Why should ice cubes be rinsed?
As ice cubes rest in their container in your freezer compartment, they pick up freezer odor, which can debase an iced drink. Every refrigerator has freezer odor. Fortunately, unless your ice cubes are over a couple of weeks old, most of the damage is only surface-deep because few of the foul-smelling molecules have had enough time to penetrate the ice. A quick rinse of the cubes under cold running water just before you use them dispatches the malodorous molecules down your drain rather than your gullet.
Try this ice cube experiment
Remove from your freezer enough ice cubes to fill two standard-sized drinking glasses (name them A and B). Be sure these cubes have been sitting exposed in your freezer for a week or two to pick up surface freezer odor. Rinse one half of the ice cubes under cold tap water to remove the surface odor and taste. Put the rinsed cubes in glass A, the unrinsed ones in glass B. Let the glasses sit at room temperature until all the ice melts. Cross-taste A and B. Which glass of water has a cleaner, more appealing scent and flavor?
** Asian Recipes **
