24 December 2012

Preparing food with liquid nitrogen


Was your Christmas dinner prepared with the use of liquid nitrogen?  Mine neither, but you can learn about it in a 2010 Salon article:
Liquid nitrogen is headed for the mainstream, and it might not be terribly long before you’ll find a nice dewar of the stuff bubbling away in your own kitchen.  The idea of using liquid nitrogen in food is not actually new; there are reports of ice cream made with it in the 1800s...

It’s not very expensive, as low as $1 a gallon.  Bad: The insulated dewar you’ll need to keep it in can run in the hundreds of dollars, but some suppliers will rent them.  Look up a local welding supply store or an industrial gas supplier to buy it...

It is colder than -346 degrees Farenheit... You really don’t want to touch this stuff; it can burn you as seriously as fryer oil — and so can any bowl or ladle you use while playing with it... Avoid glass bowls, since they can break from the shock... Oh, and this also means that if you’re freezing food with it, you’ll want to let it warm back up to regular-old freezing temperature before eating it!..

There is a small but real risk that if you play with it in a small, unventilated room, it can suffocate you... 
Image at the top:  "milk foam" or "crispy milk" (explanation and recipe at the link).

2 comments:

  1. There was recent case of a woman who drank a cocktail containing a bit of liquid nitrogen included to make a specific display effect. Part of her stomach was frozen, and had to be removed surgically.

    Liquid nitrogen, while fun to played with, requires respect as well -- as does any cryogenic liquid.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19866191

    http://abcnews.go.com/Health/liquid-nitrogen-cocktail-injury-steams-debate-flashy-drinks/story?id=17425885

    http://boingboing.net/2012/10/08/girls-stomach-removed-after.html

    ReplyDelete

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