Did you know that you can chill a soda in 120 seconds flat, using nothing but salt and ice? You may have seen this on Mythbusters, but here's a recap: basically, just dump a bunch of rock salt and ice water in a bucket and plunk in your Coke (or white wine, or the beer that's been sitting in your car's trunk for a week in the August heat). The salt lowers the freezing point of the water, meaning it gets colder than it normally could. A soda that would take half an hour to chill in the refrigerator is now icy cold in the time it takes you to pop open a bag of pretzels. This salt trick used to be crucial for ice cream making - the outside compartment of old-fashioned ice cream machines was filled with a salt-ice slush, which was colder than 32 degrees, quickly freezing the cream mixture inside. These days ice cream maker bowls are filled with a chemical coolant instead.









