Ice Cream Makers: The Best and the Cheapest

The following is the tale of two ice cream makers. On one hand, we have the Musso Lussino which is generally regarded as the single best at-home device. It costs around $700. It is surely for the die-hards.

On the other hand we have the Cuisinart ICE-20. This is a much, much more affordable ice cream maker which is known as one of the best cheap machines there is. Its price is more like $50 or less.

The major difference between all superior electric ice-cream makers and their budget counterparts is that you will have to pre-freeze with the cheaper ones; in this case that is our Cuisinart. But of course the price gap is quite wide, and with both you are getting ice cream that is sure to be better than anything you can buy at the grocery store.

Anyone purchasing Musso's best should be prepared to make top-dollar use of it. This is really for the ice cream hobbyist: the Martha Stewart's of the dessert world. If you go with this one, you had better read the manual and really know what you're doing.

Now let's have a look at the positives and negatives of each model alone and versus each other. I am always highly sensitive to price points, so you will find that coming through in my reviews, maybe in a biased way. As always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But the kids are sure to love either's finished product!

This machine definitely has earned its right to charge a lot. It makes French style ice cream which is deliciously rich and creamy. You could even call it soft. Sometimes, with other ice cream makers, if you do something wrong they will end up giving a too liquidy finished product. How are you supposed to put that on an ice cream cone, let alone enjoy its taste?

This is self-cooling (i.e. no gel canister) which speeds the whole process up. It takes only about a half-hour to make a batch of 1.5 quarts. This is its capacity of its tank. It is a heavy thing, too.