Often, I get ice envy. That’s correct. I’m envious of ice.
Why? Many bars now have crystal clear ice cubes, or even whole blocks. Though at home, those ice cubes we make in the little plastic trays are often very cloudy. So I set out to make my own block of clear ice.
Making Crystal Clear Ice (Attempt Alpha 0.1)
- Boil the water
- Let it cool slightly (I draped a teatowel over the kettle to stop dust coming in to the kettle)
- Pour into a large tupperware container
- Slightly press the lid on
- Place in the freezer (in a slow freeze, not quick freeze area)
- Wait
- Wait some more
About 12 hours later I went to check on progress. The inner part of the block hadn’t freezed, though the outer edges were crystal clear. I placed it back in the freezer and waited some more.
On pulling it out the second time I had a whole frozen block, BUT I had a seam through the centre of the block that appeared to have a section of ‘cloudy’ ice. Take a look from both ends:
I managed to easily split the block in half, and then work around the seam to carve out an ice cube/lump.
Looks pretty decent right? I’ve got enough clear ice for about 8 of these cubes, perfect to cool down a drink slowly. I’m going to attempt another go, and I’ll report back about that
Awesome, I really want to try this myself now, but a tiny freezer compartment may mean I have to sacrifice some food for my experiments…
Just spent some time carving out the other cubes, overall it worked well. A bit of shaping the edges removed most the cloudy spots.
May try a double boil next time, and a bigger container. Food sacrifice may be needed!
I’m not sure how much boiling does – I think it might help a bit, but using a big box and a slow freezer seem to the be most important bits from my rather minimal experiments so far. More experimentation needed
Next on my list is an ice pick, as it’s only a matter of time before I wreck the knife I’ve been using for smashing up my smaller blocks of ice.
I admit my ice carving technique involved a bread knife to score, and a steak life to chip.
I’d agree a slow freeze is needed, thinking of insulating the pack to help slow it down more.
Who fancies a challenge? First to produce a perfectly clear block wins…. respect and admiration
Ready…. Steady…… GO!
To get a perfectly clear ice cube, try freezing it once, then letting it defrost and refreezing it.
btw…if my method works I win the challenge
Sure Emma.
Just do it, and blog about it
Of course if Mark or anyone else does it first then he gets ALL the credit :p
http://www.japantrendshop.com/ice-ball-mold-for-perfect-ice-spheres-p-244.html
These look pretty perfect.
Luke, looks cool. My first attempt at an iceball is here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5100783&fbid=426569472105&id=92625897105