When visiting a restaurant or bar, you probably noticed that the ice in drinks is absolutely transparent. But at home, for some reason, it turns out to be cloudy and crystallized. If you make ice from water with impurities and gases, then it will be opaque. But do not write off to get upset and run to the store for ice. The site "KnowKak.ru" will tell you how to make transparent cubes at home.

Advice. Use only purified water to freeze ice. Minerals and air molecules must be removed from it. Distilled liquid works well. But you can take water purified with a filter or bottled. Carbonated water is not suitable for cooking clear ice.

Method number 1 "Boiling"

Prepared water must be boiled 2 times. After boiling, the water molecules are close to each other, displacing the air. When the water boils for the first time, turn off the stove and let the liquid cool completely. Then boil it again. After that, pour boiling water into a separate container, cover it with paper or a napkin. This will prevent dust and debris from entering the water.

Pour completely cooled water into clean and dry. Top them off cling film so that debris and foreign odors do not get into the water.

Put the form in freezer for 2 hours or until completely frozen.

When formed, remove the form from the refrigerator and leave it for 5 minutes at room temperature. Then carefully remove the ice.

Method number 2 "Effect from top to bottom"

To freeze ice in this way, you will need, in addition to molds, a refrigerator box or a thermal bag. But only the container should be the size of the freezer. It insulates the ice from low temperatures, allowing it to freeze from top to bottom.

Place freezer trays on the bottom of the container. You can even use disposable cups. Fill the molds with purified water (do not boil it).

Then plain water pour to the bottom of the container, but to the border of the ice molds. Water around will not allow the liquid inside the molds to start to freeze from the bottom and sides. Thus, it will form evenly.

Do not close the container, but only cover it with a towel. Put it in the freezer for a day.

After the specified time, remove the container, then remove the ice block. Lay it on a towel. After a couple of minutes, separate the molds and remove from them clear ice.

Method number 3 "Salt bath"

This option for making ice involves freezing it from the bottom up. So the gas will come out of the liquid before it freezes. But for this it is important to put the molds in cold water. Pour water into a separate container (where an ice mold will fit) and pour a lot of salt.

Salt water freezes at a lower temperature than normal water. Therefore, it will remain liquid, while the water cubes will acquire the state of ice. To cool the brine well, place the container with it in the freezer for 3 hours.

Put the mold in chilled water, pour into it cooled to room temperature boiled water.

Place the structure in the freezer until the ice cubes freeze.

In the future, you can reduce the time for the ice to harden if you keep salt water in the freezer all the time.

like this simple ways you can make clear ice for cocktails at home. Experiment and enjoy chilled drinks!

With the onset of winter, the suburban area turns into a white desert and is no longer so pleasing to the eye and warms the soul. A transparent sparkling miracle - an ice sculpture - can revive the virgin snow. If complex compositions are only possible for a master, then simple shapes on the shoulder and non-specialist amateur, inspired by a creative idea.

You went out of the house to the street and looked at the figure of a rooster made of ice - a smile and a comfortable New Year's mood appeared on your face.

Step-by-step steps for creating ice figures

In the process of creating an ice sculpture, there are 5 main steps:

Step 1. Procurement of material.

Ice for creating ice figures must be clean, transparent, without any impurities, that is, one that can transmit light. This ice cannot be created at home from tap water, it turns out cloudy and not sparkling. Suitable ice can only be created by nature, it is cut from the frozen surface of lakes or quiet backwaters of rivers and sent to customers.

Take advice. Use the services of professional ice makers. These specialists are able to extract ice blocks of various sizes without breaking them.

Step 2. Preparing the tools.

Most of the tools that are used in the creation of ice sculptures do not require special manufacture, these are chainsaws, electric saws, wood chisels of various shapes. But each master has an individual set, which he created himself to solve the problems that arise during the construction of the sculpture. An example of such tools is a chisel with a semicircular sharpening, for making particularly complex patterns, or (biter) for removing large masses of ice, resembling a metal comb, which are not found in a standard set of tools.

The absence of own-made tools does not mean at all that it is impossible to create ice splendor on your site with an ordinary tool.

Advice. All tools, and especially chisels, must have perfect sharpening, since any burr can spoil what was planned.

Step 3. Creating an ice figure.

Blocks of ice to create a figure are glued together with water. Water acquires this property at temperatures below zero. So the blocks are erected to the desired height, the seams are rubbed with wet snow so that they become less noticeable.

