• Question: Have any of you ever cooked/frozen food with liquid nitrogen

    Asked by raphaelhill to Jen, Joseph, Michael on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Jen Gupta

      Jen Gupta answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Nope but I have put flowers into liquid nitrogen to freeze them and then smashed them!

    • Photo: Michael Taggart

      Michael Taggart answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Erm, we do actually freeze a lot of, ahem, bits in liquid nitrogen each day in the lab but I’ve never subsequently ate or cooked them.

Comments

  • Photo: Jen

    Jen commented on :

    I think people use dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) to make ice cream. Liquid nitrogen is a bit too dangerous to just have lying around in the kitchen!

  • Photo: Michael

    Michael commented on :

    you have to be careful with dry ice too – as it thaws it turns to gas. If you lift a lid off a box of thawing dry ice and get a whiff of gas then you can get a nasty acid burn. best not to ask how I know this!

  • Photo: Emma

    Emma commented on :

    I’ve put cherries in liquid nitrogen to store them in the -80 degrees freezer and because we didn’t use them all in the experiment I did take them home to make a cherry cake and jam – they tasted goooood. Someone else in the lab works on lettuce and is always freezing it in liquid nitrogen and then grinding it into a powder.

  • Photo: Suze

    Suze commented on :

    I do this in loads of school demos. Liquid nitrogen is safer, as the gas boils off instantly. Using dry ice, you have to beat it to a powder before you use it, and even then, some clumps can remain, which are so cold they give you frostbite. liquid nitrogen is MUCH safer.

    Fun fact, when you use dry ice, you get fizzy ice cream.