Monday, August 30, 2010

liquid nitrogen wild berries ice cream

While I was doing my research in the chemistry group at TU-Berlin, I learned a lot of things. Not just about chemistry, research and laboratory, but also a lot about cooking :D. One of the dish that I learned is liquid nitrogen wild berries ice cream.

Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in liquid form which only exist at a very low temperature. It's a colourless and odorless liquid that boils at -196°C at regular atmospheric pressure. This property of liquid nitrogen causes rapid freezing when it comes in contact with warmer object. Usually, liquid nitrogen is used to freeze chemical solution. And because of the low temperature, the solution will freeze into solid so fast that ice crystal has no time to form. Then, the liquid nitrogen will lose its coldness and finally turn into gas-form nitrogen. Gas nitrogen is the content of our atmospheric air, in fact 80% of the atmospheric air consists of nitrogen. So, for those of you who are worried about putting "chemicals" into food, liquid nitrogen/gas nitrogen is not toxic at all.

As the summer is ending, it's high time to eat something nice and cold, and of course ice cream must be on the menu. So one Sunday evening, my brother and I quietly slipped into my lab to make this yummy treat. Our plan is to do some molecular gastronomy, hey I'm counting using liquid nitrogen as molecular gastronomy. So Ferran Adria! take me as your apprentice please!!

wild berries ice cream


Liquid Nitrogen Wild berries ice cream

400 ml whipped cream
400 ml milk
1 cup sugar
1 package frozen berries
around 1 L liquid Nitrogen

ingredients


defrost frozen berries in the microwave
mix whipped cream, milk and sugar in a heat-resistance bowl/metal bowl
Using a spatula stir in sugar until it all dissolved
mashed some of the thawed berries and mix into the cream and milk mixture

ice cream raw mixture


put in the rest of the berries into the mixture. Don't mash them. They'll give a nice texture and bite for the ice cream.

strawberries


slowly pour in the liquid nitrogen (watch out! it'll be smoky since liquid nitrogen evaporates very rapidly)

more liquid nitrogen


And don't forget to stir constantly to spread the liquid nitrogen evenly into the mixture.

stirring


Once it's freezes, the ice cream is done and it's ready to be served.

wild berries ice cream

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