How to make ice at home without special tools (cubes and crushed). How to make clear ice

Before you make ice, you need to thoroughly study this process and its nuances. It is not enough just to pour water into special molds and send them to freezer. To make transparent and beautiful product, which will decorate cocktails, you will have to try a lot. And yet, contrary to popular belief, you do not need to use any special refrigerators for this.

Everything can be done by hand with minimal financial and energy costs. The main thing is not to be afraid to experiment and not to stop if the first attempts fail.

Secrets of clear ice for drinks

Those who want to learn how to make real ice for drinks with their own hands, and not just cloudy pieces of frozen water, should adopt the following approaches:

• Use of pre-treated water. Pour the liquid into an enameled or steel bowl, bring to a boil and let it boil for a few minutes. Then cover with a lid and leave to cool. naturally. We repeat the manipulation and once again cool the composition. Then we fill in the ice molds and freeze the blanks. With this approach, the filler for cocktails is transparent due to the removal of air bubbles.

• Freezing slow type. You can force out the bubbles that give the product turbidity if you freeze the product not quickly, but very slowly. The final version will not only be transparent, but also very smooth. True, the time for making ice in this case is at least a day. To carry out the manipulation in the freezer, you need to set the temperature no higher and no lower than -1ºС.

• Freezing in salt water. This method also allows you to make transparent and beautiful ice without cracks. Ideally, you should use sea ​​salt, but in the absence of such, you can make a mixture with your own hands. To do this, do not completely fill a deep bowl with water, add a small table salt and stir well (unfortunately, the concentration of the composition will have to be established empirically). We put the container in the freezer, the temperature in it should not be lower than -2ºС. As soon as the liquid cools down, we lower the filled ice molds into it and put it back in the freezer until cubes form. If the liquid in the bowl begins to freeze, this indicates an insufficient amount of salt, the solution will have to be redone.

Tip: In general, no matter what approach to making ice is used, water should be taken drinking or filtered. Otherwise bad smell will only go away for a while. As soon as the product enters the drink and begins to melt, the specific aroma returns, which noticeably spoils the taste of cocktails.

Experienced housewives prefer to make ice at home according to the latest instructions. It turns out transparent, even, without cracks, does not crack when adding cocktails and other drinks. Salt solution is enough to prepare only once. It can be poured into a convenient container and kept in the freezer permanently.

How to make ice without special ice molds?

The lack of molds is not a problem if there is imagination. You can make them with your own hands or even adapt improvised means. The variant of the approach and the features of its implementation depend on the type of drink consumed and what is at hand:

1. If you plan to serve not cocktails, but simply pour one-component drinks, you should take care of the dishes in advance. To do this, we take the selected glasses (preferably from thick glass, it will not crack from exposure to cold air), pour boiled drinking water about 1 cm, wipe thoroughly so that no moisture remains on the surface. Next, carefully place the containers in the freezer (the temperature is -1ºС), trying not to spill anything on the walls. The finished ice will turn out not only beautiful and will perform the specified functions, but will also give the spilled drinks an original look.
2. It is very easy to make ice with your own hands using plastic or metal lids. The first ones are better to trim them inside in advance so that the thread does not interfere with removing the product. The main secret The process is to ensure that the liquid is poured to the maximum, and reaches the very edge. In this case, it will expand, protrude above the surface and it will be easier to get the pieces. It only takes a few minutes to wait room temperature so that they melt.
3. One of the easiest options for making ice is to use plastic cups. We pour pre-prepared water to the bottom, we determine the thickness ourselves, but remember that the mass will expand further. Freeze the product and carefully remove. It is not necessary to dwell on round "cubes", if you insert home-made plastic dividers inside the cup, the shape can be adjusted.
4. It is worth looking around in the kitchen and in the rooms, in most cases something can be adapted for making ice. These are the details of the children's designer, and the tabs from under the sweets, and Silicone forms for baking. Only improvised means must be thoroughly disinfected before use.

If there is little time, and it’s impossible to cook something worthwhile with your own hands, you need to limit yourself to the most simple option. We take plastic bags, cut them into pieces, fill the blanks with a small amount of water and tie them in a knot. We will get small neat balls that will look very original in a glass.

Recently I came across a site with photos original forms for ice. I really wanted to make one for myself. These forms can be made independently from silicone sealant.

And so we need: some kind of container for the form (I took a box from under the Japanese grub), silicone sealant, gasoline, soap and actually models of future ice cubes.

We install the models in the tank. We fasten to the bottom with a little lubrication with the same sealant.

