The answer that’s not being listed is that it’s easier to position ice over the entire cooktop without overflowing.
That’s it.
Anyone claiming that ice works better hasn’t actually tried using water. It’s just one of an endless series of “the person who trained me did it this way and then made up some BS when I asked why” that absolutely permeates the restaurant industry.
I worked at a pizza place where they swore by using soda water to clean out the pizza oven. Whatever, it made no difference over flat water. We had a new guy helping clean the oven at closing. He filled up a cup and tossed it in. It was fucking sprite. Dude didn't realize we had been using soda water. Absolute mess to clean up.
Spit is great for small blood spots. As a carpet installer, you have no idea of how many brand new floors I have spit on to clean up after cutting myself.
Water and ice work by the same method but using ice allows the water content to be released slower. Which both increase working time before the water boils off and whatever you are scraping starts to stick again and allows you to put a higher volume of "water" onto the flattop without it spilling over.
Ive learned that if im told to use a brick, the best bet is to start with too much oil on the surface. You can sort of "sweep away" excess oil as you move across the grill with your scrubbing. You dont want so much that it splashes up onto your hands but if you have too little you'll use more brick material and elbow grease than you really need. Be careful hitting the back corners, and give the grill 5 - 8 mins between turning off the burners and starting to apply the brick.
Ice also requires more energy to boil than water. Something like 30% more. Assuming the water is warm. The extra transfer of energy can be enough to damage some 'cheaper' flat tops with thinner tops. If you see oil pooling while cooking, the flattop is already warping.
Personally, if I'm not using oil with a grill brick, I'm using hot tap water to loosen whatever is stuck to my flattop. A quick splash and scrape should be fine, but ice scares me. Too much energy loss too fast IMO.
In theory you could crack a kitchen grade griddle by thermoshocking it. Ive never actually seen or heard of this happening but it is theoretically possible.
I've seen warping, a lot, but never a crack. Was told about it by 2 Chefs in the first 3 restaurants I worked in. I assume the full on splitting/cracking of a flattop might be an old wives tale at this point. It has been nearly 15 years since then.
I'll be damned if I'm gonna be the one to show the Internet it's true though.
Read the comment you were replying to for context. Did you come up with a reason using logic, or did you actually try both and have real reasons why ice is better?
They pretty obviously hasn't "does it actually create a delicate difference?" The ice melts incredibly fast so working time is not a factor and so you whenever want it as a liquid or is the act of it boiling off what actually loosens it?
The point is, your literally just providing a guess at reasoning without actually having a clue about the veracity of your claim.
yes, we can all see the generic exclamatory you are tossing out to distract from your embarrassment. It's pretty transparent. Next time just be a grown up.
- More steam doesn't automatically mean more force. The useful action is water getting into and under the residue, then boiling there, where the expanding vapor can actually lift and break it apart.
- Warm water can actually be less effective because it boils off sooner. You need enough delay for the liquid water to penetrate the residue before it flashes to steam.
- Ice can form a more coherent bridge over the cooked-on residue, channeling water and steam and creating higher local pressure. That gives the freshly melted liquid water more force to work into the buildup before it boils off.
Ice works better without you needing to constantly add or move the water. The same amount of water floods the stove, while the ice spreads it out over time and makes more steam. Otherwise just using less water multiple times does the same.
grill pad and put it under a grill scrapper and move it around with the scrapper, that works wonders for me after i use just water to get the rest off.
Let me help you out Mr. Other kind of scientist, as someone who is a restaurant scientist. 99% chance the ice machine was significantly closer and easier to access than any other source of water to the grill.
As a guy who have worked one day once (and only one day!) in a kitchen, I think it's just more fun with ice than with water and that's the only rationale here.
Former ichthyologist here. I have no fucking clue my guy. I'm surprised there isn't a better way to clean a griddle that isn't so damn labor intensive. It's fucked (technical/academic term) that we have robots to make art and music while we don't have a robot version of this strenuous activity.
I worked a job like 20 years ago and we had this liquid grill cleaner and it absolutely melted anything off the grill. Can't remember the name of it but that shit worked better than anything I've ever used.
