Water is undoubtedly the most abundant resource on the planet Earth. It comprises 70% of our planet’s surface area and makes up 60% of the human body. The vitality of water does not end here. Not only does it quench one’s thirst, something that is its most basic function but also comes in handy as a cooking ingredient.
All its forms- solid, liquid, and gas- have one or the other use. We use ice in our drinks as a cooling agent. We use water in its liquid form to satisfy our thirst. And we use H20 in the air for welding and making glass. In addition, water is an essential component in almost every dish.
When you talk about the health benefits of water, the list is impressively long. Nonetheless, its most important function is as a hydrating agent for human beings. And do you know what’s the best thigh about water? Well, it’s available almost everywhere in its drinking form.
Considering the versatility of its uses, we’ve narrowed down the 10 best applications of ice cold water ranging from its ability to prevent shrimps or vegetables from being overcooked to its assistance in peeling off tomatoes and other fruits.
Contents
10 Ways Ice Water Can Make You a Better Cook
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Shock vegetables
If you’d love to enjoy some veggies that are not only crisp and tender in texture but also vibrant in color, ice water is one way to achieve that. What you need to do is simply boil your vegetables in salt water in the first place. This process is known as blanching. Once done, plunge them in a bowl of ice water. The ice water must be cold. If you see that the ice starts melting, add more of it in the bowl. Doing so simply pauses the cooking process, thereby allowing the vegetables to retain their color as well as texture.
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Make tomatoes and peaches easier to peel
How many times have you tried to pee tomatoes and peaches and got tired of the process? Well, I personally think there must have been several such instances. To help you through this tedious process, you simply need to blanch the potatoes and peaches first. Make an X-shaped cut into the skin of the fruit and place it into boiling water. Then after some time, transfer it to a bowl full of ice cold water and the skin will smoothly slide off your tomatoes or peaches. This happens because once you slip in the fruits in the bowl of cold water, the cooking process stops immediately. This method saves you both effort and time. Once you’ve finished peeling, the outcome of the process will be perfectly peeled, ripe and tasty peaches and tomatoes.
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Cool hot custard faster
This method is the most efficient with metal mixing bowls primarily because they are good conductors of heat. Ice water comes in handy when you want to speed up the process of cooling down a bowl of hot custard. What you need to do is simply position the bowl containing the custard on top of the bowl full of ice water. Then make sure you keep rotating the custard until it has cooled down.
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Make boiled eggs easier to peel
After you boil your eggs, whether hard or soft, you’d want to peel them off; nothing does it better than ice water. Using ice water to peel your eggs does wonders as it firms up the egg positioned beneath the shell. Simply place the eggs in a bowl of ice water and let them stay there until they have cooled down completely. Once they’re ready to be peeled off, you will realise how easily the peel comes off and trust me, you’d never want to poach eggs another way anymore. Remember, the boiled eggs must be placed in cold water for at least 15 minutes before they’re ready to be peeled or stored in the refrigerator.
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Make better shrimp cocktail
Everytime you want to enjoy a shrimp cocktail, you want to enjoy boiled shrimp that aren’t too chewy. For that to be possible, you can use ice cold water while boiling shrimps. All you need to do is slip in the shrimps in ice water once they have been cooked to perfection. The cooking process will halt there and then, and voila, you can enjoy your shrimp cocktail as you like.
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Cool anything faster
There are several such instances wherein you’re in a hurry, but at the same time, you need to cool down and then refrigerate the vegetables, custard, or any other cooked food item you just made. Now the conventional cooling process would take hours and might not also be an ideal option from a health-conscious perspective, given the susceptibility to bacteria. Instead, it is an ideal option for you to use ice water for this purpose. Take a metal bowl and transfer the food in it. Then position it on the bowl containing ice water. Trust me, your cooking process will undoubtedly decrease by leaps and bounds if you follow this trick.
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Refresh fresh herbs and delicate greens
Are your spinach leaves or kale looking slightly sad and wilted? And do you want to revive them to their vibrant colors? If yes, you can use ice water to do that. Simply put your herbs or delicate greens in a bowl of ice water. Make sure you let them sit in for a few minutes. The herbs and greens will revive wonderfully. Just don’t let them sit in the water for too long.
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Get crispier crudités
Do you know why old-school steakhouses tend to serve their crudités on nothing less than a bed of ice? Well, it’s because ice makes the crudités crispier. If you soak sliced radishes or fennel in ice water, they’ll get way more crispy. In fact, you can store those veggies in a bowl of ice water overnight to use them as a salad the next day.
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Prevent Overcooked Shrimp
If your boiled shrimp is pink and easy to bite, that means it has been cooked to perfection. Noone likes boiled shrimp that is overcooked because it gets all chewy real fast. To avoid this, you can definitely use ice water as a viable option. Just put the boiled shrimps in a bowl of ice water once you are done cooking them, and the cooking process will stop there and then. This will allow you to enjoy your shrimps just as you like them.
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Ice Water Helps Keep Stored Foods Safe
Before you store any food item, you must ensure it has cooled down properly. Now the natural cooling down process poses some health risks. This is because bacteria can conveniently attack exposed food items and, therefore, make them unfit for consumption.
Therefore, if you’re in a hurry and need to store the leftovers in the refrigerator once they’ve cooled down, let ice water help you. The combination of ice and metal yields an instant cooling effect. Simply place your food in a metal bowl. Position it over a bowl of ice water until you find that the food is at a stable storage temperature. All you need to do from there is simply refrigerate and then reheat to enjoy your food.
Conclusion
Ice is without a doubt an amazing substance. Not only does it cool your drinks but also comes in as an effective component during the spring and summer cookouts. The use of ice or ice water for that matter can do wonders when you’re cooking.
As discussed already, it can help you revive your wilted herbs and greens. Ice also comes in as a savior when you have to store food items in a refrigerator but need to cool them before you do that. What’s more, its use as an agent to prevent overcooking of veggies or shrimps is extremely helpful.
Not only does ice water come in handy when you’re cooking but also acts as a way of faster rehydration and improved health of the immune system. In addition, research suggests that if you drink approximately 48 ounces of ice water on a regular basis, you can burn at least 50 calories everyday without any effort.
During a heated workout, drinking ice water is beneficial because it ensures you’re hydrated especially when you’re sweating. Ice water also comes in handy as an antioxidant. If you drink at least eight glasses of water on a daily basis, you can take better care of your body.
If you’re someone who gets dehydrated fast, you can consume ice water instead of normal water as it absorbs into the stomach at a faster pace.
The list of the varied uses of ice water doesn’t end here. It goes on and on. At last, it depends on your explorational skills and how willing you are to give ice water a chance to aid your cooking experience.
