Re: Refrigeration times

water is a better conductor than air?????? liquid transfers heat 8 - 10 times more slowly than air. if you go into a swimming pool in on a 100 degree day, the water is still cool.

if you put your finger over a flame with nothing but air in between, versus putting it in a pan of water sitting on that flame, i think you'll note the difference in conduction.

then again, why would anyone other than gordon liddy want to?

Michael Pronay states in part: "Thus said, for a standard (750ml) bottle and the surrounding media being air (= fridge), this fixed time span is

40 to 45 minutes. If the surrounding media is water (= ice bucket), this fixed time span shortens to 12 to 15 minutes, water being a much better heat conductor than air."

Although seldom used for chilling wine anymore, a mixture of ice and salt greatly lowers the temperature of a cooling mixture. At one time frozen Champagne was very popular. In the first edition of The Epicurean written by Charles Ranhofer in 1893, detailed instructions for freezing Champagne are given. It can be done in a large pail, but a special Champange freezer is illustrated. It resembles a hand-cranked ice cream freezer, except it grips and turns a bottle of Champagne.

"Make a mixture of three pounds of finely pounded ice with a pound and a half of rock salt, not too coarse: fill the pail to the top, mix well together and turn the botte by the neck to give it a backward and forward movement from right to left. If the Champagne be taken from the ice box where it has been lying for several hours, then it will take only tweve to fourteen minutes to freeze, but if it has not been previously on ice, then it will require fifteen to eighteen minutes for the operation. Champagne can be froozen without turning it around by leaving it in the salted ice for half an hour before serving. Machines are sometimes used which simplify the work greatly; the same time is required, only the labor is less fatiguing. When finished serve in a metal silver-plated pail with salted ice around. These are to be placed either on the table or on a small side table."

Charles Ranhofer, the retired chef of Delmonico's in New York City, is speaking from long experience. Delmonico's likely served many bottles of frozen Champagne every day in the late 1800s.

Reply to snipped-for-privacy@cwdjr.net .

yes because of conduction, in air this is mostly radiation...

Actually, mostly convection in air.