1. In heavy saucepan, combine milk, sugar, and salt.
2. Cook over medium heat stirring occasionally until mixture is steaming.
3. Reduce heat to low.
4. In a separate bowl, slightly beat eggs.
5. Slowly whisk half of the hot mixture into the eggs and pour back into the saucepan.
6. Cook over medium-low heat until slightly thick, about 3 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and refrigerate until chilled or overnight.
8. When ready to make ice cream, stir heavy cream and vanilla into chilled custard mixture.
9. Pour into frozen ice cream canister

Try these variations by adding extra ingredients:

Black Forest:
Mix in  ½ cup chocolate syrup and 1 can of pitted Bing cherries, drained and halved.

Chocolate Covered Peanuts:  Mix in 1 ½ cups chocolate syrup and chocolate-covered peanuts.

Cookies and Cream:
Reduce sugar to 1 ½ cups.  Mix in 30 cream –filled sandwich cookies, broken in small pieces.

Orange-ade:
Mix in 1 (12 oz.) can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed and undiluted.

Mint-Chocolate Chip:
Replace vanilla extract with 1 teaspoon of mint extract.  Add 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, 4 drops of green food coloring (optional) to mixture.

Peanut Butter:
Mix in 2 cups of chunky peanut butter and mix well.

Chocolate Chip Walnut:
Add 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate bits and 1 cup chopped walnuts.

Strawberry-Banana:
Add in 6 mashed bananas and 1 quart coarsely chopped strawberries.

Double Almond Chocolate:
Replace vanilla extract with almond extract.  Add 6 ounces finally chopped semisweet chocolate squares and 2 cups chopped almonds to mixture.

Cookie Dough:
Add 1 roll (18 ounces) refrigerated raw cookie dough, cut into small pieces, to mixture.

Banana Pudding:
Add 1 cup mashed bananas and 12 crushed vanilla wafers to cream mixture.