Doing soap solution. You can use liquid soap diluted in water in a ratio of 1:1.

Lubricate our mold and models with soap. This is necessary so that the finished form can be easily separated. Do not forget that silicone sealant is also an adhesive. Let the soap dry.

Next, we prepare the composition for applying the first layer. To do this, dilute the sealant with gasoline to a jelly-like state. Silicone sealant smells like vinegar, and it can be tempting to dilute it with essence. Under no circumstances should this be done. By the way, the sealant diluted in gasoline is a wonderful thing. They can soak the fabric and make it waterproof. In our case, this first layer is needed in order to copy the smallest details. I even copied the inscription Lego on each bump. If you immediately pile the sealant from the tube, then bubbles and voids can form in the mold.

After the first layer dries, fill the form with undiluted sealant. Each layer should not be thicker than 3-4 mm. Otherwise, the silicone inside will not harden.

Remove, rinse, fill with water and freeze.

Ready. It is better to take water not immediately from the tap, but from the filter and settled. Then there will be no bubbles in the ice cubes and the ice will be transparent.

Come on, admit it, do you have a home? However, what a strange question I thought up? Surely there is - most of the decent manufacturers of refrigerators and freezers have long been completing their products with this simple device to deal with summer heat. Then I'll ask differently - how do you use ? In addition to the fact that banal ice is prepared in them, they can be used in dozens of different unusual ways! Don't believe? Go ahead, under the cut, I'll tell you everything, everything!

Let's agree right away that we will omit non-culinary options (such as, for example, preparing cosmetic cubes for rubbing the skin), and we will only talk about edible ideas. Even with this limitation, the number possible ways the use of molds for ice is quite big!

1. Freezing Fresh Herbs

Here it is, a miracle way to provide yourself with fresh herbs all year round! Finely chop any fresh herbs, mix with melted butter, ordinary vegetable oil or simply tamp it into ice molds, freeze it, after freezing we take it out, put it in a regular bag and store it in the freezer, using it as needed. Simple to disgrace, but how wise! Now the greens are not only cheaper, but also more fragrant, so it's time to start harvesting them!

2. Bouillon cubes

Yes yes exactly bouillon cubes, which greatly facilitate the life of any hostess, and even more so for a working one! Don't hesitate to cook concentrated broth pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. From now on, cooking soup for you will turn into a matter of 10 minutes!

3. Chocolate cubes

Milk with chocolate hot chocolate, coffee with chocolate - be prudent, leave a small amount of goodies and freeze it in ice cube trays. That hot day will come when you will be grateful to yourself for such foresight!

4. Cubes of wine

Well, does it happen that a small amount of wine remains in the bottle, which you can’t get anywhere? We freeze! And then we crawl as needed - adding to cocktails, stews or desserts, the recipe of which requires the addition of one or two tablespoons of alcohol (do not open a new bottle because of this!).

5. Herbal tea ice cubes

Well, there is no need to tell here for a long time, right? Simply beautiful, simply useful, simply convenient. Refreshes, cools, aromatizes.

6. Freezing proteins

It often happens that in this or that recipe only yolks are required, but what to do with proteins? To freeze! After defrosting, they do not lose their properties, and can still be used to make dough, omelettes or ice cream. Portion forms are convenient in that you can not immediately defrost all 10 remaining proteins, but only the required amount.

7. Portion mini ice cream for kids

Great idea for parties and kids parties! Many children are not allowed to eat ice cream in standard servings, and in this version, you can just treat all the little ones delicious treat in limited format. Figured cells for ice, homemade ice cream, fresh berries, candied fruits, nuts - oh, how beautifully you can decorate such a dessert!

8. Chocolate desserts and other sweets without baking

Elegant, right? It's one thing to make homemade bounty the size of a baking sheet, and quite another to play around a bit and serve them in a miniature version. Cheesecakes, ice cream, mousses, chocolate-covered strawberries, sorbets in ice cube trays - these are small pleasures that you just need to allow yourself from time to time!

9. Sushi

An absolutely incredible idea, but nevertheless - with the help of ice molds you can make perfect sushi sets in shape and size. Simple, fast and exactly the same!

10. Baby purees and other baby food

Any mother knows that teaching a baby to adult food occurs very gradually - fish, vegetables, meat are given first in microscopic doses. In the meantime, it is extremely problematic and unprofitable to boil a microscopic dose of rabbit or trout each time, so there is a way out: prepare a full-fledged, “convenient” portion, freeze the excess and use it as needed. The same applies to those cases when the introduction of the first complementary foods is planned for winter period year, and the season of zucchini and broccoli is now: you can immediately cook vegetable puree and freeze it in small portions.

