I wonder if the ice cream at this South Dakota restaurant was special?

[GON]

Came across this picture of a restaurant in South Dakota, likely around the early 20th century.

Wondering if the ice cream was made local, of local ingredients, and how it would compare in taste/ quality to today's ice cream offerings.

For the record- vanilla is my favorite ice cream, but a good chocolate chip, or caramel cone ice cream is so very nice!!

 

[Koainn]

I'm pretty sure they didn't use carrageenan in their icecream

 

[mrsilv04]

Two observations. The word "Restaurant" seems to get scrunched towards the right side of the sign. Signmaker was a little sloppy with the spacing. And the ice cream was probably made with milk that was straight from the cow. A lot of what is called "ice cream" today is technically "ice milk".

That said, when I hand crank it in my White Mountain ice cream maker.... it is well over half made up of either heavy whipping cream or half & half. I don't skrimp on what makes it good.

 

[Deleted member 89374]

And the ice cream was probably made with milk that was straight from the cow.

I wonder if they boiled that milk, at the very least, before using it to make ice cream.

 

[Shel_B]

Came across this picture of a restaurant in South Dakota, likely around the early 20th century.

Wondering if the ice cream was made local, of local ingredients, and how it would compare in taste/ quality to today's ice cream offerings.

For the record- vanilla is my favorite ice cream, but a good chocolate chip, or caramel cone ice cream is so very nice!!

There was a time when all ice cream was made locally. Refrigeration was marginal, at best, and nonexistent in some areas of the country.

Dreyers and Breyers were only local ice creams for many, many years.

 

[doitmyself]

Great photo Gon.

You're forcing me to interrupt and share a childhood memory. Emery's Ice Cream shop circa 1960's in New Albany, Indiana, along the Ohio river. Walked to Emery's along the flood dikes while visiting my grandparents that lived a quarter mile away. My teen uncle worked there, so I got to know the Emerys and watch small batches of home-made ice cream being made with fresh ingredients - remember watching Mrs. Emery cutting up strawberries.

 

[Passport1]

My aunt had a farm in SD many years ago. I remember staying with her during the summer to help with the cattle, chickens and crops. She had an ice cream maker like this. We would crank it for her. It was made with raw milk and cream right from the milking cows.

 

[AZjeff]

It was made with raw milk and cream right from the milking cows.

View attachment 120773

And you lived to tell about it. Someone had one of these in the neighborhood back in Pa when I was a kid and we'd all take turns cranking it. Dad bought one with a red plastic bucket and electric motor on top, you'd let it run until the motor stalled. Good stuff.

 

[Leo99]

There is an old ice cream place by me. Doubt they still make the ice cream the old fashioned way but they still use an old ice cream waffle cone maker. It's got to be over 100 years old.

 

[Vil_Riker]

Probably local milk, cream and eggs plus sugarcane sugar, no thickeners but lack of flavor variety.

 

[ka9mnx]

Any dairy product from that era would out due the watered down stuff we get today. Has anyone noticed the size of eggs they are now selling as "large" today? Not much bigger than Robin eggs.

 

[gman2304]

I wonder if they boiled that milk, at the very least, before using it to make ice cream.

 

[Kira]

Tangent Time: Here in No. New Jersey there's a locally made brand of ice cream called "Welsh Farms". It's good.

It'd be interesting to learn how many small ice cream makers there are left in the US and Canada.

I'd bet the number is lower than you might romanticise because of the centralization of the dairy industry.

In Columbia County NY you can cross country ski on the unused right-of-ways of small gauge railways which once serviced local dairy farms.

It's the local living, working and reputation maintenance (keeping one's nose clean) which is sorely lacking today.

 

[Jdeere562]

Back in the 1970's we made our own ice cream, hand cranked with ice and rock salt.

Neighbor a mile away was a dairy farmer, so we had fresh milk and cream, right from the cows and untreated. (not healthy today)

We had chickens and fresh eggs every day. Match made in Heaven.

Best ice cream ever!

 

[Kira]

It wasn't "healthy" yesterday either.

Back when I was young the small (40 to 100 head) dairy farms were still around the lower Champlain Valley.
One of the dairymen gave raw milk to my friend for their first born. The baby's grandfather was a dairyman too but he converted his farm to an apple orchard.
Call feeding your infant raw cow's milk an old fashioned ritual if you want.

My pal said to me, "For Mr. x to give my kid raw milk, he's danm sure of his heard."

Talk about trusting your neighbor.

 

[Jdeere562]

It wasn't "healthy" yesterday either.

Back when I was young the small (40 to 100 head) dairy farms were still around the lower Champlain Valley.
One of the dairymen gave raw milk to my friend for their first born. The baby's grandfather was a dairyman too but he converted his farm to an apple orchard.
Call feeding your infant raw cow's milk an old fashioned ritual if you want.

My pal said to me, "For Mr. x to give my kid raw milk, he's danm sure of his heard."

Talk about trusting your neighbor.

The raw milk from a farmer was sure good though! Very rich and probably 1 1/2" of cream floating on the top. It took a LONG time getting used to store bought milk after moving to town. Equate that to moving from whole milk to skim these days.

Farm fresh eggs are the same way. Farm eggs yokes a dark orange, store bought more of a yellow.

But I grew up a farm raised Iowa hick. We carried shotguns and rifles to school in our pickups hanging in the rear windows. Then we went pheasant and rabbit hunting after school. Nobody thought a thing seeing guns in the school parking lot. My, how things have changed over the years!

 

[Kira]

My, how things have changed over the years!

Ego predominates
Anger has been pedaled on TV and radio daily
And people are, on average, stupider

 

[ecotourist]

I remember when buying a brick of ice cream (about the size of a pound of butter) was a really big event. We'd take it home and the family would eat it in one sitting. We didn't have a refrigerator (or a freezer) in those days.

Right after WWII every small town had a locker plant. Before home freezers, most people in the community had a locker there where they froze home grown fruit and vegetables. For the record, frozen peas were a big advance over canned peas. People typically bought a side or a quarter of beef from the butcher, had it quick frozen and stored the meat in their locker too. The cooling for the locker plant was provided by an ammonia based system.

We've come a long way since the '40s and '50s. And some of it has been good.

 

[97prizm]

I'm pretty sure they didn't use carrageenan in their icecream

Or guar gum or spy lecithin