Entertaining: Ice Cubes

We had a nasty surprise when we tried to serve Pastis to our guests and realized that the ice we had in the freezer was about 6 months old...and really stale. Somehow it had taken on all kinds of weird smells from...frozen food?

It was then that we realized how important it is to have fresh ice when entertaining. So if people are coming over this weekend, now is the time to assess your ice situation.

If you can't remember when you made it, or if your freezer makes it automatically and you don't normally use it all, then your best bet is to dump it all (it can be fed to your plants a little at a time so it doesn't freeze them) and start fresh. To try something fancier, try coordinating your ice with your drinks. If you're serving Mojitos, freeze a leaf of mint in each ice cube. To spruce up regular water try freezing cranberries or slices of lime in each cube.

For more drink recipes, try Blueprint's berry cocktail, Domino's House Cocktails and Real Simple's drink archive for ideas.

Comments (8)

luckily my boyfriend is enough of a lush that I'm always having to make fresh ice...

posted by Qdrophnia on December 18th 2007 at 10:49am
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Slightly related note:
I make lemon juice ice cubes to put in my tea (hot or cold). It smells great in my freezer.

posted by curleesue on December 18th 2007 at 12:15pm
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Fresh mint in an ice cube? I'd never freeze anything green in an ice cube - it absolutely destroys greens and the resulting slimy mess will be major league unattractive. That and freezing might mess with the oils and turn them bitter.

As for that skunky flavor ice cubes get in the freezer, I use the old rinse trick. Just rinse your cubes a few moments under the tap with some warm water. It will melt away the outer layer of the ice cube, leaving you with the flavor-free interior.

posted by Dave on December 18th 2007 at 7:48pm
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Would someone PLEASE tell me the trick to making clear ice cubes? When you're freezing stuff (leaves, berries, whatever) into them, the clarity adds a lot to their appearance, but I haven't a clue about how to accomplish this!

posted by Aulaire on December 19th 2007 at 3:38am
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Nice idea! I'll definitely be putting lime in my ice cubes.

posted by thejha on December 19th 2007 at 1:04pm
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Aulaire, I think I read somewhere it is because of the impurities in the water that causes it to turn white. Try using pure, filtered, or distilled water.

posted by tobefirst on December 20th 2007 at 11:19am
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Thanks, tobefirst. I will try this with distilled water, and if it works, I will send you roses.

posted by Aulaire on December 28th 2007 at 5:24am
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Aulaire, look at this instructable:
http://www.instructables.com/id/make-crystal-clear-ice!/

posted by shastaw2006 on January 6th 2008 at 2:30pm
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