liquid nitrogen ice cream

after a long day of thanksgiving preparation, what better way to cool down than with a little homemade ice cream? only a sucker wants to wait for salt and ice. cryogenic cream is not only faster but has a better texture and allows the inclusion of ingredients (such as ethanol) that inhibit freezing in a traditional desert.

Step 1: Assemble ingredients, stir and enjoy

you'll need LN2. buddy up to someone at a university or find a supply house that will
sell to you. in either scenario, you will need to obtain a dewar or thermos to safely transport
and insulate the nitrogen.

we considered two recipes but feel free to improvise.

bourbon ice cream:
start with sufficient cream in a metal bowl.
mix in sugar and old rip van winkle's 10-year-old bourbon to taste.

green chile ice cream:
start with sufficient cream in a metal bowl.
mix in sugar and horseman's green chile (levels 1 and 2) to taste

once the ingredients are well mixed, slowly add LN2 while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the stirring action becomes infeasible.

tasters generally agreed that the bourbon ice cream, while OK, wasn't painfully delicious.
much greater success has been documented using a peaty coastal scotch. the green chile
ice cream, on the other hand, was a wild success, taking deliciousness to unprecedentedly
high levels of pain.

remember that LN2 is quite cold so take appropriate handling precautions.

Comments

[bigwhitebear18]

So, has anyone tried making ice cream with Liquid Helium. It's colder and the gas will make you sound funny.

[M0HIZ]

SAFETY NOTE TO EVERYONE WHO MIGHT TRY THIS; Please be very careful with liquid nitrogen. An 18 year old had to have her stomach removed the other day due to drinking liquid nitrogen in a cocktail. I'm not trying to disuade anyone from carrying out this project, just be careful and don't do anything stupid.

[pudtiny]

Thats a fair warning but when making ice cream all of the ln2 boils off in the making process (yes i have made it). I fear the girl who was in the news swallowed some of the liquid and it then turned to gas in her stomach and popped it.

[M0HIZ]

OK. I didn't realise that the LN2 boiled off.

[pudtiny]

Boil off is the common term used when liquid nitrogen goes from liquid to gas, cooling as it goes. I use it most days in the lab and had to go through training to use it but many are unaware of the safety aspects of using it. Like most chemicals treated with respect it is safe to use, get a bit cocky and you could have problems.

[M0HIZ]

Fair enough. Thanks for the explanation.

[Paymeister]

Re getting a chance to try this when you don't have an $800 Dewar flask...

My plan is to make up the cream base, get a couple of big bowls and spoons, and trot on over to the welding supply place. We'll enlist their aid, make it on their dock (sans Dewar), have a blast, and the staff will get their bowl and my pals and I will get ours. Everyone wins!

[Trigonography]

 When I was a kid, one of my mom's friends got us a container of LN2 to make ice cream for our homeschooling group and to teach some basic chemistry.  We discovered two things: One, you just can't get awesome strawberry chocolate-chunk ice cream any other way. Two, you'll never get a kid's attention faster than by saying "I could land myself in the hospital doing this! Wanna try?"

Okay, and a third thing: Food, danger, and science are the best combination in the world.

[mutput7]

"I could land myself in the hospital doing this! Wanna try?"
Well, yeah [DUH]!!!

[craig3]

even just danger and science is an awesome combo

[Teslas brother]

Turkey Tek, where can I get the Horsemans chile? I lived in Santa Fe for 6 years and used it on nearly everything but, I can't find it any where where i live now. Is there a web site that sells good green chile that you know of? I found a local gas/welding shop that sells the LN2 for 350 a litre in 5 litre quantities by the way so I am just waiting to find the green chile. Thanks for the great post!

[turkey tek]

Unfortunately, I don't have a web source :( We basically have an agent in santa fe who personally picks it up and mails it to us.

[instructing tables]

uh where can i get some liquid nitrogen?

[Derin]

vets,maybe?they use ln2 to cool down boxes to put in cow sperm,what they do with those stuff is inappropiate...at least for this website

[Mirime]

cows have ebryos bulls have sperm

cow - female bovine, bull- male bovine

[looking4ideas]

have any idea where i can get some in turkey ?

[Derin]

Damızlık Birliği

[Derin]

en azından biz oradan alıyorduk

[Matt D655]

My advice to you is that u shouldnt make it because for 2 reasons- A:First being that LN2 is toxic B:It is expensive and you can get reasonable icecream at your local grocery store.

