inexpensive appliance hunting

There is something to be said for the using a hammer method. That's basically what I do. I cut off about a foot of the leg of an old pair of blue jeans and sewed one end together to make a sturdy canvas bag. I put the ice cubes in it and smash them with a meat pounder. The bag contains the ice, keeping it from going all over the place. The meat pounder has a larger head than a hammer. It works pretty good for making ice for a couple of drinks. The ice can be broken quite fine this way.

I also recently got a cast aluminum "ice cube breaker" from an antique store. It cost me $4. Made by Dandy of NYC. It looks like a pair of pliers, but the jaws are two plates covered with spikes. Place the ice cube between the jaws and squeeze. Works pretty good for making coarsely chopped ice, but you still need something to contain the ice cube pieces from flying around. I use the same bag from the above "hammer" method.

Most blenders will a very good job for larger quantities of ice, plus you can use them for other things. Cooks Illustrated magazine has a test of blenders in their current issue (July/August 2006). They liked the cheapest of the models they tested a lot, a Braun PowerMax at $49.99. This was a test of higher end blenders, with this cheap model thrown in for comparison. It was their second best here among expensive blenders, and apparently the champ in a prior test of cheap blenders done by their sister publication Cook's Country a year ago.

I do have a blender (Hamilton Beach, about 20 years old), but don't use it for ice. Too much trouble for the small amount I make, plus the instruction manual for some reason says don't do it. It says: "Don't put ice cubes in blender without liquid". Kind of defeats the purpose. Some blenders come with different blades for crushing ice, or this ice blade had to be bought separately.

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