Khymos » equilibrium http://blog.khymos.org - dedicated to molecular gastronomy Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:41:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Carbonated strawberries http://blog.khymos.org/2006/10/22/carbonated-strawberries/ http://blog.khymos.org/2006/10/22/carbonated-strawberries/#comments Sun, 22 Oct 2006 18:10:22 +0000 Martin Lersch http://blog.khymos.org/2006/10/22/carbonated-strawberries/ Here’s some pictures of an experiment I did with strawberries and dry ice (solid carbon dioxide). Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide which holds a temperature of -78 °C. What is fascinating is that dry ice does not melt – it sublimes, which means that it turns directly into carbon dioxide gas.

The idea was to create a carbonated fruit which gives a sparkling sensation in the mouth. I have used strawberries, but any juicy fruit with a moist surface could be used. Water melons would be perfect!

The chemistry explained in simple terms:

co2.jpg

A schematic drawing of the container:

strawberry-dryice.jpg

To prevent the plate from touching the dry ice (which would cause the strawberries to freeze), I put in a wooden triangle first.

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Put the plate with strawberry halves on top of the wooden triangle. Cover with a kitchen towel (do NOT cover with a tight fitting cover – remember that as CO2 sublimes, it expands, and this would create a huge pressure ultimately resulting in an explosion), and leave for 30 minutes.

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Eat and enjoy!

Update: Carbonated fruit the iSi way!

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