You know how fancy restaurants put beautifully clear ice cubes in their cocktails? Joe teaches you exactly how you can make crystal clear ice cubes at home for restaurant quality cocktails.
Buy our new book, How to Cocktail:
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
38 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Boiling does nothing. Find a round plastic bottle like Smart Water that fits into a Yeti cup. Fill 3+" above the lip. As it freezes it pushes all the bubbles to the bottom. Cut off the bottom done. Easy.
Of four videos I've watched about making clear ice, this one is the best one because I think boiling my purified water in a tea kettle is so easy. I like the way that you melt off the cloudy end of the ice. Thank you.
Just use distilled water…..problem solved.
“what do you do? you BURN IT OFF”🤣
Fuku
EFFIN GENIUS
Smart. Quite smart
Would a ceramic baking dish work as well as a glass one?
This does not work at all. I have the exact same casserole dish and silicon ice cube trays. I tried boiled water. Cold water. Room temp water. Water that sat out to off gas before placing it in the freezer. Back of the freezer. Front of the freezer. Also they take a lot longer to freeze. Cloudy. Partially clear. Crystals suspended in the cubes. Air bubbles. Partially frozen. Not replicable. I call shenanigans.
How about a review on portable ice machines ????
Mud puddles freeze with clear ice on top!!!!
The cloudy ice comes from density changes as water cools to freezing. Go back to high school chemistry!!!!!
You don't need any sort of special equipment to make clear ice. All you need is water, a freezer and a fairly large tupperware container.
The key to making clear ice without special equipment or water is extremely precise timing. You want to fill the tupperware with water and put it in the freezer long enough for the outer layers of ice to freeze and push the impurities to the center, but not long enough for the dirty water in the center to freeze. It's the same principal at work in the cooler but instead of the contamination being isolated to the bottom, the isolation is isolated to the center. Then you simply remove the tupperware from the freezer. Wait five minutes and the ice should self release from the container. Cut it in half to allow the dirty water in the center to drain out and you should be left with two halves you can cut down to more manageable sizes.
In summary. Using the tupperware you're going to make one gigantic ice cube but remove it before the impure center has a chance to freeze. Drain the impure water core and cut down the frozen clear ice.
A quick comment for those asking "why bother?" There are two things that ruin whiskey: 1) air, 2) too much water. Milky ice melts much more quickly, and as it does, it releases those trapped gases straight into the spirit, actually making it stale. For that reason alone, clear ice is worthwhile. But the presenter does not address the fact that whatever impurities are there will still be trapped in the tray, and therefore in the ice.
Thanks.
What a huge, huge waste of time.
I agree with those who said this was a poor video. Especially with the staging of the “special chair and lamp”. ATK doesn’t usually seem so pretentious. Or lacking in science.
"Why would you do that?" – Because it's fun and looks cool
"You shouldn't drink whiskey like that" – There are few things more pathetic than caring how other people enjoy things
"I just wasted x minutes watching this" – You're on YouTube, isn't that what you came here to do?
Seriously, children, grow the fudge up.
Out of context, the job title “Senior Editor, Books” seems like a fake job title!🤣
This is the real reason why the Scots want indepence. I can literally imagine them with curled-up toe nails watching an English guy deliberately put ice into an otherwise perfectly fine beverage. Smh.
You can't actually get fluoride out of water unless you use a reverse osmosis water filtration system.
Good science——— but sad considering the “reason” you needed the clear ice.
I’d rather watch paint dry.
Cloudy ice is easier and quicker!
I'll give you the same tip you use if you own aquariums and need to add water. Take a gallon of water (or the quantity you like) and let it sit for 24 hours. The gasses and chlorine leach out. It is now safe to add to the aquarium or make ice cubes and they will be clear and taste better.
I'd never be so OCD. After 2 bourbons, dilligaf?
Ice sculptures, which are clear, are made by pouring boiling water into a mold and freezing it right away. Same for cubes. Freeze them HOT.
Nice
I like a Bloody Mary l can read through……
Wrong
My grandmother's ice cubes had vertical lines in them as if she was using carbonated water (she wasn't) and the bubbles froze as they rose. The cubes weren't hazy, that I recall. Any ideas how to replicate this?
The ice tray is made of silicone, pronounced "SILLY CONE". The thing you said is silicon, which is what sand is made of.
You're not supposed to drink whisky with ice. It should be imbibed at room temp.
The center of my ice is always filled with bubbles.
That was a waste of three minutes of my time
I don't understand why you're doing these alcohol videos, ATK. You already have a good formula — stick with that instead of trying to look "cool."
Has zero to do with impurities. The haze in the ice is simply air trapped in the ice bc it froze from the outside first. If it freezes from the inside first, like an icicle (rain water) it will be clear every time. Think about it… Why are Icicles clear? Look up how "clear ice machines" work from companies like Manitowak or Hoshisaki. They figured out ice decades ago and there is ice actually made for all sorts of beverages (I sold ice machines). This video is not even close to reality. Lol.
ATK is scraping the bottom of the barrel!