Banal, at first glance, the situation: you approach a friend or relative and ask: “I need clear ice. How to make sure that the cubes are not cloudy and cracked, and even without the specific smell of the freezer? The strangest thing is that in 99.9% of cases, in response, you will receive a recommendation to stick the ice mold in the freezer and wait a couple of hours, accompanied by a mocking look. Yes, yes, it will always seem to the interlocutor that you have asked a ridiculous and ridiculous question, the answer to which even a first grader knows. But he will remain in this happy confidence until he himself tries to make transparent ice. It seems that everyone understands and knows how to make ice cubes, but in practice, not everyone succeeds.

There is a problem

Any modern refrigerator in its standard package contains an egg tray and shelves of various sizes and purposes, as well as a miniature mold for freezing water. By the way, resourceful housewives not only use it for its intended purpose, but also freeze fragrant herbs, berry, fruit and vegetable puree, which is then used to prepare a variety of dishes.

Such skill, however, does not mean at all that at least half of the highly experienced girls are aware of how to prepare the elementary component of cocktails and soft drinks - transparent ice. How to make it crystal clear and beautiful, the way it is served in bars, restaurants or shown in television commercials?

The usual one always gives an unexpected and rather unsightly result. The cubes look unaesthetic, they contain inclusions of unknown origin, multiple chips and cracks, in addition, they have an uneven consistency.

Indispensable condition

So what's the deal? Why is it so difficult to get clear ice at home? How to make it clean, like a tear, smooth and shiny? The answer to the question is quite simple: the cubes will then turn out to be ideal when conditions favor it. There are several of them, and now we will talk about them.

Firstly, the raw materials from which you plan to make perfectly transparent ice must also be ideal. What does this mean? It's simple: tap water is not suitable for us. It is quite difficult to determine the composition in the substance that is supplied through pipes by public utilities. Impurities of metals, chemicals and other muck during freezing do not allow water molecules to crystallize as expected, they break the initially clear structure of ice.

Secondly, liquids often contain air, small bubbles prevent the frozen water from becoming transparent and smooth. This leads to the conclusion: the water must be clean and not contain gases. It can become an ideal raw material, but doctors strongly do not recommend using it in the diet.

So, how to make clear ice at home? First of all, you need to prepare the raw materials. For this purpose, industrially purified drinking water is suitable, but not mineral, enriched with salts and minerals, but simple table and non-carbonated. Before pouring the liquid into the ice mold, it must be boiled. During heating, air bubbles will evaporate from it, which greatly increases the level of transparency and purity of ice. You can also use the water that flows from the tap, but it must be cleaned with a household filter, and then also boiled. To achieve the maximum effect, the procedure can be repeated twice, that is, alternately filter the water, boil, clean again, and then bring to a boil again.

Ice "poop"

We figured out the quality of water, but creating the right microclimate for freezing will be an equally important factor. In general, this topic is likely to excite lovers of soft drinks (of different levels of strength). Cloudy cubes in a glass of soda or alcohol are quite suitable for personal needs, but you don’t really want to serve guests with such drinks, so the question of how to make transparent ice cubes is relevant for many people.

It has been empirically observed that the ice then turns out to be cloudy and ugly when it freezes unevenly. To reduce the possibility of temperature fluctuations, it is important to quickly freeze water in a stable microclimate.

Here already the opinions of experts are somewhat different. Some argue that the faster the ice forms, the more beautiful it will be, and for this, water must be placed in the freezer at the lowest possible value on the thermometer. Others, on the contrary, advise setting the thermostat to -1 Cº and letting the water freeze in such conditions, the main thing is not to open the chamber in order to avoid warm air from outside.

Holiday with a bang

Many readers may be interested in the question of how entertainment establishments manage to create a large number of ice cubes. How to make transparent ice so that it is enough for hundreds of visitors and guests? To do this, use special units - ice makers. With their help, you can freeze a lot of water, they support optimal temperature inside the chamber, which allows you to make the ice transparent.

But even when working with such a machine, it is important to observe certain conditions. In addition to the fact that the quality of the water must correspond to the specified parameters (the absence of impurities is mandatory), batches of ice must be made at the same time. That is, adding water to the cells while already prepared cubes remain in the chamber will lead to poor end result. The liquid is best used at room temperature: as practice shows, cooler water freezes unevenly, and the ice turns cloudy.

cold art

The last but no less curious question is how to make ice transparent at home if it is needed for sculpture? The ice statues and figures are a sumptuous sight. Their creators, without exaggeration, can be called great masters of their craft. Some of them create magnificent masterpieces, working on their work all day long in terrible conditions, so that grateful viewers can enjoy the winter fairy tale.

But here's the problem: where to get blocks of ice of such colossal dimensions so that huge sculptures can be carved out of them? Sometimes artificial ice is used for this, but it is very expensive, in addition, blanks are made in standard sizes, which do not always suit the sculptor.

In winter, the most acceptable option would be to use natural ice, which is cut down in blocks right in the reservoirs. This is a rather dangerous trade, because there is always a serious danger of being under the ice, and you have to work in special clothes so as not to get wet.

