What I Know About Ice Cream

The first step in making the Ice Cream at the Jones is separate 48 egg yolks. Next you take 4 cups of sugar and caramelize it dry. The only thing in the pan is sugar, no water. Once the caramel has reached even consistency you add cream and milk to stop the caramelization. Then you cook the mixture until all of the caramel is dissolved and the mixture reaches a boil. While this is happening place the bowl of egg yolks on the pot with the caramel mixture and whisk it constantly. The egg yolks have to be warm so that when you add the boiling cream mixture they don't scramble. Be very careful not to let the yolks get to hot to fast because they might scramble. Scrambling is all around bad. When that happens you've wasted 48 eggs and have to separate another 48. Its a bad feeling. They only need to be just a little warmer than room temperature. Once they eggs are warm and the cream boiling you, with the help of a friend add the boiling cream to the eggs. One person pours, very slowly at first, the other whisks furiously. Pass the mixture through a chinoise(Every kitchen should have one. Seriously, this is one of those secret gadgets that separates restaurant food from home cooking. edit: don't buy this one though. Reviews make reasons clear.). Then it sits in an ice bath for a few hours before it's ready to be spun in the ice cream making machine.
At The Jones we use a half gallon of milk, a half gallon of cream, and four cups of sugar, but you can pretty easily use your long division skills for more reasonable batch sizes. To make something besides caramel ice cream simply don't caramelize the sugar and just boil it with the cream and milk straight them you can flavor it however you feel like.