SC - Freezing stuff with ice

[Philip & Susan Troy]

> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Sun, 04 Jan 98 03:51:56 PST
> From: "kappler" <kappler at edgenet.net>
> Subject: Re: SC - Ice Cream and Martha Washington
> 
> > Adamantius writes:
> > 
> > >Again, freezing food with ice requires an endothermic reaction,
> > >the technology for which was, I believe, unknown in period.
> > 
> ummmm...beg to differ milord, but you have spent an awful lot of your tax
> dollars to teach me this stuff, so here I goes:
> IIRC endothermic means a chemical reaction accompanied by the absorption of
> heat.  This reaction in our application requires an endothermic reaction
> only to have it happen quickly.  Heat transfer is a function of
> differential temperature and flow.  Using salt to melt ice changes the flow
> variable, sort of, and thus speeds up the process, but given a large enough
> quantity of ice it will happen anyway.  It's just that the closer the temp
> of what you're freezing get's to 32F, the slower the temperature change
> becomes.  So, in theory, it coulda been done.  Just would've taken longer
> than we can do it today.
> 
> Respectfully, Puck

Agreed. Certainly if you pour water on a really big block of ice, and it
isn't ninety degrees out, it will freeze, or come really close to it. My
point was only that the average temperature of the combined mass of ice
and whatever we're trying to freeze has to be below freezing. It also
helps to have the surrounding air temperature (in a way effectively
adding to the aggregate cold mass) be at or below freezing. 

I suppose it depends on the temperature of the ice you are using, but if
your ice itself is at O degrees C., it's difficult to use it to reduce
the temperature of another mass to, or below, freezing. If you have a
whole lot of ice, you could get something pretty cold, pretty quickly,
but that's not the same as causing the item to freeze solid.

Early "cream ices" and various other early frozen dishes appear often to
have been in that little window in which water begins to expand, but not
completely solidify. Unfortunately modern ice creams more or less
require being fully frozen.

My thanks for the reminder, though.

Adamantius
troy at asan.com
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