Genny Johnson's Homemade Vanilla Ice-cream

Begin by placing the tank, dasher and lid into the refrigerator to get it nice and cold. All ingredients should be cold also.

In a large bowl - add eggs, sugar and salt. Use a hand mixer to blend until the sugar is dissolved. The mixture will be fluffy.

Add half and half and vanilla and mix.

Cover mixture and place in refrigerator for one hour or longer, or you can got to step 5 now.

Place dasher into tank, pour mix into tank, but do not fill past 2/3 full.

Place tank in tub, attach motor and lock in place. Plug in and begin to churn while adding ice and salt. Add 2" of ice and sprinkle 1/2 cup of rock salt around ice. Continue adding ice and salt in layers until the tub is full. Set timer for 30 minutes. The ice will settle so you will need to keep adding ice and a bit of salt to keep the tub filled. You want to keep the tank lid covered in ice until the ice-cream is finished churning.

How long it takes to churn the ice-cream depends on two things. Outside temperature/humidity, and salt to ice ratio. Too much salt and the ice melts too fast, takes longer with a pudding texture. Too little salt and the ice-cream freezes too quickly and it will be grainy/ice crystals. It's a trial and error but it should take no less than 25 minutes, nor more than 40 minutes to churn.

Once the motor stops, or 40 minutes has elapsed, stop and remove the motor. You can cover the entire unit with heavy blankets or insulation to allow the ice-cream to "ripen". Serve immediately, remove ice-cream from the tank and put into large plastic containers with lids and then place in a freezer to "ripen". At least one hour, up to two hours. This term is used to describe how the taste gets better as the ice-cream sits for a period of time.