The Ice Topic: Crushed, Cracked, Cubes, Balls, Alternatives

[JAZ]

As I stated somewhere around here, I've been suffering with lousy half-moon junk cubes from the automatic ice maker in my freezer, and finally said I'd had enough. Not having the wallet girth to grab a Kold Draft machine (don't think I haven't considered it), I went with the recession plan and grabbed these "Perfect Cube" silicone trays from Sur Le Table.

I'm already in love. For about $20 (shipping included) I have big cubic cubes that are perfect for rocks drinks, perfect for high balls, and really great for cracking into chunks. Best of all, they are taking my shaken drinks, which are now missing the shards I'd grown to hate, to another level.

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I bought some of these before I moved and used to use them sometimes, although in my old crappy freezer they took forever to freeze, which was a drawback.

Then I moved and now have an automatic ice maker, which actually makes pretty decent sized half-moons. I got lazy and stopped using the silicone trays. A few days ago, however, my ice maker stopped working, so I dug these out again and, like Chris, I'm in love. Not only are they a great size and shape, but they taste better -- I haven't noticed it with shaken and strained drinks, but in rocks drinks, it's pronounced. I guess the water for the ice maker sits in the tubing and develops off-flavors, which I only really noticed in their absence.

So what to do when they come to fix the ice maker? Use the stuff from the ice maker for water baths, cooling stock and that sort of thing, and continue with the good cubes for drinks?

[Chris Amirault]

That's what I do: the machine moons do the dirty work of cooling things down (brines, most often, here), and I keep a steady supply of actual cubes for drinks, and not just cocktails but also any tall drink like lemonade or lime rickeys. I now have four trays -- thank you, Savers! -- and am well chuffed.

[JAZ]

My problem will be storage, but I'll make it work. I'm really liking the big cubes.

[vice]

My problem will be storage, but I'll make it work. I'm really liking the big cubes.

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I recently picked up a used 5-cu.ft. chest freezer to handle the overflow from my rather small refrigerator. One of the biggest benefits is that I can have sooo much ice on hand. I keep a bin in the regular freezer and have twelve trays on deck should everybody I know stop by at the same time for drinks. Yep, (I've felt weird when I've caught myself thinking this, but) it's pretty close to bliss. Nothing strikes fear into the heart of the cocktail enthusiast like the thought of running out of ice.

[shantytownbrown]

type of ice question:

I am moving to a new home in the next few months, the current owner did a major kitchen upgrade within the last year and installed sub-zero refig/freezer (no idea what model). It has and ice maker, their site does not show pics of cubes...

anyone have any idea what type of ice i will have with this unit?

thanks in advance

shanty(scott)

[slkinsey]

I know a few people with Sub-Zero built-ins. The ice-machine ice has been the same half-moon ice all the other in-freezer ice makers make.

[shantytownbrown]

I know a few people with Sub-Zero built-ins. The ice-machine ice has been the same half-moon ice all the other in-freezer ice makers make.

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darn

[MattJohnson]

Cooking issues is a great blog, I'm sure some around here read it. However they did some experiments on cocktail making and I thought people around here would like it. Basically, they determine that the type of ice doesn't really matter in terms of final temperature or dilution of a cocktail - although they don't make any claims about texture of a drink

Here ya go:

How does the science of shaking work?

http://cookingissues.wordpress.com/2009/07...nce-of-shaking/

Does the type of ice matter (in terms of final temp and dilution of the drink)

http://cookingissues.wordpress.com/2009/07...-of-shaking-ii/

Does this surprise anyone? I know there have been heated debates about ice.

[Chris Amirault]

Sam made a statement in the first post that I think is worth discussing:

This would seem to suggest that having more ice (greater thermal mass) is more important than having colder ice.

If that's true -- and I agree that it seems true based on the article -- than can one address the warm ice issue that so often plagues us at subpar bars by asking for a lot of that wet ice, not a little?

ETA: Answer seems to be "Sort of." From the second piece:

We did initial experiments that showed that using too little ice results in poor chilling and greater dilution.  The benefit of adding more ice plateaus at a certain point so that it neither helps nor hurts the temperature or dilution.

Edited August 5, 2009 by chrisamirault (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

Very interesting, it sort of confirms my anecdotal results with the truly embarrassing ice we have to work with, using more of it actually seems to give reasonably consistent results.

[thegoodist]

While not immediately relevant to the use of ice in cocktails, this is becoming equally annoying as it is fascinating:

Seems to happen once every few trays, and only to one cube at that. The above example is particularly thick, but they sometimes manifest as far sharper 'needles'.

Any ideas on what could cause this strange phenomenon?

[Chris Amirault]

I have no idea, but I love it. Think of the garnish possibilities....

[Scout_21]

Ice Spikes

[JAZ]

Ice Spikes

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From the web page:

The short explanation is this: as the ice freezes fast under supercooled conditions, the surface can get covered except for a small hole. Water expands when it freezes. As freezing continues, the expanding ice under the surface forces the remaining water up through the hole and it freezes around the edge forming a hollow spike. Eventually, the whole thing freezes and the spike is left.