Chips and scratches on the surface of the ice can be ironed out with a warm, but not hot, iron. If the figure is above one and a half meters, then it must have a solid base, and if it is an ice slide, then a frame, wooden or metal, is used. The frame is strength. When using a frame, it is possible to create very tall sculptures and slides, but the charm is lost, since the frame is visible through the transparency of the ice.

What ice figures will decorate the site, your imagination will tell you: Christmas trees of various heights, Santa Claus with the Snow Maiden, an animal - a sign of the coming year, small slides, an ice table and benches.

Advice. At the summer cottage, it is best to create low, one and a half or two meters, figures with a solid base - for safety reasons and so as not to complicate the work of making the frame.

You can make ice figures by inviting friends with a New Year's mood.

Step 4. Decorating ice figures.

Patterns on the surface of ice figures can be very different: ornament, cutting, and spirals - everything that the sculptor's imagination and skill is capable of, but the sculptor. it is you. Patterns can decorate both the entire sculpture and its various parts.

The combination of patterns looks effective different way manufacturing. One of the ways of decorating is (driving ice): its icy contents are cut out of the figure and dry snow is poured. The combination of transparent and white in the play of sunlight is unforgettable.

It is better to create patterns with the largest number faces. The more facets, the more beautiful the sculpture will look. There is no need to paint the sculptures, they cease to live and become only a bright spot that hurts the eye.

Imagine a goldfish in an uncolored form. And the scales of the fish sparkle in the sun with their scales. The decor will be completely different.

Step 5. Highlighting the ice figures.

Ice is a living material, so ice figures live and play in the rays of sunlight. The sparkle changes every moment depending on the angle of view. At night, the sun can be replaced by electric lamps, which are installed either behind the sculpture, or at its base, or in special grooves that are drilled into the sculpture.

Advice. Do not use incandescent lamps for illumination - they will melt the figures very quickly.

Expand your horizons and watch a video about ice figures created by real artists with rich imaginations.

Thus, even a small original ice figurine will give your site a unique New Year's flavor.

And if you wish, you can build a whole ice town that will delight the eye until spring. Happy New Year, dear readers of my blog!

You will need

- purified water
- molds or disposable ice packs
- towel and kitchen mallet (for ice frappe)
- juice, berries and pieces of fruit (for colored ice)

Instruction

In essence, ice is one of the forms of water that it takes under the influence of negative temperatures. Water from an ordinary water supply contains a lot of impurities; when it is frozen, rather cloudy ice is obtained, which is ugly in appearance and unpleasant in taste. Therefore, following one of the main rules, make ice only from clean water. It is not necessary to go for distilled or bottled. You can use the usual, from the centralized supply system, subjecting it to cleaning in several stages.

Pass the water through a filter with aqualene fibers and boil in a scale-free container. The ideal solution would be to let this water settle. The impurities remaining in it will precipitate within a few hours. Carefully pour the water into another bowl. Now you can ice out of it.

For curly pieces, use very comfortable silicone molds for ice. They are sold in a large assortment in hardware stores. Water for making ice in such forms should be at room temperature. An indispensable condition for making ice in open forms it should be frozen in a place separate from the products. Ice is very good at adsorbing odors from the freezer, so place the molds in the designated area in the freezer. If you don't have a dedicated freezer space, use disposable ice packs that don't absorb odors.

If the cocktail recipe involves the use of colored ice, prepare it with the addition of mint leaves or berries. To make the berries and leaves turn out to be pieces of ice, freeze in layers: pour one third of the liquid into the mold, let it freeze, then put the mint leaves, pieces or berries and fill with the remaining liquid. Also prepare multi-colored ice using layer-by-layer freezing.

Some require the use of fine ice chips according to the recipe -. For its preparation in bars, ice is crushed in special crushers. You can cook at home without the use of special equipment. Spread frozen ice cubes on half of a clean cotton towel and cover with the other half. Take a meat mallet and use the blunt side to break the pieces of ice into the towel. After that, pour the ice crumbs into a container, cover with a lid and place it in the freezer. Put the crumbs in the glass just before making the cocktail.

Useful advice

Use only freshly made ice for cocktails.

Sources:

How to make ice. Cocktails and drinks
how to make a cocktail

The oxygen cocktail is a delicious foam of a thousand bubbles. It turns out very simply when filling juice or herbal tea with oxygen. You can choose the flavor that you like best.