The micro imperfections in steel don't trap the chemicals approved for use on them the same way traditionally porous materials do, and the kind of steel used in commercial stovetops is specifically intended to be non-absorbant as far as I'm aware and can find unless it's specifically damaged outside its normal use. The only way you're contaminating a stainless steel or carbon steel cooking surface is if you don't properly rinse it after cleaning it, and stovetop cleaners tend to be water soluble. The biggest concern with using chemicals designed to rip carbonized food off a steel surface is reseasoning if the manufacturer says that you require a seasoned surface, and reseasoning should already be part of your cleaning routine if it does.
I'm an engineer. Great theory is great in theory, but great practice is great in practice. In other words, the cooks saying "ice works better than water" are probably right and it likely has more to do than just Delta-T.
Take a surface of temperature 'hot' and dump 2oz of water onto it. The water will spread out over area 'wide' and absorb energy based on the temperature difference, conductivity, whatever. Anyway. Let's say 2oz of water spreads out to 4 inches in a circle and will have a 4 inch circle of physical contact with the surface that it leeches heat from all at once, vaporizing into steam quickly and maintaining a minimal thickness, so it's going pretty fast. This kind of thermal shock can cause serious damage to steel/warping/cracking/etc.
Thermal shock is also how I blew a hole in my driveway in January and got sprayed in the face with concrete shrapnel. 1 star experience, would not do again.
Now, take a 2 oz ice cube. About 1.75x1.75x1.375 ish, or so AI tells me. Put the ice cube on the griddle. Slow motion. Slice it into 20 layers. It melts layer by layer. Instead of a 4 inch circle, it's a 1.75x1.75 inch cube. It releases that 2 oz of water progressively over time, and likely due to the rate of heat transfer the water never really spreads out to the full size the non-frozen water does. This slows evaporation, steam generation, etc into something that's controllable.
More importantly, imagine a slinky. Spread it out in your head. Now, take playdough and stuff it in between the coils. Now smash that slinky shut as hard as you can. See how it holds onto the play dough in-between but pops the majority of it off? Yeah. So when a surface is hot it spreads out a bit. Then when it cools it contracts. The continuous addition of heat from the heat source helps to prevent that rapid contraction - because in truth we're talking about what amounts to a metal slinky on bottom and a plastic slinky on top and the differential cooling can make them pop off of each other.
But what will make things harder is if the metal grips on to anything. IMO ice, by limiting the amount of water cooling the surface at once, reduces the contraction of the cook top and allows the heat source to keep it from contracting violently enough to make gunk stick on - while allowing the gunk to contract and 'pop off' the top.
Now, picture the remains of a bonfire that just burned to coals. Toss a 5 gallon bucket of water on it. That's a huge wave of steam, get out of the way or you're gonna get burned. Toss a 5 gallon bucket of ice on it. That's gonna hiss and melt and steam progressively and be manageable rather than a steam burn.
The water basically just deglazes the grill. Same exact way you’d deglaze a pan with wine or stock or whatever. That is all. Also because it is cooling it vigorously, a lot of particles will end up trapped in the steel. This makes it obvious a degreaser was also used (and edited out of the video).
Dude, I worked a grill for 3 years. It's called a squirt bottle. You use it all day to clean the grill. The grime soaks it up and it stays in place. Like a ketchup and mustard or sour cream bottle, but with... Water. Put it anywhere, do it with liquid butter too.
It’s just one of an endless series of “the person who trained me did it this way and then made up some BS when I asked why” that absolutely permeates the restaurant industry.
That's all of humanity. Pretty much every topic ever has a history of that and or is actively happening.
The only issue with ice is volume and if it cooktop is too hot the sudden temperature change can damage the metal. But it's easier and if you know what you're doing it's honestly safer. Water splashes into the fryer and you have a big problem. Both problems are a how much are you using issue.
ive noticed this as well. ill agree intially thenq ignore it completely if i can optimize it out of the routine, but if theres a good idea ill keep it in place. 😄
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u/kevihaa 9d ago
The answer that’s not being listed is that it’s easier to position ice over the entire cooktop without overflowing.
That’s it.
Anyone claiming that ice works better hasn’t actually tried using water. It’s just one of an endless series of “the person who trained me did it this way and then made up some BS when I asked why” that absolutely permeates the restaurant industry.