P.S. By the way, one last question and advice. You know what to freeze ice if there are no molds? No, no, let's not talk about special disposable ice packs, use your imagination! First, the plastic liners that are found in every "decent" candy box are wonderfully suitable - the cells in them are just the right size, they are different in shape and with beautiful corrugated edges. Exactly what is needed! The second option - do not be surprised, but these are children's kits for modeling from plasticine, small beads, figures from sorters. The third is everything else that comes to your mind: disposable cups, small household items, silicone molds for sweets and other nonsense. Create, fantasize and do not give in to the despondency of the heat!

For any holiday, you want to surprise guests and make dishes and drinks not only tasty, but also beautiful. And the simplest and affordable option decorate them - serve original ice. It can be made different in shape, color, size, but most main nuance in such a seemingly simple matter - to take high-quality water and properly prepare it. Then and beautiful presentation dishes, drinks will be provided - you can easily surprise guests or just people close to you, and they will thank you with their enthusiastic words of gratitude. How to do clear ice at home the same as in any bar? Consider the options below.

How to get clear ice?

In fact, everything is simple - ordinary physics:

• If there are no air bubbles in the frozen water, it will be transparent.
• If there are a lot of bubbles in the water, it will turn cloudy when frozen.

Why is this happening? When freezing, the liquid solidifies unevenly, but starting from the edge. Therefore, layer after layer of water accumulates all the air in the center. And when the air has nowhere to get out, and the center begins to freeze, that very muddy middle appears. Therefore, to make ice transparent, air must be removed from it. There are several options for this.

Ice maker - professional option

You can always buy special device for freezing water, which is used in most bars. Today there are many various options ice makers - from simple home models to large professional ones.

The essence of the device is that the water in it freezes in layers, preventing air from getting inside. But this device is quite expensive.
entertainment, and if you do not need in large numbers ice, you can do with improvised means.

home methods

Experienced bartenders know exactly how to make clear ice at home, without using special equipment. To do this, there are several simple methods.

Method one

For this option, you will need to prepare:

• clean water, passed through a filter, or purchased in a store, but without gas;
• a container for boiling, such as a saucepan;
• freezing molds.

Creating ice with this method involves several steps:

1. Purify water from excess salts and weigh or take already cleaned.
2. Pour the liquid into a container and boil.
3. Cool it down at room temperature.
4. Boil water again - so more air will go away.
5. Cool the water, pass it through the filter.
6. Pour water that has cooled to room temperature into molds and freeze.

Important! Ice obtained in this way is more transparent than freezing ordinary water.

There is also a method that does not require boiling water.

Method two

In order to make clear ice at home without boiling, you will need:

• clean water (it is better to filter it several times or buy it);
• large capacity for freezing;
• ice molds.

What to do with all this:

1. About two liters clean water frozen in a large container, after which, the frozen block is taken out (the easiest way is to dip the bowl in warm water and turn on a lint-free towel).
2. Then you can break off the ice from the edges with something sharp, gradually getting to the muddy center, which is not needed. There is also an option when the middle with air is washed out with water.
   Next, the extracted split pieces are again laid out in molds, wait until it melts, and are again sent to freeze until cooked.

Method three

If the freezer functions allow, slow freezing can be used. To do this, you need to set the temperature in the chamber to -1, wait until the camera dials it, and put the prepared water in the freezer. In this case, it is better to wrap the forms with cling film.

Important! Such a freeze lasts about a day, but then all the air will have time to completely get out of the water, and the ice will turn out to be even and beautiful.

Method Four

This option involves creating a salty environment. First you need to prepare saline solution from sea or ordinary table salt.

Steps to make clear ice:

1. Water is poured into the container and salt is added - the required concentration of the solution is achieved empirically, since the freezing conditions are different.
2. Salt must be completely dissolved in water.
3. Next, the container is placed in the freezer at a temperature of -1 or -2 degrees, but not lower.
4. After - you should wait about ten minutes, put in saline solution molds filled with water.
5. This freezing will occur for about 12 hours.

Important! This method is considered the most efficient. It also has the advantage that salt water you can keep in the freezer permanently, and freeze the ice as needed.

These methods will help you make crystal clear and beautiful ice for drinks, without bubbles. And it will definitely be no worse than in the most cool bars. If you don’t have an ice mold at hand, don’t worry, you can also make it yourself, at home.

