Looking to make your own ice pack? Low Carb Masters has you covered!
This is definitely NOT low carb and, although it is edible, it’s not intended for ingestion. What we have here is the BEST homemade ice pack recipe ever! Technically it’s a cold pack / gel pack. This cornstarch gel ice pack will stay cold far longer than any other diy ice pack you’ve used! It’s soft, pliable, and best of all it’s both easy and cheap to make! Whether you have a family full of athletes or are simply prone to minor pains and strains, this homemade diy ice pack gel recipe is for you!
I learned about this recipe years ago after a very frustrating trip to the pain relief isle at my local store. I needed three cold packs to care for my dear son, who was a very active student athlete. He had a particularly tough day on the field. I was desperate to find some large cold packs that weren’t going to blow my very tight budget. I bought what I found in the store that day, but then I went on a mission to find something better.
Of course the first place I turned was to the trusted Internet and online shopping, which was also a letdown. DIY projects are in my blood and I love to cook, so of course I quickly found myself evaluating other people’s homemade DIY ice pack solutions.
The salt and cornstarch cornstarch ice pack recipes worked the best. The recipe below is one I’ve tweaked over the years to get the perfect constancy and performance. The result is a DIY cold pack that will freeze to a soft and yet firm gel. It also stays cold for several hours (literally). It’s amazing!
All you need to make these gel packs is: Water, Salt, Cornstarch, bags, a pot, a stove, and a utensil for stirring. I add a couple drops of blue food coloring for that traditional light blue colored gel. Or use your favorite color. 🙂
Enjoy this recipe and be sure to share with all you’re high carb and low carb friends! While you’re here, check out our low carb recipes and join our Facebook tribe!
Cold Pack Gel
Ingredients
- 5 cups water
- 1 cup table salt
- 1.5 cups cornstarch
- 5 drops blue food coloring (optional to give the gel a traditional cold-pack look)
- 2 to 8 Zip-close plastic bags e.g. 2 gallon sized or 8 quart sized
Instructions
- Add water to a medium-large pot and place over high heat.
- Add salt to the water and mix slowly until dissolved.
- Add cornstarch to the water and mix slowly until dissolved.
- Optional: Add food coloring to the water if desired and mix until blended.
- Continue to stir the water mixture constantly and slowly until it begins to thicken.
- Stir more rapidly for about 60-90 seconds while the mixture thickens quickly and begins to “boil”.
- Immediately remove from the heat and continue to stir for another minute. The mixture will resemble thick pudding and become semi-transparent.
- Set the pot on a wire rack and let the mixture cool for 30-45 minutes.
- Open zip-close bag(s) and roll down the top to make a bowl shape with the bag. Using a large plastic serving spoon, carefully lift out the mixture from the pot and tap it into the bag. Continue to transfer the mixture into bag(s).
- Carefully close bags making sure to remove as much air as possible.
- Double bag each prepared bag and then place in the freezer. Bags will be ready to use in 30 to 90 minutes, depending on the size of the bag(s) how much mixture is in each bag.
Notes
- Standard ziplock/zip-close bags work best for this. The slide-lock and easy-open bags are unnecessary and the additional plastic tends to get in the way.
- As a low carb'er, you probably don't have cornstarch in your pantry. That's a good thing, except for this recipe! Here's a link to get some online at Amazon: http://amzn.to/2t0g2wu.
- This recipe makes about 5 cups of cold pack gel. This is just about perfect to fill a 1-gallon ziplock/zip-close bag to about 3/4" thick, which feels about perfect. For the photo, I spooned half of the mixture into a gallon bag and split the rest between two quart sized bags. The photo was taken as I was finishing the second quart-sized bag. I then double bagged all three.
- Remember to prevent frost burn by placing a dish towel, paper towel, or some other fabric-like material between your skin and the cold pack!
- Food coloring is a dye and is difficult if not impossible to remove. If there is a chance your cold pack will be slept on, stepped on, smashed, or otherwise busted open, then do yourself a favor and skip the optional food coloring. On the other hand, you could choose to triple bag your gel and have all sorts of fun experimenting with different colors. Enjoy!
My son is having his wisdom teeth removed tomorrow and I was going to make the rubbing alcohol + h2o gel pacs. Well, rubbing alcohol is sold out everywhere due to Covid. So glad I found this recipe. My batch is cooling now. It looks a little lump with small undisolved white goo. I even used an immersion blender. Hope this works otherwise I will resort to frozen peas!
Elisa, best of luck for a speedy procedure and recovery for your son tomorrow. I’ve been through that exact thing!
I’m confident the mixture will work fine even with a few lumps.
For anyone who doesn’t know: Those lumps are bits of the cornstarch that were bound in a bubble and hardened quickly. That’s exactly what happens sometimes when making gravy with cornstarch. The ways to avoid lumps include: a) not dumping all the cornstarch into the pan at once and stirring as you add it, b) shaking the cornstarch into the pan as if you’re almost sifting it and stirring as you add it, or c) reserving some of the water into a large bowl (i.e. don’t boil all of it) and mixing the cornstarch in that before adding it to the hot salt water. It’s the heat that makes the cornstarch thicken, so if you mix it before it’s heated, lumps can be avoided. Hopefully that makes sense. If any readers have other tips, please share!
These are the perfect consistency, stay pliable & cold for hours! I bought gift bags, sandwich size, w/a ziplock closure. I put the gel in a brand name bag, then into the gift bag.
The only problem I had with mine was trying to keep them. The kids (& adults!) managed to take them home. So after making 50+ last summer I’ll be doing the same this summer. But I’ll make sure I save a couple for myself 😀
These make great gifts for sports families!
on the off chance that you notice this comment 2 years after your post, did this get hard in the freezer?
Great question, GrowerJenn! Thanks for visiting. This Cold Pack does not get hard in the freezer – it stays flexible, as long as your freezer isn’t -5 Fahrenheit or colder. Very salty water doesn’t freeze until -5.6F (-21C). Most of our freezers are set at about 0F (about -18C). If your cold pack got a little stiff or icy feeling – it will still be pliable, add a bit more salt the next time you make it.