Mix cornstarch to a thin, smooth paste with a little of the milk. Combine with 4 C of the milk and all the sugar, and cook in top of double boiler over boiling water, with occasional stirring, for 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Beat eggs until light colored; gradually stir into the hot mixture and return to heat. Cook 2 minutes longer, stirring constantly. Cool, pour through a strainer into your ice-cream-maker's canister, and add the remaining ingredients, stirring well. [If you want to throw in crushed fruit or other extras, now's the time.] Once the lid's on the canister, follow your usual ice-rock_salt-cranking routine. Makes ~ 4 quarts.

1. I usually pour the final 2 C milk, salt, whipping cream, and vanilla extract into the canister and have it sitting in the 'fridge while I cook the rest of the mixture.

2. Once everything's cooked and in the canister, you don't have to crank it right away, so the cooking part can be done way ahead of time.

3. With our hand-cranked maker [cranking until it's extremely hard to turn the crank], the stuff emerges at a easy-to-slide-down-your-throat consistency.

We like to finish making it before the dinner guests arrive, then keep it in the freezer until time for dessert, at which point the consistence seems ideal. By the next morning, it's much harder than store-bought-with-preservatives varieties.