How to Keep Ice Flavor and Freshness
The first truly warm spring day of the year should be spent basking in the nearest sunny spot with an icy drink in hand. But if the ice coming out of the freezer tastes bad, it can really spoil the mood.
You may be surprised to learn that smelly ice cubes have little to do with your freezer – and they all have to do with the type of refrigerator you have. Some modern refrigerators use a dual evaporator cooling system, which means that the freezer and refrigerator have their own independently controlled air coolers. But if your refrigerator is older and / or inexpensive, chances are good that it uses a single evaporator cooling system. In these models, the cooled air inside the refrigerator and freezer is drawn from one location and flows between the two compartments as needed to adjust the temperature. Where there is a stream of air, there is a possibility of odor contamination: whether it is an ice cube tray or an automatic ice maker, your garlic-scented ice cubes have probably caught that odor from something in your refrigerator .
While a single evaporator refrigerator makes it difficult to contain food odors, the good news is that persistent odors are rare. If you can remove the source of the bad odor and prevent new ones from emerging, you will quickly return to delicious iced drinks. Here’s how to do it.
Clean the refrigerator and freezer thoroughly.
No one likes to clean the refrigerator, but if you want your ice to be as good as it gets again, you just need to do it. Starting in the fridge compartment, take out all the food and wipe the trash off each surface with powerful deodorant: I like the 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and water , but also diluted bleach or a paste of water and baking soda. Job. Then, toss the old, smelly ice cubes into your sink and wipe down all freezer surfaces, especially the ice bucket or ice cube trays. If they’re really smelly, consider soaking them in vinegar overnight – great for odor-absorbing silicone molds – or replacing them.
Do your best to contain odors
If you have a sparkling clean fridge, you must keep it that way, which means fridge odors won’t get into the freezer. The easiest way to do this is to change the way you store foods with strong odors, especially in the refrigerator. If air can escape, so can odors: thick-walled plastic and glass containers with heavy lids are your best bet to keep half of the onion free from unpleasant odors in the fridge and freezer. One sheet of plastic wrap? Not so much. If your storage containers are mostly made of thin plastic, try wrapping them in sturdy aluminum foil – if there are no holes or gaps in it, this will help contain unwanted odors.
Some people also use odor absorbers like baking soda and activated charcoal to keep their refrigerators fresh . While there is some debate about whether this actually works, especially baking soda, it probably won’t hurt. If you’d like, set aside some space in the fridge and freezer for packing baking soda or a small plate of charcoal.
Clean the ice maker itself
For refrigerators without automatic ice makers, good cleaning and possibly new ice cube trays will solve the problem. However, if your refrigerator has an ice maker, it is likely that the inside of the mechanism absorbs odors over time. In this case, you can disassemble it and clean from the inside. Kitchn has a helpful guide for this .
Consider upgrading
Obviously, this is not an option for everyone, and even if it is, it shouldn’t be your first step. But if you’ve cleaned and deodorized your fridge, freezer, and ice maker and the ice still smells like old garlic, it might be time to replace the whole thing, or if the fresh taste of ice is very important to you, using the fridge’s dual-vaporizer can be a worthwhile investment.