Interesting -- I guess this has never happened to me because I've always had wimpy freezers.

[Alchemist]

That is seriously so very cool, and not just because it is hands down the most phallic ice I have ever seen.

Instead of Ice spike I would say CUBE WITH WOODY

Toby

[Chris Hennes]

The New York Times has an article talking about ice this week. Not much in there we haven't already discussed here, but I hadn't seen the latest in the Cooking Issues entries on the subject, Cocktail Science IV: All-Star Shake-off at Pegu Club Testing Shaking Differences Between Bartenders Qualitatively. In this one they are attempting to get at the textural differences between shaking techniques.

[bostonapothecary]

The New York Times has an article talking about ice this week. Not much in there we haven't already discussed here, but I hadn't seen the latest in the Cooking Issues entries on the subject, Cocktail Science IV: All-Star Shake-off at Pegu Club Testing Shaking Differences Between Bartenders Qualitatively. In this one they are attempting to get at the textural differences between shaking techniques.

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interesting.

my ISO of a drink at home has become 3 to 4 oz. of room temp liquid with 5 one inch cubes from the freezer in a 16 oz. "barproducts.com" tin with 8 oz cap. when i move to a larger drink i more or less always change to a canning jar shaker but i do have one slightly larger set i prefer for eggs.

that 16/8 seems tiny but my logic is the room temp tin doesn't absorb too much energy from the ice which i feel like larger shakers do. and there isn't too much extra room in the tin so as stuff is sloshing it is in closer proximity to the walls and the ice. if the shaker space is too large liquid is just free falling in no mans land and not maximizing contact.

to create "texture" or probably just a frizzante effect, shaking beyond what you think is your terminal cold may have the effect of dissolving increasingly more air into the drink. as liquids get colder they have the ability to dissolve far more air but just like stirring sugar into water it takes time. some times wineries heat up a wine slightly before they rack it into a new container. the tiny gesture dissolves far less oxygen in the simple act of pouring. home brewers also shake their cornelius kegs when force carbonating in the belief that it speeds up the process.

a large shaker, ice shape, or a hard shake technique may not help to dissolve gas as much as more time beyond the terminal cold at the risk of more but probably negligible dilution. time costs money so who knows if we will see it happen outside the home.

[jmfangio]

Interesting article, but I take issue with this notion:

The new thinking is that drinks should be kept as strong as possible. Dilution has become a dirty word.

Proper dilution is part of the process, no? I'd think that over dilution would be the dirty word(s).

[Chris Amirault]

Yeah, as I commented at the bottom, they all look to be about 25% dilution, which is the standard. No one seems to be freezing their booze....

Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli has an interesting question in there too: why no fine straining?

[alacarte]

The Sept issue of Food Arts magazine includes a lengthy article on freezing techniques, by Dave Arnold and mixology expert Nils Noren. I summarized the section on cocktail ice over here.

The article includes a great analogy from Don Lee: “If sushi is all about the rice, a drink on the rocks is all about the rock.”

[jmfangio]

I picked up these nifty ice ball molds which make three 2 1/4" spheres last week at a shop in Little Tokyo. Not bad for $1.99!

Edited October 1, 2009 by jmfangio (log)

[JAZ]

While not immediately relevant to the use of ice in cocktails, this is becoming equally annoying as it is fascinating:

Seems to happen once every few trays, and only to one cube at that. The above example is particularly thick, but they sometimes manifest as far sharper 'needles'.

Any ideas on what could cause this strange phenomenon?

Ice Spikes

I'm now seeing these pretty regularly, although I don't find it annoying. I can never decide whether to save them or use them.

[vice]

I've only see them in my freezer at work (and with some frequency), but then there is a confounding variable because I tend to use DI water rather than tap there. Don't know if that might have any effect on the likelihood of their forming.

[Chris Amirault]

I had to crack about one hundred cubes (made with these Tovolo trays) for class yesterday, and after freezing cubes to skin a bit too often I learned that the following approach is an efficient way to crack these big cubes. Perhaps it's obvious to some but it was news to me, so I'm sharing it here:

• Fold a clean dish towel into a 6"x6" square.
  Place five or six cubes in two rows onto the towel.
  Whack the cubes with the convex back of a tablespoon (more effective than the handle of a barspoon, I found).
  Dump into a bowl.

There's something about the towel that allows you to keep the ice relatively dry and cold, making the dump less sticky. In addition, the rate of effective cracking was nearly 100% using this method, as opposed to 50-60% when in my bare hand.

[evo-lution]

I'm working on an ice program just now for a consultancy and have had a lot of success using this as a cubed ice mould tray. The cubes come out at around 2" square.

Alternatively I've had success with similar organising trays which you'd find in toolshops, fishing tackle shops and the like.

Experimenting with other alternative moulds at the moment, will post when I have positive results.