Clear Ice - Make It At Home Yourself

In this article, I’ll be referencing a scientific concept I discussed in my previous post to help explain the technique for making your own perfectly clear ice. If you haven’t had the chance to read that article, I would highly recommend it. However, if you are the TLDR; type, I’ve included below a key concept from the article in reference.

“When we freeze water in our freezer, it freezes from the outside and work its way inwards because cold air touches those area first. As the water freezes, the impurities, air bubbles and dissolved gases will migrate towards the middle of the ice cube because that is where the liquid hasn’t frozen yet. Eventually the remaining liquid in the middle will freeze with the impurities trapped in the center. ”

With that knowledge in mind, we understand that the outer layers of ice will be the clearest. We could simply freeze a large enough block of ice and chisel off the outer layers for use and discard the middle part of the ice block where the impurities will have gathered.

The problem is most of us do not have a freezer large enough to freeze a large block of ice to apply this technique. If you happen to be one of the lucky few, I’ll discuss how you could use it to make clear ice a little further down.

For those of us that have limited space, we have to settle on using a special ice mold. I have 2 different kinds that work amazingly well, but you could use others with a similar approach that I’m sure will yield similar results.

Method A - Molds that work and why

As mentioned: I have 2 different brands I’ve used.

The 1st is the: OnTheRocks Crystal Clear Ice Cube Maker

The 2nd is the: True Cubes Clear Ice Cube Maker

Scientifically, they both employ the “make a large block of ice and only use the top layer method”, but in a smaller scale so that it may fit in most freezers.

What these molds and other molds you should be buying have in common are:

1. An insulated water basin that sits beneath

2. An exposed ice mold.

Why does this work? If you remember my explanation, water will freeze in layers from the outside or part that’s coldest first. Since the ice mold is exposed to the freezer air, that is the first layer that will begin to freeze. As the water freezes, the impurities will start to migrate its way downward towards the insulated basin through small holes in the ice mold. Eventually the entire ice mold will be frozen and contain only completely clear ice while the insulated water basin is only partially frozen. After 24 hours, you will be able to extract the clear ice cubes from the mold and discard the partially frozen chunk of ice from the water basin containing all of the impurities. Welcome to the good life.

Method B - DIY Large freezer

Similar to the mold & insulated basin approach, if you have access to a large freezer that could hold a drink cooler similar to the one below, you’ll be able to make more of your own clear ice at a lower cost. The other bonus with this method, is that we are not restricted to the shape of the mold. We’ll be able to make clear cubes of any size we choose as well as clear ice spears for Collins glasses.

Tools you’ll need:

• Large cutting board

• Clean kitchen towel

• Long serrated knife

• wooden or rubber mallet

The first step is to remove the retractable lid off of the cooler. We’ll only need to use the base of the cooler.

Next, fill the cooler with approximately 6 inches high of water. Put the cooler without the lid or covering in the freezer. The freezing process will be identical to the mold and insulated basin above.

After 24 hrs, take the cooler from the freezer and turn it over on a kitchen towel, clean cutting board or another flat clean surface.

The ice block will eventually slide out of the cooler.

Using a serrated knife, remove the excess ice until you have a large flat sheet of ice. Next in a sawing motion, score the ice where you want the cuts to be made. Place the knife back over the scored section and tap down on the top of the blade with the mallet and the ice should separate. Repeat this process to cut the ice into the desired size and store the clear cubes in a plastic bag in the freezer. For a visual reference, watch this video of someone doing exactly this process. Cheers!