The Play & Freeze looks to be an interesting way of making ice cream without electricity and without sitting in one spot turning the crank of the more traditional style of ice cream maker. The end caps provide a nice, flat surface for loading, and are stable enough for me to fill without worrying about spilling the contents unless the picnic table is on a slope. Both ends tighten and loosen easily enough by hand at room temperature. I've loaded both the ice cream compartment and the ice/salt compartment with liquid water and rolled the ball around the kitchen floor for a bit, and both compartments are water-tight thanks to O-rings in the lids. The ball rolls pretty well on a flat surface. I don't know how much I'll "shake" or "rattle" the ball as opposed to just rolling it, since when it's fully loaded it feels like a bowling ball. It's a good thing Industrial Revolution warns against kicking the ball, since I'd be likely to hurt my foot if I did!

While I've had difficulty finding rock salt in the salt/spice section of at least two chain supermarkets near my home (a tip mentioned on the website for the Play and Freeze), I have seen some large bags of rock salt sold as water softener. On the ice end of ice cream supplies, I've found that the ice cubes (or more accurately, the long, thin crescent-shaped ice) from the automatic ice-maker machine in my freezer fit nicely inside the ball. Most ice from bagged ice also fit well; the cylindrical-type work well as long as they're not stuck together, and the 'chips' of ice from another brand also work. I'm not sure if the opening is big enough for cubes from an ice cube tray that has been filled to the brim, so I'll have to hunt down an old ice cube tray to report on those.

The instructions say to leave about 1" (2.5 cm) of space when filling the ice cream compartment to allow for expansion of the liquid inside as it freezes. They don't mention if this is from the very top, or from the top of the metal portion of the container. The plastic at the opening is threaded, so I'm not sure if that should be included in the 1" (2.5 cm) allowance or not. I added 2 cups (473 ml) of water to the ice cream compartment and the water level was about 1" (2.5 cm) from the top of the metal part of the container. The basic recipe calls for 2 cups/473 ml of cream to start out with, and adds sugar and vanilla flavoring. Some recipes call for up to ½ cup (118 ml) solid ingredients, without a reduction in cream. The volume of some recipes as printed appears to be larger than the acceptable fill capacity. I will test one of the larger-volume recipes to determine how much waste ther could be.

I plan to test the Play & Freeze in State Parks in Southeast Michigan, and at home. Ground conditions will vary from kitchen floor to carpet, to grass to dirt surfaces. We should have about 9 nights camping in the parks, plus several daytrips where we can bring the Play and Freeze along. Temperatures are expected to range from the mid 70's F to mid 90s F (about 24-35 C). We plan to bring our 8- year old niece on at least 1 weekend trip.

I plan to test a variety of milk products, juices, drink mixes, and anything else I can think of to see how long it takes to produce the finished product. Each product will be tested at least twice, once at room temperature inside our house (70F, 21C) and once outside in warmer temperatures, about 90F (32C) if the weather allows. For all tests I will record the ambient temperature and the time it takes for a particular product to chill out. I will try to be as consistent as possible with the temperature when testing the Play and Freeze outside.

Reviews > Cook and Food Storage Gear > Cooking Accessories > Industrial Revolution Play & Freeze Ice > Becki Stacy > Initial Report