13.

“From the time I was little, through college, and for a few years after, going out to restaurants was my favorite thing in the world. But over time, the experience just got worse, and COVID really killed it. Now, everything costs a fortune, and it just sucks. For a few years, delivery services were a good deal, but now they tack on 30% or more in fees. So, I’m slowly building a culinary repertoire of my own. At first, all I knew was a basic one-pot meal, but I was happy to eat it three times a week. Lately, I’ve been finding dishes that last for a week — meatballs, curry — and just making those. Every once in a while, I surprise myself with how good my food is. I’m saving at least $100 a month (when you count eating out plus the grocery money I’d have spent on prepackaged foods), maybe even $200 some months.”

“I’m down to pizza once a month, and that’s really so I can share it with my housemates. I really love sushi and will still pay for that, but it’s a rare treat.”

—u/FavoredVassal

“There’s something for everyone” is the kind of trite cliché people trot out when what they really mean is that you have a lot of choices. But with its revamped menu, HelloFresh is making a run at a literal execution of the adage. The biggest meal kit company in the world—as of 2024, it commanded close to 50% of the meal kit market worldwide—now has around 100 different recipes to choose from each week, including a whole set of microwavable heat-and-eat meals.

We decided to retest the service to see how the new jump in quantity changes (or doesn’t) the experience of cooking and eating with HelloFresh.

Read on for my full review.

What to expect in a HelloFresh box

Each HelloFresh delivery is packed with (somewhat cumbersome) ice packs that will keep the box’s contents cool for a few hours until you’re able to get them into your fridge. Inside the box, ingredients for each meal come packed in paper bags; they’re pre-measured but not actually prepared, so you’ll find whole garlic cloves and produce that you’ll need to mince, grate, chop, and dice. Recipe condiments and flourishes like chicken stock concentrate, creme fraiche, or balsamic glaze come in tiny packages that you can rip open and add to your sauce or on top of cooked vegetables.

Each meal has its ingredients, minus any proteins, sorted into its own paper bag, to prevent any mixups in a recipe. Proteins arrive isolated, hidden under a layer of ice packs—which is nice for their preservation and to prevent any accidental leaky meat juices from soiling your other ingredients. Clearly labeled instructions tell you to keep digging for your beef, chicken, or shrimp so you don’t miss them.

In terms of quality, everything I got was on par with the kind of quality I’d get shopping for myself at a chain supermarket: Produce arrived fresh and undamaged, proteins were mostly quality versions of less expensive options (think 51/60 shrimp, not jumbo prawns).

What I liked about HelloFresh

I’m a parent of small children who are periodically temperamental when it comes to food, so in order to get my kids to actually eat, I need softball recipes pitched right down the middle. And HelloFresh really nails that. Even dishes that contained bigger flavors—like a kimchi fried rice—offset and balanced them in ways that were friendly to more cautious palates.

The portions were also amongst the most generous of the half dozen or so meal kits I’ve tried. I ordered four portions (for my family of four) and had leftovers with every meal. That might be because my kids are still small, but it means that even if your family of four has teenagers going through a growth spurt, no one will leave the table hungry.

Finally, HelloFresh utilizes shortcuts in a smart way that doesn’t undermine a dish’s flavors. When executed badly, meal kits end up tasting like reheated TV dinners. That’s because, in order to maximize efficiency (both in the cooking and the packaging of the food), companies choose things like pre-cut garlic or pre-squeezed lemon juice. Ingredients like that pale in comparison to freshly minced or squeezed versions. HelloFresh finds shortcuts, but they’re with items that can be portioned out without sacrificing flavor, like stocks or base condiments like soy sauce.

What I didn’t like about HelloFresh

HelloFresh meals are not quick prep operations. Ordinarily, the fact that a meal takes 45 or 50 minutes to make wouldn’t merit much of a response from me; that’s a typical evening’s work. But the HelloFresh recipe cards proclaim prominently that prep times would be as brief as five minutes and they just weren’t.

I mention that because lots of people sign up for meal kits specifically as a way to save time not just in meal planning but in meal prep. But the reality with HelloFresh is that you’ll have to do 90% of the work of cooking a meal. The result tastes as fresh as a meal made from scratch, but it takes time.

Last, the small capacity (about a pint) means you’ll need to adjust standard ice cream recipes. Make sure to only fill the canister about 60% of the way or you’ll have an overflowing mess on your hands.

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How we picked the best ice cream makers

To test the ice cream makers, we made a lot of ice cream (obviously). For the regular ice cream makers, we used the exact same base recipe for each machine (using a kitchen scale to measure our ingredients for ultimate precision). We cooled each base to room temperature, refrigerated overnight to reach 40°F, and then churned them in each ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions to soft-serve consistency.

For the soft serve ice cream makers, we made vanilla ice cream bases according to the recipes supplied by each manufacturer, and chilled or froze them overnight depending on their respective recipe booklets’ instructions.

We took note of how long each model took to reach soft serve consistency. And of course, we taste tested each batch to compare ice crystal formation, aeration, and overall texture and mouthfeel.

After our initial ice cream test, we narrowed down the field to our top contenders and played around with other frozen desserts like sorbet and frozen yogurt. We also tested each compressor machine’s ability to churn consecutive batches of ice cream.

