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(Doug) wrote in message:
> The ice/brine mixture is the same sort of thing used for making
> ice-cream at home. You want the ice as cold as you can get it, and a
> whole bunch of rock salt. I don't think it hurts to have too much
> salt - it just doesn't dissolve. I've also seen comments lately that

Actually, it *does* hurt to have too much. The freezing temperature of
the brine will decrease until it reaches a certain salt concentration,
afterwhich the freezing temperature of the brine solution will
*increase* again. This is why I recommended staying with the *range*
of 15-25% NaCl solution in my previous post.

> calcium chloride works better than regular salt, as the freezing point
> of the CaCl solution is lower than that for brine. Where I live

Very true. I believe they commonly use CaCl in Champagne for this
exact reason. Using an ~30% w/w CaCl solution you can get the freezing
temperature of the solution down to -60 F / -50 C.

Ben