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Keeping Ice Cream frozen overnight


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My wife is taking her GS troop camping in June and they want to have waffles and ice cream. Does anyone have any methods of keeping the ice cream frozen for 12-18 hours? I was thinking of putting in a deep freezer a week ahead of time then into the cooler right before they leave. We have a couple coolers that will keep meat frozen for 24 hours if packed with enough ice and kept in the shade.

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Get some solid Carbon Dioxide (Dry Ice), place the ice cream container packed with the Dry Ice in an Air Tight (preference would be a CO2 tight container, but I don't know the realitive size of the carbon dioxide molecule)Cooler and don't have anyone open it until the contents are needed.

 

And oh yeah, test this before the event, it should, emphasis on the "should" work

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One of our local troops frequently brings their hand-cranked ice cream maker on campouts. They have all the crank power they want (each scout cranks as fast as he can for 30 or so seconds, then it goes on the next scout...).

 

When one of their leaders was in the pack, he brought it to family camp. Great time was had by all (served with my cherry-apple dump cake).

 

Otherwise, dry ice is a good option.

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Don't get me started, I coach or have coached most of the girls in the troop for close to five years now. Many of them have stayed over my house. I even took one of the to the gun club last weekend with my daughter. I guess I re-hijacked my own thread.

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Dry ice must NEVER be sealed in a container with an airtight seal, because this can lead to dangerous explosions due to buildup of carbon dioxide gas. Packages containing dry ice must be vented to allow for release of the CO2.

 

Couple of options:

(1) Freeze the ice cream really well in a freezer that holds a really low temp. Surround with ice packs in a good (marine-type) cooler, and it will likely last overnight without meltin.

 

(2) Check online for instructions of how to make ice cream-in-a-bag, basically with cream, rock salt, and two ziplock bags. Takes about half hour of shaking, and kids can make their own.

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Make the ice cream onsite. Much more fun.

 

Like already mentioned, use couple ziplocks, rock salt, and ice cream ingrediants. Girls squeeze bags for 15 minutes and make ice cream.

 

Or get a hand crank ice cream maker. Let the girls take turns turning the crank. Much more memorable than buying at the store.

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I have a solution. My father worked in an ice cream factory when I was a kid and there were canvas coolers with metal inserts similar to the water inserts in today's coolers except these inserts were filled with salt-water and froze at a lower temperature than plain water. The canvas coolers I have (three of them) held the standard paper carton of ice cream that is still used today in ice cream shops around the country.

 

What I would suggest is get the coolers with the inserts that have caps on them, drain out the water and replace with a saline solution, then freeze. It'll extend the life of the ice cream quite a bit.

 

A word of warning. If one puts these inserts in a regular cooler with non-frozen items such as milk and juice it will partially freeze them if placed next to the insert!

 

If one were to ever find one of these canvas coolers at an antique store, pick it up! If it has the inserts even better. But if one were to use dry ice instead of the inserts, the canvas cooler will allow the escaping CO gas to expel itself without any dangerous gas build up.

 

If one wishes to make them they are the size of the modern paper ice cream containers, canvas inside and outside quilted with wool batting. Circular bottom, 4 flap top with buckle fasteners (dog collars) and a leather strap handle. Best thing there is for keeping meat cold for 4-5 days on the longer trips. Put meat in frozen, add saline inserts and the meat will still be cold a week later.

 

Stosh

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I'm partial to the dry ice approach. You don't need to seal it and any cooler will work fine. Just make sure you put the dry ice on top and then wrap it and the ice cream container in layers of newspaper. It'll last just fine.

The reason you might worry about a 'seal' is to keep the cold air from being exchanged with warm air. That won't be a problem in a cooler because cold air is heavier, especially becuse it will be almost pure CO2.

You DO need to keep that cooler somewhere away from confined spaces because, as has been noted, it will continually release CO2 to the environs.

 

We did an experiment with the ice cream maker. We made ice cream one year and marked the dead spot where the salt water overflowed. Then we returned each year to see its fate. Takes several years for grass to grow back, depending on how much salt water you release to the soil. We get a lot of rain normally and that doesn't seem to make much difference.

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REI has a nifty ice cream maker for camping use - its a tetrahedron ball design - fill it up with the ingredients, roll it around and in about 20 minutes - fresh ice cream.

 

 

"minor hijack response - the Girl Scouts have solved two of the 3G issues (substituting guys for girls). Does that answer the question? - hijack over"

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