How To Stop Your Bag Of Ice From Turning Into One Huge Cube

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Keeping a stash of ice cubes in the freezer is essential if you regularly host get-togethers involving plenty of libations. However, these frozen fellas are also useful for making ice baths for shocking green veggies or saving a split custard. The only problem is that once you get your store-bought ice back home and pop it in your freezer, you can often return to it days later to find that the entire bag has frozen into one huge cube. The solution? Instead of leaving the bag in there unmonitored for days, return to it minutes after you freeze it and break up the pieces.

According to ice cube expert Camper English, who kindly gave Tasting Table the lowdown on the biggest mistakes you're making with ice cubes, you should only allow your bag of ice to freeze for 10 minutes before you break up any developing clumps (leave it in there any longer and you might need a mallet to split up the individual cubes). This move will eliminate any chunks that have fused to each other and prevent them from sticking together again as they sit in the freezer.

Ice cubes clump together when they've begun to melt (en route home from the grocery store) and are quickly refrozen. What happens is that the layer of water around the cubes freezes up again, connecting any of the other nearby melted pieces. If you cut this process off before the cubes have set hard, you can separate them more easily.

While some believe it's best to stay away from store-bought bagged ice due to the risk of bacterial contamination, large pre-frozen packets have their perks. Firstly, they save you the job of prepping your own ice, which makes them useful for last-minute parties where you'll be assembling drinks for several guests at the same time. Secondly, store-bought ice cubes tend to be chunkier and clearer, which means they melt more slowly than the smaller cubes made in traditional ice trays. This keeps cocktails and spirits chilled for longer and decelerates the rate of dilution.

However, if you prefer making ice with your own water, simply place the cubes into a bag once frozen and repeat the process until you have enough on hand. This allows you to be more creative with your ice cubes too, as you can use unusual or pretty-shaped molds, such as this two-pack of heart-shaped ice cube trays with lids. Ideally, use a paper bag to stop ice cubes from sticking together because this material, as opposed to plastic, will absorb any extra moisture in the freezer that can cause them to clump.