Kitchen Alchemy
The power to quick-freeze foods with liquid nitrogen opens up exciting new horizons in the kitchen


Shattered Raspberries
250g cleaned raspberries
500ml liquid nitrogen

Pour the liquid nitrogen into an insulated container. Carefully add the raspberries and stir gently for two minutes. Remove the raspberries with a slotted spoon and place on a cutting board or in a large, shallow dish. Gently tap the berries with a heavy spoon until they break apart into individual drupelets. Store in an airtight bag in the freezer until ready to use.

Raspberries:  Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot

Want to read more articles like this, plus tips and tricks, home hacks, DIY projects, and more? Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!

7 Comments

this sounds like a very fun thing to do. i should try obliterating raspberries sometime or tenderizing my broccoli

bishop0123

from Webster, Tx

I have heard that if you drop dry ice into rubbing alcohol you get an extremely cold liquid. Not as cold as liquid nitrogen, and you can't mix it with with food, but still interesting none the less.

At North Dakota State, we used to put marshmallows in a pool of liquid nitrogen and then give them to kids to eat in demonstrations. It's especially fun with the big ones becuase you blow "smoke" as you eat them.

drayegon

from Redding , CA

If you had done this frozen a marshmallow and given it to a kid to eat just how long did it take you to get him to the hospital to get the pain out of his mouth from your not know what you were doing. Didn't you read just how cold it makes things and just what some of this stuff can do. You do not freeze something like a marshmallow as it is dry and when you freeze it it becomes very very cold about 200-F to be exact. It will if put in the mouth at that temp freeze itself to what ever it touches. Great story but just a story.

Sorry but not something to tell people to do.
dray

Drayegon,

You have made a very good point about what to put in your mouth. Knowing what and how long and how much you're cooling it in liquid nitrogen (LN2), is very important.
Thermo-insulated food foams like marshmallows cooled just a very short time in LN2 are not the same as a liquid frozen solid which may need to "warmed-up" in the freezer for 1/2 hour before they can be eaten safely. Frozen food foams should only have a very thin layer that is frozen will thaw in the hand or in the mouth very quickly. While eating something solid at LN2 temp -320F will cause really bad burns, in the mouth.

Carl

From BT YAHOO news Tuesday July 14 @08;58 am Zulu.

Blumental-style chef blows off his hands.

A German chef has blown off his hands while experimenting with a Heston Blumenthal style cooking technique.

The man, identified only as Martin E, was working on a recipe involving liquid nitrogen when there was a "huge explosion" according to the Berliner Morgenpost.

One of the 24 year old's hands was instantly torn off by the force of the blast, while the other was later amputated in hospital.

playing with ice could be really dangerous :)

Maxson
-----------
www.emailextractor14.com/
www.emailextractor14.com/?page_id=121

Popular Tags

Regular Features



Download Our iPhone App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing



Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed



Become a Fan On Facebook

Share links with friends, comment on stories and more


December 2009: Best of What's New

In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.

Check out the best of what's new here.

Popular Science Photo Pool


Share your photos in the Pop Sci pool at www.flickr.com!
tags_sprite.png
POP_embeddedForm_cover_May09.jpg

Events and Promotions