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The following is almost a full year overdue. Sorry.
So, one of the crazy molecular gastronomy things is carbonating things that aren't normally carbonated. Like meat and fruits. After all, CO2 will dissolve into water whether or not it is sugar flavored and destined for a soda can. I had heard of this, and though it was neat. But then![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
inaurolillium mentioned that it could be done (in small amounts) using a whipped cream dispenser with a CO2 cartridge. And that got me thinking. If it's that simple, why not do a whole bunch at once? You'd just need a supply of CO2, like dry ice. And a container that could stand high pressure, like the pressure cooker I bought for autoclave purposes. It seemed almost too easy...
My pressure cooker is, of course, a bit overkill. And has never been used for its intended purpose.
We arranged the fruit on an upper tray.
Dry ice went below with water to get it to sublimate faster. The first time we just did this in the bottom of the vessel. This led to the pressure cooker getting (surprise!) very cold, which worried me from a structural integrity perspective. It also resulted in very violent reactions, with lots of cold water vapor being sprayed out of the pressure relief valve. This really worried me, as very bad things could have happened had it iced over. (And I had forgotten to bring my propane torch!) Luckily, the ice never got that bad, but learn from our mistake! Put the water and dry ice in a bowl on the lower level. This solved both problems nicely on the later runs.
The lid was clamped on, and the pressure grew quite quickly. We got the best results letting it soak for about an hour at 12-15 psi (0.08 - 0.10 MPa).
And the results? Depended on the target It worked best on things with a lot of surface area, thin skins and high water content. Raspberries were probably the best, and pineapple chunks. You could feel them vibrating from the fizz as you ate them. Orange segments barely picked up any fizz at all. I guess their membranes are not very CO2 transmissive. Supremes probably would have worked better. Grapes cut in half were decent. Generally, it didn't come across as fizziness so much as an extra bite and intensity to the taste.
We didn't stick with traditionally desserty fruit, though. Cherry tomato slices were interesting. The balsamic vinegar and rum ended up far too intense and overpowering. But my absolute favorite was the green olives. They were like green olives but... more. (Not everyone was quite as impressed with them as I was.)
ETA: Terribly rude of me not to say: Pictures courtesy ofavhn.
So, one of the crazy molecular gastronomy things is carbonating things that aren't normally carbonated. Like meat and fruits. After all, CO2 will dissolve into water whether or not it is sugar flavored and destined for a soda can. I had heard of this, and though it was neat. But then
inaurolillium mentioned that it could be done (in small amounts) using a whipped cream dispenser with a CO2 cartridge. And that got me thinking. If it's that simple, why not do a whole bunch at once? You'd just need a supply of CO2, like dry ice. And a container that could stand high pressure, like the pressure cooker I bought for autoclave purposes. It seemed almost too easy...My pressure cooker is, of course, a bit overkill. And has never been used for its intended purpose.
We arranged the fruit on an upper tray.
Dry ice went below with water to get it to sublimate faster. The first time we just did this in the bottom of the vessel. This led to the pressure cooker getting (surprise!) very cold, which worried me from a structural integrity perspective. It also resulted in very violent reactions, with lots of cold water vapor being sprayed out of the pressure relief valve. This really worried me, as very bad things could have happened had it iced over. (And I had forgotten to bring my propane torch!) Luckily, the ice never got that bad, but learn from our mistake! Put the water and dry ice in a bowl on the lower level. This solved both problems nicely on the later runs.
The lid was clamped on, and the pressure grew quite quickly. We got the best results letting it soak for about an hour at 12-15 psi (0.08 - 0.10 MPa).
And the results? Depended on the target It worked best on things with a lot of surface area, thin skins and high water content. Raspberries were probably the best, and pineapple chunks. You could feel them vibrating from the fizz as you ate them. Orange segments barely picked up any fizz at all. I guess their membranes are not very CO2 transmissive. Supremes probably would have worked better. Grapes cut in half were decent. Generally, it didn't come across as fizziness so much as an extra bite and intensity to the taste.
We didn't stick with traditionally desserty fruit, though. Cherry tomato slices were interesting. The balsamic vinegar and rum ended up far too intense and overpowering. But my absolute favorite was the green olives. They were like green olives but... more. (Not everyone was quite as impressed with them as I was.)
ETA: Terribly rude of me not to say: Pictures courtesy of
avhn.
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Oh, may I cross-post? I know of at least one other LJ-friend (o' mine, not mutual) who'd be interested.
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That was so much fun when we did it again later. :D Truly a interesting and delicious experiment.
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We can always do it again! It's really pretty simple at this point. There was a recent request, in fact, which reminded me to make this post.
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