DIY $1300 Anti-Griddle for Under $15

by mart33n33

76K5816

Intro: DIY $1300 Anti-Griddle for Under $15

An anti-griddle is an expensive kitchen appliance that flash freezes or semi-freezes foods placed on its chilled metal top part. It's part of the molecular gastronomy movement and used to create all sorts of elaborate dishes, often with a frozen outer, soft inner consistency. Please add other cool ways to use an anti-griddle in the comments below!

STEP 1: Acquire Dry Ice

If you pick-up from the manufacturer, it's about 40 cents/lb. You'll want as much surface area of the ice exposed, so opt for the pellets, if available. If not, use a hammer to break the blocks into pieces. I always ensure my windows are rolled all the way down when I drive this stuff home. Keeping your car free of carbon dioxide is crucial to the rest of this instructable (and your life.)

STEP 2: Mix Dry Ice and Alcohol

Add 90-100% isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol, fuel additive, etc.) to dry ice until it forms a sludge. This lowers the freezing temperature of the dry ice below -100 degrees Fahrenheit. That's getting close to liquid nitrogen, so you can use this concoction to burn off warts too. Unlike liquid nitrogen, this stuff will not simply evaporate upon touching skin, it will stick like glue. So be very careful. Mix in an insulated container in a well-ventilated area with proper safety equipment.

STEP 3: Place a Metal Tray on Top of Freezing Sludge

Pour this freezing slurry onto a baking sheet and place another baking sheet on top. In less than ten minutes, this top sheet will start to form a layer of frost.

STEP 4: Proceed to Use As You Would a $1300 Anti-griddle!

I made these frozen thin-mint pancakes by blending almond milk, banana and a couple thin mint Girl Scout cookies. They were delicious. Happy freezing!

STEP 5: Other Cool Uses for Dry Ice and Isopropyl Alcohol Mixture:

Use this freezing sludge as you would liquid nitrogen: remove unsightly skin lesions, rapidly freeze food products, cryopreserve blood or reproductive cells, brand cattle or your buddies, and even promession (yikes.)

13 Comments

Jobar007 9 years ago

Denatured alcohol would be a good substitute to Isopropyl alcohol. It is common and tends to not be diluted (it is "denatured" by methanol, typically).

How fast does it take to freeze things (like your "cookies")? What about thin cuts of meat? How long before you have to "recharge" your griddle?

Sorry for so many questions, but this sparks so many ideas!

jeff.verive 3 years ago

Denaturing by addition of methanol is no longer popular because of its toxicity. Bitter agents and pro-emetic (causing vomiting) are more commonly used to discourage ingestion.

Jobar007 3 years ago

Maybe outside of the USA, but within the Material Safety Data Sheets of every major label denatured alcohol shows a significant amount of methanol in it. Those data sheets have to contain every ingredient (min and max to protect trade formulas). I'd recommend checking the data sheets for your chosen alcohol to see for yourself.

mart33n33 9 years ago

Great questions. It took about 30 seconds to freeze the cookies. I imagine thin cuts of meat would take less than a minute. The frozen slurry lasted about 15 hours - much longer than I expected. Happy grilling!

JDB16 5 years ago

Ther is nothing mentioned about how extremely dangerous dry ice is, if not handled properly. Safety goggles and heavy leather gloves should always be used. Contact with dry ice can very easily kill living tissue.

SiafaA 8 years ago

Is the finished "anti-griddle" safe for indoor use?

mikemania 8 years ago

How do you clean up the leftover dry ice/alcohol mix? Can you just wash what's left into the drain?

mart33n33 8 years ago

Yes, it's safe to wash down the drain. It will also sublimate and evaporate after a day or two if left out. Ensure it's left outside as CO2 and alcohol fumes can be dangerous

dlowe5 8 years ago

instant ice cream!

Somethingtotallyrandom 9 years ago

That was interesting. Thanks for providing it!

Somethingtotallyrandom 9 years ago

PSA: Rubbing Alcohol is typically a 70% alcohol to 30% water solution.

tomatoskins 9 years ago

This is awesome! I'd love to see something made with this!