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What we looked for when testing ice cream makers

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Other ice cream makers we tested and liked

Hey, we’re paid to be picky! The below machines make smooth, creamy ice cream but failed to make our top picks for one reason or another.

If you own a KitchenAid stand mixer, you may have heard that KitchenAid sells an ice cream maker attachment. This is a perfectly adequate pick if you don’t have the space to accommodate a designated machine for your ice cream making needs, though we found that it couldn’t quite match the results of the Cuisinart ICE-21 (and is more expensive, for that matter).

This machine from Whynter costs about $40 less than the winning 201SB, and yielded similarly impressive results. That said, we preferred placement of the motor in the 201SB (under the bowl, rather than alongside it as with the ICM-15LS) because it made for a smaller countertop footprint. We also found the ICM-15LS to be excessively loud. But it still makes great ice cream, and would be a perfectly acceptable pick for anyone who doesn’t mind devoting a bit of extra counter space to their ice cream endeavors.

This top-of-the-line model from Lello costs nearly $1,200 at the time of writing, making it unrealistic for most home cooks. It’s also the largest of all the machines we tested and weighs a whopping 70 pounds, which means it would need to live on your countertop for all eternity. That said, this is a fantastic ice cream machine that’s able to make up to two quarts at a time in just 20 minutes (which is faster than the Musso Lussino).

This 2-quart model from Cuisinart is similar to the ICE-21 in functional design and operation, despite looking quite different. While the larger capacity might be nice for big households, the sorbet it made never quite reached same density or level of frozen as the batch made in the ICE-21. That said, the ice cream it made was on par with that made in our winner (though it did take longer to churn). If you have a large family of ice cream fiends to feed, this model might be worth considering.

This little 1-pint model from Cuisinart is cute as can be. It’s got a similar design to the Dash in that the paddle clips into the motor, which is attached to the lid. It did a great job making ice cream, and we liked that it has a clear lid that allows you to monitor your ice cream’s progress, unlike the Dash. That said, the sorbet we made never quite reached the optimal consistency, likely because the canister started to thaw due to its small size. It’s also more expensive than the Dash, and didn’t feel worth the extra $30 based on its performance. That said, it’s an effective little machine.

The Ninja Creami took the internet by storm a couple years ago, with TikTokers evangelizing its ability to turn pretty much anything into ice cream. It works quite differently from any of the other ice cream makers on this list in that the machine itself doesn’t feature any kind of cooling element (no freezer bowls or compressors here). Instead, it uses technology previously only found in a machine called a Pacojet in which a blade whirs through a frozen block of liquid, shaving off pieces and whipping it all together to achieve a creamy, ice cream-like texture.

The Swirl is Ninja’s newest addition to the Creami line. It works much like the original Creami, but features a dispensing attachment that allows you to dispense the finished ice cream through a fluted nozzle and into your ice cream vessel of choice.

It’s a well-designed, fun to use appliance with clear instructions that make it pretty foolproof: Just make your mixture, freeze it overnight in the provided canisters, run the machine (which takes around five minutes), and attach the canister to the dispensing mechanism.

I made vanilla ice cream based on a recipe in the included booklet and frozen yogurt using store-bought strawberry low-fat yogurt. Both turned out great—though if you’re expecting the kind of aerated, ultra-smooth soft serve you get from a truck, do note that this is not that. The vanilla ice cream I made in the Creami was denser than the Mister Softee-like ice cream I made in the Cuisinart Mix It In (which you can read more about below).

While it didn’t ultimately earn a spot in our top picks for this story (due partially to the fact that it’s quite bulky, and partially to the fact that the frozen desserts it makes aren’t actually ice cream), I do understand its appeal—being able to turn basically anything into soft serve is pretty magical. If you’re already a Creami stan and like the idea of being able to host soft serve parties all summer long, you might consider upgrading. Just make sure to carve out some extra kitchen storage space first.

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Ice cream makers we tested and don’t recommend

What’s the difference between canister and compressor ice cream makers?

As you’ve probably gathered by now, there are two primary types of home ice cream makers: canister and compressor models. Both make ice cream by introducing freezing cold temperatures and agitation to an ice cream base mixture, but beyond that the two operate differently—and tend to have different price points.

Canister (or freezer bowl) machines: These typically consist of four parts: a base, usually motorized; a canister that fits inside that base; a paddle; and some sort of lid. The canister is often made of aluminum and plastic, and contains a nontoxic saline solution within its walls—think of it as a cylindrical ice pack, with added salt to lower its freezing point (if you’ve ever made ice cream in a bag, this is why recipes call for the addition of rock salt).

With these models, it’s essential that you freeze the canister for at least 24 hours before churning to ensure it’s reached a cold enough temperature to properly chill your ice cream, gelato, or frozen yogurt base.

Because they’re relatively low-tech (they’ll often have a single on/off button), these machines tend to be less expensive, making them a great choice for most home cooks looking to satisfy the occasional homemade frozen treat craving.

Compressor machines: These machines have a built-in refrigeration compressor that uses coolant to reach the optimal temperature—no pre-freezing required. The major benefit of this is that it allows you to make ice cream whenever you want, and make multiple batches in a row without buying and freezing multiple canisters.

The two main downsides to these machines are that they tend to be far more expensive (think $250 and up) and are much heavier. We’d only recommend going this route if you foresee yourself making your own ice cream a lot.

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