As you can see, the chances of making a lump yourself - at home, in freezer- extremely few. In winter, of course, you can freeze ice in any container if the air temperature allows it, but with some reservations.

To create ice masterpieces, you must use a solid block uniform consistency. Loose ice will quickly crumble and melt, and this will not make it possible to carve a beautiful sculpture.

Working in a very cold weather is not only difficult, but also dangerous - the ice freezes so hard that during processing, very hard and sharp fragments fly off from it, which can easily hurt you. In addition, it will not work to glue several parts of the product together with water - it will freeze too quickly, and warm liquid can cause the entire composition to explode due to a sharp temperature drop.

You can create ice blocks yourself using special freezers. They are imported and domestic production. The advantage of Russian freezers is the ability to order a camera according to individual sizes.

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 the freezer. To make a transparent and beautiful product that will decorate cocktails, you will have to try hard. 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 has begun to freeze, this indicates an insufficient amount 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, the unpleasant smell will go away only 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:

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 made of thick glass, it will not crack from exposure to cold air), pour boiled drinking water into them by 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.
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.
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.
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.

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 prepared water into molds and cover them cling film and send to 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 form, 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 freeze and hot water(without covering with foil), taking into account the quality of the mold material and the capacity 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: fold the ice into a dense kitchen towel, wrap it up properly and smash it right in the towel ice hammer(or a clean meat mallet). Use it on a more even surface. Use plastic bag we do not recommend it - the ice will simply tear it and scatter to the sides.

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 in large numbers ice, you can do 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. plain 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.
An ordinary plastic bag can easily be turned 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.
Do not pour hot water into 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.

For most of us, drinking alcohol and without alcoholic beverages, especially in hot summer weather, it is simply unthinkable without ice cubes. That is why we rarely think about the process of its manufacture, we just pour water into molds and put it in the freezer.

In fact, making ice is a real art, as any professional bartender can attest. Before you understand what approach is needed to make ice for drinks, you need to understand what it is.

From the school bench we know that ice is one of the states of aggregation of ordinary water. But the formula H 2 O, which we are accustomed to considering as the usual formula for water, is in no way applicable to it. Ice cubes contain a lot of various impurities, which add other chemical elements and components to the ice. Experts recommend not using ordinary untreated water to make ice. Perfect option is to boil water before freezing it.

How to make ice for alcohol? What types of ice for alcoholic beverages are there? And how to effectively make ice at home?

Varieties of ice for alcoholic beverages

To make ice for a drink, you can use the usual forms that are placed in a regular refrigerator, and to make ice in large quantities use a special unit called an ice maker.

Although few people know this, ice can be made in several categories and varieties:

Food. This type ice looks like separate pieces of ice, shaped like small cylinders or cubes. It is most often made using an ice maker from filtered drinking water. This type of ice is used as a cooler for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks or cocktails.
Lump. Prepared in the form of pieces different shape, and is added both for liquid cooling and for beauty in alcoholic cocktails. In this category, ice can also be divided into cup ice, cube ice and nuggets.
Chipped. This kind of ice is commonly used at presentations and exhibitions to keep drinks and foods cool. Such ice is in the form of chipped pieces that are irregularly shaped. This type of ice is also used in bars and restaurants for making cocktails in a shaker. You can also prepare crushed ice at home, by breaking lump ice with a kitchen hammer through a rag so that the fragments do not scatter. Since crushed ice melts much faster than other varieties, it is prepared right before use.

Ice Frappe. This name was given to finely crushed or shaved ice, which is used to make cocktails with the addition of fruits, crunches, Mojitos, and other drinks that are usually drunk through a straw.
Granulated. This type of ice is in the form of small hailstones, approximately 1 cm in diameter. This ice is easy to store, does not freeze and mixes quickly with the product and never damages its soft tissues. Most often, such ice is used to serve wine, champagne and certain types of dishes on an ice bed.
Ice cubes Fancy . Such a sonorous name was given to ice cubes, in which a variety of candied fruits are frozen. Such cubes can also be made from coffee or tea, and if the preparation of a cocktail involves the use of juice, berries or mint leaves, then all this can be frozen in Fancy ice cubes.
Color. Such ice is used not only to cool drinks, but also to create their original design, design or decorate a glass. Juices, lemonades and cocktails are usually served with such ice, although it can be used for any other purposes at the request of the user. To get colored ice, fruit and berry juices are used, which have a different color, and besides, such ice cubes have a pleasant original taste. In order to give the ice more originality, layer-by-layer freezing is sometimes used, then each ice cube has an impressive and beautiful appearance.
Fried. Despite the unusual and controversial name, such ice is quite simple to prepare. To do this, freeze small pieces of fruit in the freezer, then beat egg white and make meringue, the diameter of a tennis ball. A piece of ice is pressed into it, after which it is doused with cognac and set on fire. manages to burn until the ice has melted, and the meringue turns out toasted, while maintaining a cool and refreshing effect, inside with ice.

Today, in order to make any type of ice, you can use it as an ice maker or a wide variety of freezer molds, which are usually made of plastic or food grade silicone.