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Comment by lesuorac | Hacker News Reader

I thought it was going to about adding salt to the ice cream but was not :/

I have a compressor so I have no use of a salted ice bath but I find that using salt in the mixture will make the ice cream not as hard when left overnight or longer in the freezer.

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A bit of alcohol would achieve that too right? Eg rum&raisin ice cream

OP author here.

Yes, though you have to be careful. If you add too much alcohol you'll prevent your mixture from properly freezing.

David Leibowitz, author of "The Perfect Scoop" recommends no more than 45ml of 80 proof liquor per 1 liter of ice cream mixture.

So just under a double shot of 40% abv spirit here in the uk per litre. You’re right, not that much is it.

That matches my experience too 3 tbsp of vanilla/mint extract makes a much creamier result

Right, alcohol, sugar and salt all change the hardness of the ice cream but you can only add so much until the flavor isn't what you want anymore. I don't think the ice cream texture is due to the melting point, though, that the post talks about, it's also whether large enough ice crystals can form.

It feels like cheating but adding stabilizers (gums, mostly) was really a game changer for our homemade ice cream.

Which texture hacks have you played with besides xanthan gum?

In addition to the ones mentioned above we've also tried powdered milk (cribbed from Salt&Straw, a local favorite) and this thing called "Avacream Ice Cream Stabilizer". That product works great as well but not sure I can really tell the difference, maybe the xanthan/dried milk is a little less smooth.

Yep I hear that, but also a frappucino without Xanthan gum is just a floaty slushy mess on sugary water.

Ah, I had no idea that's what they put in there. Xanthan gum is pretty amazing

It's amazing how potent that stuff is. You only need 1/8th of a teaspoon of the powder per drink. I tried using a whole teaspoon once but it was so thick that I couldn't get my coffee through a straw.

Hahaha I made the same mistake making a thc syrup. Ended up ‘one lump or two’!

Tiny amounts needed.

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