step down from the Pro Gourmet ice cream maker in price and in capacity, but not in ice cream quality. The Pro Gourmet makes two quarts of good ice cream, while the Pro Junior makes a single quart. Slate magazine's Metcalf says that this is a "good machine for the money," but that it does have some design flaws, including an attached lid and paddle that make clean-up tricky. Owners posting to Amazon.com say that the machine's built-in timer does not turn off the motor. Slate's Metcalf says that drips "seem to catch nearly everywhere in hard-to-clean places." Most owners like this machine, but a few say that the chute for mix-ins is too small.

Cuisinart is well known for its simple, durable gel-canister ice cream makers, but the company has taken a step in a new direction with the introduction of the self-cooling Cuisinart ICE-50BC (*Est. $300) , which has a built-in compressor freezer and costs much less than similar models. Gourmet's testers liked the "mousse-like" ice cream, but found it to be slightly icy. Slate's Metcalf says that the Cuisinart is "a brushed stainless-steel box with no frilly-silly add-ons." He adds that it is well designed, although Cuisinart has "cut some corners to keep the price down." The machine takes longer to make ice cream than most other machines in its class. While Gourmet reports that the machine took 50 minutes, Slate says ice cream was ready in 40 minutes. The Cuisinart ICE-50BC has an automatic shut-off feature, but if your ice cream isn't finished at the end of the cycle, you must wait five minutes before restarting the machine. If you really want a compressor ice cream maker and don't want to spend $700 on the Musso, the Cuisinart is the best budget model.