Ice Cream of the US Navy

“Can you imagine a greater tonic to body and spirit than real ice cream served in steaming jungles or on hard-won beachheads?” 

My last year and a half of high school I lived in one of the little tourist towns surrounding Lake Tahoe, and I did what most of the high schoolers did—worked to serve the tourists.  With only three morning classes, I had the afternoons free for work.  I considered myself fortunate to land a job at Swensen’s Ice Cream where the manager made all the ice cream on site using high fat cream.  It was premium ice cream, and as an employee (the only employee during the weekdays until summer vacation began) I made myself a milkshake for lunch every day before opening the store for business.  (I chose a milkshake because we were permitted one item from the menu, and a milkshake had the most ice cream.) 

I became an ice cream snob.

If I couldn’t have the good stuff, I didn’t buy ice cream.  My family and I were thrilled when a Cold Stone franchise opened near our home in Reno, and we would often take the short walk for a treat on family night in the summer.  When we moved to Missouri and then back to the outskirts of Reno and the closest Cold Stone was over half an hour away, I resorted to buying Breyer’s, sometimes Talenti.  And then I discovered Tillamook ice cream sandwiches.  All good stuff.  I’m still an ice cream snob.

And the idea of not having any ice cream when our society collapses makes me sad.  I can only stockpile so much whipping cream.  The shelf-stable cream doesn’t have a long shelf-life and neither does Media Crema.  Sigh.

So when my son Jared sent me a link to Max Miller’s Tasting History edition where he makes ice cream out of powdered milk and powdered eggs, like the sucker I am, I got all twitter-pated.  Let’s face facts:  I will never learn.

Anyway, Max’s video of the history of ice cream with the troops in World War II is extremely interesting for all from the standpoint of food storage and maintaining morale in difficult circumstances.  (Did you know that the Navy had ice cream barges?  They were towed by tugboats.  Can you imagine them playing the cute ice cream jingles as they docked?  And for you engineering types, the soldiers somehow made ice cream on planes.  Check it out.)

And yes, during WWII the US Navy made ice cream using powdered milk and powdered eggs.  I watched this video right after my son sent it to me Tuesday morning and spent the next three days craving the banana-nut ice cream that Max made for the show. (It does look really good.)  I finally had time to make some for my family on Friday. 

Vanilla Ice Cream

¾ cup powdered milk

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoons powdered eggs

4 teaspoons cornstarch

½ teaspoon salt

2 ¾ cups cold water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Flavor variations, if desired, below

Combine cornstarch, sugar, salt, powdered eggs, and dry milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Whisk in the water until the mixture is smooth and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes.  When the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spatula, remove the pan from the heat.  Stir in whatever extra ingredients you are using for your chosen flavor.  Cool the mixture quickly in an ice bath (a bowl of ice cubes and water).  Keep stirring, occasionally, until the mixture reaches room temperature.  And then refrigerate for an hour or two before putting it in the ice cream freezer to churn. 

(Note.  I made a few changes from Max’s recipe.  In addition to just combining all the dry ingredients and then adding the water, I also skipped pressing the mixture through the strainer on my second batch.  If you have a smooth mixture, there aren’t any little lumps to strain out.  And I’m not entirely sure that the post-ice bath refrigeration is necessary.  We couldn’t detect any difference between the two batches.)

Churn following the directions for your ice cream maker.  If you want soft serve ice cream, eat immediately.  If you want it firmer, pop it in the freezer for an hour or two.

The Navy cookbook had lots of flavor variations, which, naturally, I’m not privy to because they weren’t included in the video.  In addition to the flavors below, you can see the ingredients for making peach, apricot, and grape ice cream if you are interested.  I wasn’t. 

Banana-Nut

1 large banana

5 drops of yellow food coloring

⅛ cup chopped walnuts

As Max notes in the video, don’t mash the banana until you are ready to add it to the ice cream, or it will turn brown, and you’d have brown bananas in your ice cream.  And what would the neighbors say?

Stir in the bananas and walnuts.  I added one drop of liquid paste food coloring, and that was more than enough.  I suspect food coloring today may be a little more concentrated, and I think many of us prefer color that is a little more natural in our foods today, so we can get away with less or even not using any.

Pineapple

Add ½ cup crushed pineapple

 

Strawberry

Add 1 cup crushed strawberries

 

Chocolate

2 tablespoons chocolate milk mix per ½ cup of ice cream

 

Reviews:  Remember, I am an ice cream snob.  The rest of the family has fairly high standards as well. 

We all (Aaron, Becky, Lydia, Jared, Belle, and I) thought all flavors would satisfy children.

We were too anxious to try it and did not wait for it to harden in the freezer.  Without any cream, this ice cream just doesn’t have the mouth-feel or texture of ice cream.  We miss it.  Becky thought it was more like a sorbet than an ice cream.  Everybody liked strawberry better than banana nut.  None of us could detect any off taste of powdered eggs; I thought I could detect a little powdered milk flavor, but I was really looking for it.  (FYI, the eggs were Augason Farms manufactured in 2018, and the milk was from the Home Storage Center, packed in 2010.)

Because chocolate and bananas are a common flavor combination, I decided to try adding some DIY Nesquik mix (it was dark chocolate, actually) to some of the banana nut ice cream.  That was a game-changer.  We all liked this chocolate-banana ice cream much, much better.  (Actually, we couldn't taste the banana any more.)  Chocolate does indeed hide a multitude of sins.  I wouldn’t hesitate to make this for guests or for a church dinner.  People will notice the lack of ice cream creaminess, but it’s still really good.

Interesting quote from the video:

 “Distribution of ice cream to ships and bases must be increased.  Of all specific actions listed herein, this should have the highest priority.  Ice cream in my opinion has been the most neglected of all the important morale factors.”  Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal

Links to related posts:

DIY Nesquik  

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Qiyo8D0nH70