You will need

1 cup 200–300 ml;
flavor base - juice, fruit drink;
foaming composition;
source of oxygen - an oxygen cylinder;
air atomizer

Instruction

Oxygen allows you to strengthen and cope with various viruses and infections. This gives the body a surge of strength, improves well-being. Preparing oxygen cocktail using a special one, consisting of an oxygen concentrator and an oxygen mixer. With this equipment Houses time will take a few minutes.

Connect the mixer to the concentrator with a plastic tube.

Beat the prepared solution in a glass for 5-10 seconds, at the same time do not forget to supply oxygen.

Use this cocktail using a wide plastic tube, without stirring, immediately after cooking.

You can use another recipe. Pour into a glass cold juice. Add licorice root. Move the mixture carefully for 20 seconds.

Insert the foam tube into the aerosol dispenser as far as it will go. Remove the cap. Place the aerator in a glass of liquid.

Slightly press the cylinder valve with your thumb. You will see how small bubbles begin to form in the glass.

Save the solution left after work and use it to make a cocktail the next day. Pour the solution into a sterile container and place in the refrigerator. The solution cannot be stored for more than a day, because the oxygen prepared from it cocktail won't have any useful properties.

note

For quick receipt stable foam, the temperature of the foam base should not be higher than 20-22 ° C

Useful advice

For the normal functioning of an adult organism, drink an oxygen cocktail three times a day - one in the morning and two in the evening. Children need only one glass in the morning and in the evening.

Sources:

oxygen cocktails
how to make an oxygen cocktail at home

Tip 3: What is ice for drinks: cooking methods

Birthday, New Year or romantic dinner- the success of any celebration depends entirely on your imagination and ability to create a festive mood. To pleasantly surprise your friends, there are a lot of important little things and surprises, one of which is the addition of a glass of juice or martini with colored ice cubes.

The art of mixing drinks is very popular. Decorations fresh berries, mint leaves or paper umbrellas has become the norm and somewhat pall. You can meet an abundance of European cocktails with bright hats and candied lemon slices along the edge of the glass in almost every club. This is not surprising, because it becomes more and more difficult to breathe a drop of magic into an ordinary drink every time. frozen ice is also not a curiosity, the only difference is that ice cubes can be beautifully served, stuffed fruit filling or liven it up with a variety of colors.

How to make colored ice for drinks, features and tricks of preparation

Before you start experimenting, start small and prepare clear, clean cubes. To do this, just take a mold with square compartments from the refrigerator or purchase it at the store. Silicone forms. Some enterprising housewives purchase special bags on clips for freezing. Fill the cells with cooled, boiled water and carefully place the mold in the freezer. If the water is not boiled, you will get cloudy, cracked squares. If everything is done correctly, after 3-4 hours, perfect transparent cubes ice will be ready for use. Forms can be varied - in the form of hearts, flowers, fruits, women's accessories or cat faces. In bars, cubes are often replaced with frosty crumbs - for this, white ice is crushed to a state of shiny crystals. Once in the mouth, the ice crumb has an invigorating effect.

How can you replace or decorate boiled water:

Green tea, coffee with milk. Don't forget to add sugar for a sweet taste;
Fruit, natural juices;
Food colorings. Before choosing a dye, carefully read the composition on the package;
Berries, pieces of fruit, nuts, mint leaves inside ice cubes.

For a change, colored ropes or threads with beads are dipped into the filled forms. After hardening, it will turn into a festive garland. Colored and transparent ice can be alternated with each other. Important. Do not place molds near products such as lard or fish. The smells of food will be instantly absorbed into the workpiece, and your drinks will have a fish or meat flavor. It is also important to observe expiration dates. Ordinary transparent ice is stored for no more than 6 months, and ice based on juices and berries - no more than 30 days.

For any holiday, you want to surprise guests and make dishes and drinks not only tasty, but also beautiful. And the easiest and most affordable option to decorate them is to serve original ice. It can be made different in shape, color, size, but the most important nuance in such a seemingly simple matter is to take high-quality water and properly prepare it. Then a beautiful serving of a dish or a drink will be ensured - you can easily surprise guests or just people close to you, and they will thank you with their enthusiastic words of gratitude. How to make 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 a 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 a lot of ice, you can get by with improvised means.

home methods

Experienced bartenders know exactly how to make clear ice at home, without the use of 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:

Purify water from excess salts and weigh or take already cleaned.
Pour the liquid into a container and boil.
Cool it down at room temperature.
Boil water again - so more air will go away.
Cool the water, pass it through the filter.
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:

About two liters of pure water are frozen in a large container, after which the frozen lump is taken out (the easiest way is to dip the bowl in warm water and turn on a lint-free towel).
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:

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.
Salt must be completely dissolved in water.
Next, the container is placed in the freezer at a temperature of -1 or -2 degrees, but not lower.
After - you should wait about ten minutes, put the molds filled with water in the saline solution.
This freezing will occur for about 12 hours.