Making an ice mold

There are a lot of ways to make ice without a mold, it all depends on your
fantasy. Here are some interesting options:

1. If it is assumed that the drink will be consumed without mixing it in mixes or cocktails, then there is an option to immediately freeze the water in the drink serving dish. At the same time, please note that the dishes must be resistant to temperature changes and compression from the cold. Also, its walls must be absolutely dry. For such a freezing, it is necessary to pour an amount of pure water onto the bottom of the dish, and put it in the freezer for a day at a temperature not higher than minus two degrees. Serving drinks in transparent containers, in addition to the necessary cooling, is also very unusual.
2. To get frozen water in the form of rounds, you can take plastic glasses of various sizes. Water must be poured only on the bottom, 0.5-1 cm high, and frozen. If you lay the bottom with plastic in half or 4 parts, you can get ice in the form of halves or quarters of a circle, respectively.
3. Plastic bottle caps or metal lids- Also interesting option capable of replacing molds for round ice. True, you may have difficulty obtaining it from the covers.
4. If the same ice is not needed, you can use the substrate from assorted sweets. Choose those substrates that will not wrinkle or leak. As a result, you will get interesting shapes sweets.
5. There is also an option to use as a form of a children's designer or sand molds. Be sure to thoroughly rinse, degrease and sanitize any of the molds before use.
6. Ordinary plastic bag easy to turn into a freezer mold. Just pour some water into it, tie a knot, pour more water, tie another knot, and so on until the bag is finished. Of course, the form of freezing in this way will not be even, but if you follow the rules for preparation, then transparency and the absence of bubbles are guaranteed.

You can use any of the options you like or come up with your own to make clear ice and shapes for it.

To make clear and clean ice, you need quite a bit, but do not forget about additional recommendations:

1. Water absorbs odors well, so when cooking, make sure that there are no strong-smelling foods nearby.
2. You can also use a thermo bag for freezing. Just put the mold in the bag, and put it in the freezer at a temperature of about minus 8 degrees. The water will freeze in the opposite way - from top to bottom, which means that the air will come out of it in a different way. Such ice may be a little cloudy on top, but not in the middle. This means that if you leave ice in a bowl for a short time at room temperature, cloudy water will melt.
3. When using boiling, it is better to take stainless steel dishes. Aluminum containers are not suitable for this method.
4. Don't pour hot water in plastic molds, and do not put cold water in the freezer. Otherwise, the mold may melt and the refrigerator may leak.
5. If you want to surprise your guests, do fruit ice: Blend fruits with a blender and add juice, sugar or syrup to them. After - pour the mass into molds and freeze.
6. When serving ice without drinks the best option will use a special bucket - cooler.
7. It is more convenient to take ice with tongs, so it will not melt ahead of time.

It's time to think about how to save yourself from the heat: summer is inexorably approaching! Cold drinks and neat ice cubes provide real bliss on days when everything around is melting under the sun. But, believe me, you can freeze not only water! Surely this post will be a discovery for you - in order to think of such a use of ice molds, you need to try your best. Hang these wonderful ideas on the honor board of your memory and use them with pleasure!

1. Freeze coffee and add it to milk. delicious milkshake ready in a couple of minutes! For lovers of sweets, one more idea: you can freeze condensed milk!

2. Freeze leftover wine. At any time you can prepare marinara sauce, red wine sauce and other delights, which include wine.

3. Frozen yogurt is a great hot weather treat. Good idea save yogurt with a short shelf life for future use.

4. Apricot or peach puree is easy to freeze. It will brighten up any dessert!

5. Pieces of watermelon straight from the freezer! Mmm …

6. Frozen flowers? How did I not think of this before ... It looks stunning.

7. It's hard to imagine something more seductive: chocolate-covered frozen strawberries.

8. Frozen sweet syrup grenadine goes well with champagne and sweet alcoholic cocktails.

9. Orange and grapefruit juice seem to be made to freeze. In the heat it is so nice to drink water with citrus aroma!

10. Edible gum arabic glitter is a great decoration for different dishes and cocktails. And if you freeze them...

12. Frozen aloe juice will be a cosmetic salvation in the heat: it tones and cools the skin by 100%!

13. Freeze smoothies out different berries and fruits. An ambulance when it's hot and hungry!

14. Flowers that can be eaten are frozen flowers.

15. Freeze chocolate and add it to cocktails too.

16. Mojito is always on hand: freeze lime or lemon juice and mint.

17. Colorful ice cream cubes are a chic addition to a regular milkshake.