Old-Fashioned Ice-Cream Makers

Traditional bucket-type ice cream machines

For 150 years, White Mountain has been manufacturing old-fashioned wood-bucket ice cream makers with steel freezer cans and dashers (stirring paddles). You can still buy a hand-cranked ice cream maker, but you can also find electric models that don't require much muscle. These ice cream makers still demand attention, since you need to add ice and salt periodically. Rival bought the White Mountain brand a few years ago, and now manufactures all units with that name. These traditional ice cream makers are great if you want to make a large amount of ice cream. Most countertop models (discussed below) make 1.5 to two quarts of ice cream, but bucket-type models generally make four or six quarts.

The hand-cranked 4-Quart Rival White Mountain F64304-X (*Est. $150) , which requires lots of ice and table or rock salt, looks like the traditional ice cream makers many of us remember from childhood. Users posting to Amazon.com say that the White Mountain F64304-X produces fine ice cream. They complain, however, that the crank is difficult to turn and that both crank and bucket are prone to rusting. Several users say these ice cream machines aren't as sturdy as they once were. Some users say that the "cheap" hand crank is prone to breaking.

An electric version of White Mountain's hand-cranked ice cream makers is the 4-Quart Rival White Mountain F69204-X (*Est. $200) , which simply substitutes a motor for the hand crank. This model is tested at Slate magazine, where reviewer Stephen Metcalf says its ice cream was certainly creamy. But using the machine was pretty labor intensive. "I enjoyed it, but this is a family ritual, not a gourmet's delight," writes Metcalf. If you want this type of ice-and-salt ice cream machine, the White Mountain makes great ice cream. It's not convenient, but that's probably not the point. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that noise is the trade-off for the machine's "especially strong motor." Cook's Illustrated gripes that the machine is "unbearably loud." The 6-quart version - the Rival White Mountain 6-Quart F69206-X (*Est. $200) - is probably a better deal, since it doesn't cost any more than the 4-quart version.

We did find some complaints that although the White Mountain's wooden bucket looks great, the salt can eventually erode the metal bands holding the bucket together. We also read some sporadic reports of leaky canisters, which allowed salt into the ice cream. Replacement buckets (*est. $55) and additional 6-quart canisters (*est. $35 each) are available from Rival.