Important! This method is considered the most efficient. Also, its advantage is that salt water can be kept in the freezer all the time, and ice can be frozen 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 coolest 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:

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 extremes 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.
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.
Plastic bottle caps or metal caps are also interesting option capable of replacing molds for round ice. True, you may have difficulty obtaining it from the covers.
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.
There is also an option to use as a form of a children's designer or sand molds. Be sure to rinse, degrease and sanitize any of the molds well before use.
Usual 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:

Water absorbs odors well, so when cooking, make sure that there are no strong-smelling foods nearby.
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 the ice in a bowl for a short time at room temperature, the cloudy water will melt.
When using boiling, it is better to take stainless steel dishes. Aluminum containers are not suitable for this method.
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.
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.
When serving ice without drinks the best option will use a special bucket - cooler.
It is more convenient to take ice with tongs, so it will not melt ahead of time.

The question "How to make ice at home?" makes many people smile. After all, what could be easier than taking water into molds and putting it in the freezer?! But what to do if you do not have an ice cube mold on hand or is it cracked? Yes, and the ice in restaurants and in the photo for some reason is transparent, but at home it turns out white and cloudy. Of course, the restaurant uses ice makers, but at home you can do without them and cook a small amount of clear ice in the freezer. We will tell you in detail how to do it.

How to make clear ice

Why does ordinary ice have a heterogeneous structure and white crystals in the center? The answer is simple: because of the composition of the water from which we prepare it. Everyone knows that water can be hard and soft, you can dissolve in it different substances. It is salts, gases and other impurities in the process of freezing water that form large white crystals in pieces of ice and change its color.

Only non-carbonated purified water with a minimum hardness can form transparent ice when frozen. If the ice is prepared correctly, it will have neither taste nor smell, and it will melt slowly by about 40-50%. How to cook it:

Take purified water for baby food on the basis that each guest needs 500-600 grams of ready-made ice.
Pour water into an enamel or stainless steel pot, bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes, turn off the gas, cover and let cool.
Repeat boiling again, cool under the lid to room temperature. Thus, you will get rid of the gases dissolved in the water.

Pour the prepared water into molds and cover them with cling film and put in the freezer until completely solidified.

A few important details:

The freezer must be kept clean to avoid bacteria getting into the ice and soaking unpleasant odors. Do not store ice in the fish and meat container.
To avoid the formation of bubbles, pour water in three stages - first to the bottom, then to the middle, and only then to the edge of the mold, allowing each layer to completely dry. Also for this purpose, you can apply the method of slow freezing (temperature -1 Celsius during the day).
You can also freeze hot water (without covering it with a film), taking into account the quality of the mold material and the power of the freezer.
Ice can be stored indefinitely.

How to make ice without molds

You can use any form for making ice except glass - the glass will simply burst when the freezing water expands. You can take out the finished ice from a mold of any size and material, if you slightly heat the mold itself from the outside. If you do not have a special ice mold, you can use:

plastic glasses
plastic or metal lids
silicone molds for miniature cupcakes or sweets
chocolate box insert
small plastic bags
details of a large Lego constructor and other plastic toys

All of these forms must be processed before use. New plastic bags and plastic cups do not need to be washed, but children's toys are best wiped with alcohol.

How to make crushed ice

Desserts are even prepared from crushed ice in Asian countries, pouring it over fruit juices and syrups. For crushing ice, special devices are used. But at home, such a thing only for crushing ice is unlikely to be installed by anyone. Therefore, you can use other methods to make small portions of crushed ice.

Use manual crusher. This will take a lot of time and effort, but there will be little ice.
take advantage food processor or blender: container with S-blade, pulse mode. It will be noisy, but everything will work out under the condition of the normal power of the device and sharp knives.
Most best method: put ice in a thick kitchen towel, wrap it up properly and break it right into the towel ice hammer(or a clean meat mallet). Use it on a more even surface. We do not recommend using a plastic bag - the ice will simply tear it and scatter to the sides.