Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

[Ian W.]

ok, i'm here at brookhaven national labs, in the physics building. me, my friend, and our mentor were bored, so we were talking about different cool things to do with various substances. our mentor (a physicist) heard about making ice cream with liquid nitrogen. take milk, cream, sugar, flavoring, and LOTS of liquid nitrogen, mix, and voila, instant ice cream .

we haven't tried it out yet, but that's cause we just got all the stuff. has anyone else ever heard of making ice cream this way? it sounds really cool (ok, now that's a really bad pun, even by my standards). hopefully we'll be able to find lots of liquid nitrogen though. we actually have a camera, so i'll try to get pics posted . i'll also try to find the website that tells how to make it. and, if all works, maybe i can start a new ice cream franchise...

[Trashed20]

just pour the liquid nitrogen in with everything else? seems like it would get wierd and stuff, but cool if it works
/me awaits pictures and testimonials

That sounds like its possible in theory, but has it been done or proven?

and

Where do you guys come up with this stuff?!

[Gui Cavalcanti]

I would think that you don't actually combine the liquid nitrogen with the ingredients, for digestive purposes... You probably have to do it just like normal ice cream. Mix the ingredients in their own little container and surround the container with liquid nitrogen. Voila, fast ice cream.

Be sure to send me some, Ian

[Rob Ribaudo]

Does liquid nitrogen flavored ice cream seem like a bad idea to have? Who wants to be the first one to taste.

[DanLevin247]

Anyone ever had dippin' dots? That liquid nitrogen cooled ice cream, so cold it hurts to eat sometimes.

[Ian W.]

lol, this is gona be fun...

Where do you guys come up with this stuff?!

DJ, i'm in a physics building. all the physicist joke around. my mentor went to see austin powers 3. basically, we have the coolest people and really cool toys (darn, that stupid pun again
).

and to gui and rob, think about one thing. how do you make liquid nitrogen? compressor (and maybe low temps). what is liquid nitrogen made out of (duh, nitrogen). what is more than 70% of the atmosphere that we breath? nitrogen! so, unless you want to digest nitrogen, stop breathing!!! also, nitrogen is a crucial part of protiens (amino acids and such i believe). so, nitrogen is a good thing. also, when you pour it in, it just evaporates (we've been playing with liquid nitrogen a little now). i could throw some at you, and it'd hit you and evaporate.

[Mike Soukup]

I'm no expert on LN2, but I got many chances to play with it in college. U of IL had a program called the Physics Van where college students went to local schools to teach students from grade school up to high school about physics. The demos with LN2 were always the biggest hit: using a frozen banana as a hammer, LN2 powered cannon, sealing a jug filled with LN2 and watching it explode, and the famous Soap Explosion - dumping a bucket of LN2 into a bucket of soapy water. Since the university made the stuff we could use as much as we wanted. It was really fun to take the extra LN2 to the top of the lecture hall, dump it down the stairs and watch it boil away.

Note: always know what you're doing, you can get hurt if you aren't careful.

Back to the topic at hand...

Gui: no problem digesting the ice cream. the LN2 would boil away quickly and you wouldn't consume any of it. Besides, there's nothing wrong with swallowing Nitrogen, you do it every day.

Rob: you're used to the flavor of Nitrogen, it's the most abundent element in the air you breathe. But the ice cream may taste like the machinery that was used to make it

Ian: make sure the ice cream is actually warm enough to eat before you dig in.

Mike

[Mike Soukup]

Originally posted by Ian W.
i could throw some at you, and it'd hit you and evaporate.

Not a good idea because it can get caught in clothes and freeze the skin under the clothing. But there's no harm in pouring some down your arm or on your hand, as long as you don't cup your hand and aren't wearing any jewlery.

Sorry for the double post, but he posted after I started my first post.

Mike

[Ian W.]

it worked! it worked!!

mike, we didn't throw any at people, so that's ok. some did get on my hand, but it felt just like water, then it was gone .

the ice cream was actually pretty good. and it never got that cold that we couldn't eat it. it was really rich though, so after a small cup, we were all done. we left some in the freezer, so we're gona see who else is daring enough to eat it . we did spill a little liquid nitrogen on the floor, but no one knows that .

now, next year i have two quick and easy physics 'experiments' to waste time in school. potato cannons and liquid nitrogen ice cream.

[Trashed20]

any pictures?

[Ian W.]

yes, but i'm at work, and they're on my friend camera. i should have them tonight, but it all depends on how lazy he is . once i get them i'll put them on my server for all to see.

[Clark Gilbert]

Aren't Dip N' Dots close enough? I think they use Nitrogen to freeze the "dots" down to -300 degrees F...