# Ice Cream maker problem



## chainsawxecutioner (Oct 24, 2004)

I have a homemade ice cream maker.  It bought a few months ago at Wal Mart.  One of the products I need to make it work is special rock salt specifically make for hardening ice cream.  About a month or so after I bought the ice cream maker, Wal Mart discontinued all their ice cream making accessories; including the rock salt.  The only other place I knew of where I could buy the rock salt was at a store in a local mall called "The Gourmet Chef".  Now that store has also discontinued the rock salt.  Now what do I do?!  I bought a bunch of stuff for making homemade vanilla frozen yogurt, and I can now do nothing with it.  I tried regular salt one time, but that just prematurely melts the ice, and it doesn't harden the ice cream at all.  Does anyone have any suggestions?


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## mudbug (Oct 24, 2004)

try a hardware store.


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## WayneT (Oct 24, 2004)

*LINK to purchase Rock Salt*
http://www.ehow.com/buy_11790_rock-salt.html





> Table vs Rock Salt for Ice Cream
> 5/20/2003
> 
> name         David E. G.
> ...


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## Audeo (Oct 24, 2004)

Good suggestion, mudbug.  Also, check any large grocery stores in your area in the spice section with the other salts.   My stores carry the stuff year round, and I've also seen rock salt in automotive stores for use in melting ice on driveways (remember folks, this is Texas, not Oregon).

However, sarah, there is nothing magical about rock salt.  It is salt, albeit non-food-grade, and is in large solid rocks, instead of ground.  If your ice cream is not firming with table salt, then you're not using enough (and it takes A LOT to substitute for the mass of rock salt).

Test the salinity by using a ten-minute rule:  After ten minutes of churning, if the ice cream is beginning to firm, then you've got the salt ratio about right.  If it is not beginning to thicken, then you need to add more salt and recheck in another ten minutes.  If your ice cream is getting crusty around the edges of the churning bowl, then you have too much salt -- just remove about half of the water and add more ice to refill the bucket.

There are few things in this world more delicious than homemade ice creams and yogurts!  Good luck!


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## Psiguyy (Oct 25, 2004)

If you have a water softener, you can steal the salt from the regeneration tank.  If the salt is the big kind, just crush it with a hammer.  

What I'm saying is you can use any kind of salt.  Rock salt would normally be the cheapest.  In a pinch (punny), you can even use table salt.


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## mudbug (Oct 25, 2004)

I put rock salt on the clearance shelf today at Tarjay, along with ice cream makers.


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## kitchenelf (Oct 25, 2004)

I was also going to say grocery store.  They all should carry it.


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