We often have big pots of stock, soup or stew that we want to cool. We started by using a small fan aimed at the pot, and it really does make a difference in cooling time. We estimated it at a factor of two or better.

1) When the fan died, we started using the smaller of our kitchen sinks. We'd stop the drain, fill it with water, put in the pot and two or three of those freezer packs they use for shipping food overnight. The cooling is up by a factor of four. We can cool a six quart stock pot of boiling hot liquid to lukewarm, i.e. refrigerator ready, in about 15-20 minutes. As expected, cooling is quicker if you slosh the water now and then.

Obviously, we need an underwater fan to make this really work.

2) There is a gadget we first saw in a winestore in Leura, NSW, Australia, but we have since seen elsewhere. It is a wine chiller that works using some kind of refrigerating medium. Basically, you put the wine (or smaller champagne) bottle into a plastic sleeve that sticks down into the refrigerant. The thing revs up and sloshs around, rotating the bottle, at least in some models. In a few minutes, your wine is icy.

I'm not sure if this is available for home use, but their is a simpler concoction on sale at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004SAF6/102-0817185-1028947?v=glance...), the Vacu Vin Guy Buffet Wine Rapid Ice Wine Chiller. This looks like a plastic sleeve containing refrigerant pack filler that can be chilled in the freezer, then slipped around a bottle of wine to cool it rapidly.