Cooking with liquid nitrogen

by Nicole Weston, Posted Mar 9th 2006 @ 1:25PM

Do you have a container of liquid nitrogen laying around your house and are not sure what to do with it? Probably not. Liquid nitrogen is a clear liquid that has some unique properties and many uses, though its primary property is its extreme cold. Its boiling temperature is -196C, so it will evaporate immediately if you simply place a drop on your hand. It will also evaporate when exposed to just about anything, which means that it is safe to use with food because no nitrogen will be left by the time you go to eat it. You can still suffer some serious freezer burns from liquid nitrogen if you are not careful, so make sure to handle it safely.

It is very inexpensive to purchase at medical and laboratory supply stores, but you do need a special container to store it. Fortunately, you can often rent one from the supply store. The most popular culinary use for liquid nitrogen is ice cream because it freezes the base so fast the ice crystals are very tiny, making the ice cream very smooth. Heidi, of 101 Cookbooks, recently tried an ice cream made in this way, but she isn't the first nor the last, as this is a reasonably popular (and tasty) experiment in science classrooms. If ice cream isn't enough, there are many more fun things to do with the stuff once you have it.

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Filed Under: Science, Food Oddities, On the Blogs, How To
Tags: 101 cookbooks, 101Cookbooks, boiling, cooking, dessert, food blog, freezing, frozen, ice cream, liquid nitrogen, ln2, nitrogen, oddities, science, technology, temperature, unusual