I made some bone broth soup and froze it in ice-cube trays.
When I melt these huge ice cubes (via microwaving), they melt down to a tiny puddle of bone broth.
What gives?
We (humans) can be pretty bad at estimating volume by eye, especially if you're putting a bunch of cubes in one bowl - they don't pack efficiently (there's a lot of air in there). You might not actually be losing that much volume.
For example, I just dumped out an ice cube tray full of cubes, and they looked like a bit over 2 cups, but once melted (and I checked by weight, I didn't lose any!), they're about one cup:
The ice is a bit (~7%) less dense than water, but the rest of that apparent 2x reduction in volume is just the packing inefficiency. Depending on the size/shape of your cubes and the size of the vessel you're melting in, it could get exaggerated even more.
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That's a nice demonstration for kosher vs table salt too. Same thing just different :) – Jolenealaska♦ Dec 2 '14 at 4:09
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1Note if you freeze clean water, you get solid ice cubes. If you freeze various solutions, you often get snowy sludge on the surface, with a lot of air in it, before the remainder freezes solid and the sludge hardens to rock. – SF. Dec 2 '14 at 11:07
Not sure if this is much of a culinary question, but I'll take a stab at it.
One of two things are happening here... 1. You're overheating it. Some of the liquid has evaporated off. 2. A cube takes up more volume than it's liquid version.
I suspect a bit of both. Try reducing the power, and increasing the time. Or melt it a little bit, stir it around, melt it some more, repeat.... That'll reduce the effect of 1.
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1A simple way to see if (1) is really a problem is to simply let a cube melt in the fridge. – Batman Dec 2 '14 at 4:48
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@Batman I wouldn't trust such an experiment. The fridge has a very dry air and the ice cube will melt very slowly there. You'll get extra evaporation in the fridge even though there is not much heat. Fridges dry stuff out. – rumtscho♦ Dec 2 '14 at 7:13
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Good point. you could just put the cube in a plastic bag o rsomething to avoid this. – Batman Dec 2 '14 at 11:08
