Snowcream

[Doug Nelson]

Watching the snow fall outside (for the second day straight) reminds me of how my mom used to make snowcream for us. She'd simmer condensed milk (or more likely, "milnot", she loved milnot), sugar, and vanilla, then we'd bring in big bowls of snow and she'd mix them together.

She was always very careful about making sure we used clean snow, and we could never use the first snow of the season ("it's dirty, but it cleans the air so the next snow is clean").

[LindaJ]

Doug...my mom did EXACTLY the same thing! Last week I asked my husband to see if the store had some Milnot - he had never heard of it so I had to go into all this detail about what it was (Iwasn't sure), and what it was used for ....etc. I have been having trouble matching the taste of some of mom's recipes and discovered that sometimes I have to use the same brands, thus "Parkay" margarine or "Milnot"! (rather than butter or cream) - my husband is appalled but goes back for seconds!

I grew up in Oklahoma - did you grow up in Missouri? Check out the Milnot history:

http://www.milnotmilk.com/history.htm

Linda

[Doug Nelson]

I grew up in southern Illinois and Missouri, so I'm very familiar with the Milnot history (and I'm still a Chilliman fan, even though I haven't touched Milnot in decades).

And the old brands do sometimes make a difference. On a lark, I recently switched to Plochmann's mustard, since I remembered the bottles from when I grew up. Sure enough, the taste brought back memories and now I'm looking for even more old brands we used to use.

[Legacy~Art]

Wow

I have never even heard of it...

Sounds like that crushed ice with syrup...

[Doug Nelson]

That would be a snow-cone, a very different concept (but brings back memories of summer)

[vinniesworld]

Snow cream... been a long time since I've had any, not sure how Mom used to make it. I'll have to get her recipe and try it again next time we get some snow. I'm from Kentucky and we havn't had any good snows in quite a few years, except this year. We had around 12 inches two days before Christmas and yes you never ate the first snow, but what Mom didn't know never hurt her.

[Legacy~Art]

My Mum...

God bless her, she use to tell us that eating snow would give us bellyache, so sadly we never got to try this dessert!

[Axleuk]

I'm sorry but in this day and age, i would be reluctant to eat anything that that had fallen out the sky, unless of course, a shotgun was used in the process......gotta love them Pigeons !

[twinkissed]

Watching the snow fall outside (for the second day straight) reminds me of how my mom used to make snowcream for us. She'd simmer condensed milk (or more likely, "milnot", she loved milnot), sugar, and vanilla, then we'd bring in big bowls of snow and she'd mix them together.

She was always very careful about making sure we used clean snow, and we could never use the first snow of the season ("it's dirty, but it cleans the air so the next snow is clean").

Never seen snow but I'm wondering for us in the hot states.... would ice smooshed to death with a hammer work? That sounds delicious!!!!!!!!

[Doug Nelson]

I doubt it, but you could probably slowly freeze the milk, vanilla, and sugar while stirring it. That sounds good, too

(actually, I've tried several times to simulate snow, it never works)

[twinkissed]

Good idea. What I don't recommend is one of those snow cone machines that they sell for kids. We got one and after my arm fell off I think I had about 3 tbl spoons of snow? So that's when I decided to break out the hammer. HAHA

[Robt]

My Grandmother used to make "Sno-cream" for us and I really don't remember what it tasted like. I was about 6 when I last had it [53 yrs ago]. I do remember she used vanilla but don't remember much else. God I wonder what chemicals we ate.

Isn't "Milnot" an early lactose free stuff that was to imitate condensed milk?

I actually think sno-cream is like those things they sell at 7-11 with the sweet syrups on them. Yeech!

Maybe I'll go post these questions over on eGullet and see the gasping answers. BTW, if your bored w/ PS and hungry, http://forums.egullet.org/ is a fun site, although I've never seen sno-cream mentioned.

[raniday]

Good memories here Trouble is, it used to snow in Arkansas when I was a kid, but we hardly ever get snow now, and when it does snow, it's like yesterday, not enough to cover the grass..................thanks for the memory, Doug.

[Doug Nelson]

Re: Snowcream

Came across this thread while rereading some of the recipes here and thought I should mention that I have perfected artificial snow: ice cubes in a food processor (I have a Cuisinart, but whatever you use make sure it's powerful). Use pulse mode so the blades don't get hot. And no, you can't substitute a blender (that makes slush due to heating the blades).