Useful Ice Tips

Ice has been on the planet for thousands of years, but it’s only been the last 100 years that people have been able to fully benefit from this natural creation. Before that, it was only people living close to the poles that would have been able to harvest ice for use. Since the invention of the refrigerator, however, ice has been used more and more in daily life.

Instant sorbet can be made in seconds by taking advantage of the cooling properties of ice. Pour a glass of fruit juice into a water-seal packet. Fill a larger packet with 2 cups of ice, 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of water. Place the smaller, sealed fruit juice packet into the larger one filled with ice, salt and water. Shake the bag for a few seconds, until the fruit juice becomes the desired consistency.

The salt in the water will release the coolness from the ice quicker, by causing it to melt faster. This will freeze the juice, turning it into instant sorbet. Take the fruit juice bag out of the larger one and scoop the sorbet out into a bowl.

Another tip with the combination of salt and ice is making cool drinks ice cold quicker. It’s always been a bit of problem when guests start arriving and you realise that you haven’t put the drinks on ice yet. There is nothing worse than having a luke-warm coke. But placing drinks in an ice bucket will take up to an hour before they get to a cold temperature.

The solution is to fill a bowl with ice, add one to two cups of salt, fill with water and place the cool drinks in the mixture. Stir the cans in the bowl and within seconds the cool drink will be ice cold.

Another discovery, which saves time, is peeling potatoes in seconds with the help of ice. By placing a hot potato into ice water, at about 45 F, the potato releases it's skin because of the quick temperature change. Leave the potato in the ice water for about 5 seconds and then take it out. Grab the potato with two hands. Gentle slide the potato skin off by pulling the skin in opposite directions. The skin will come off with ease. No more picking the skin off in little pieces and getting mash potato under your fingernails.

Of course the best quick tip of the century is being able to cool a whole room in minutes with air conditioning. You can simple rent one for the summer, so you don’t have to find storage place for it in winter, and turn it on. The air conditioning unit sucks the warm air in and the pushes it through a cooling unit. It then blows the cool air out.

In order to get the full potential of the cool air, you need to place the air conditioner in a strategic position where the air can move around the room. Generally, a corner of the room is the best place for a portable air conditioner. Another tip is to shut the doors to unused rooms. This will enclose the area you wish to cool and thereby speed the process up by working on a smaller concentrated area.

Ice is simply frozen water but it has more uses than just popping cubes of it into your drink to cool it down. There are plenty of other ways to make use of frozen water, which are we only beginning to tap into.

Celeste writes for Ice Boys, who specialize in portable Air conditioning.