[Sylkhr]

If you wanna breathe something toxic try HCN (cyanide)

[lasermaster3531]

LN2 is not toxic! nitrogen is 79% of the air you all breath every second of every day!! LN2 is only dangerous because it's cold. if nitrogen was toxic, we never would have made it out of the primordial soup! seriously, do research before you make broad generalizations and unfounded statements.

[timberframe]

My medical doctor is the one who told me about making ice cream this way. Of cause he knew I had enough sense (if I could find a source) to not put the stuff on my skin, especially since he was 'burning' a mole off of me during the discussion. As to point B, I think this one is more for the fun than for the cheapness. That or the bourbon. They just don't carry bourbon ice cream in my grocery stores. If they do in yours, where do you shop??

[mdj817]

Please stop feeding the misconception that LN2 is toxic! LN2, obviously, is liquid nitrogen. Nitrogen composes about 80% of the air we breathe, hardly toxic. Obviously, if you only breathe Nitrogen, you won't get oxygen and *could* die, but you'd have to consciously stick your head in a chamber of it. As far as liquid nitrogen goes, drinking anything at -195 Centigrade would probably kill you. You might want to get your nerd license updated :-P

[hammertong]

Nitrogen is not toxic. Any time you remove all the oxygen from the air you will asphyxiate and die, but breathing (in a well-ventilated area) in nitrogen will definitely not kill you. Air is 21% oxygen, & 79% nitrogen. You actually breathe out 16% oxygen. (percentages are approximate) Unless you are breathing directly over the bowl you pour the LN2 into, which would probably hurt your trachea and lungs, you should suffer no adverse consequences.

[mdj817]

I totally agree! Hence the "obviously" at the beginning of sentence 3. *high five!*

I love it when we agree and can just all get along :-D
Now let's hold hands and sing kumbuyah!

[hammertong]

A: First being that LN2 is toxic Well, we know that's not true. B: It is expensive and you can get reasonable icecream at your local grocery store. You can get Ice cream anywhere, but is it as cool (no pun intended) as this? Super cold, homemade, ice cream! It tastes all sciencey and stuff. Like those mad-scientist kits for kids where you make gummy guts and candy brains.

[looking4ideas]

Oooooo Burrrrrned =P

[eldavoloco]

 There's a cocktail called the Bourbon Milk Punch that uses essentially the same ingredients as your bourbon ice cream recipe, with the addition of some vanilla extract. You should try adding some...it's an awesome flavor combination!

[Matt D655]

Ive never personally done this and gentlemen i have a piece of advice for you and a good one- Dont wear gloves when handling liquid nitro,my dad and I did an experiment with liquid nitro one time we put gloves on and the gloves got frozen.

[jmurockstar]

a frozen glove is preferable to a shattered hand in my opinion.

[lasermaster3531]

virtually impossible. liquid nitrogen has a boiling point so low that it beads off the skin instead of sitting on it and freezing your hand off. if you cool rubbing alcohol with dry ice and dip your hand in that, you will get instant frostbite, but liquid nitrogen doesn't actually come into contact with your flesh, rather it evaporates about .5 of a millimeter away, leaving your hand encased in a thin film if insulating nitrogen gas. this phenomenon is why you can gargle liquid nitrogen and not freeze your tongue off.

[generator]

 i've 'burned' myself with liquid nitrogen on my skin. it may not actually freeze you, but it still hurts really really bad!

[jmurockstar]

The Leidenfrost phenomenon breaks down as the surface temp decreases. heat energy is being sucked out of your hand, and it will freeze if you expose it to the liquid nitrogen long enough.

[NobodyInParticular]

Actually a potholder would be the safest. If you pour liquid nitrogen over your hand, it rapidly boils off. Whereas if you soak the glove, it can be trapped close to your skin for long enough to cause frostbite.

[ReCreate]

or you could overclock your PC with it

[DoWatt]

You can use dry ice (CO2) to make ice cream, and its easier to get hold of.

That's what Heston Blumenthal suggests in his home ice cream recipe here

[rookie1]

CO2 can be dangerous to work with. It displaces O2. Use in a well vented area. It is heavier than O2 so don't sit low. (I'm a worrier) Have fun. This sounds good.

[Shentianqi]

O2 is oxygen... O2 can't be heavier than O2 either since it's the same gas.

[johnnyscolex]

but CO2 isnt

[looking4ideas]

thats what makes it soo much fun. The Danger factor !!