Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream and the Age Old Question, "Daddy, how did we used to light charcoal before we got liquid oxygen?"

"Daddy, how did we used to light charcoal before we got liquid oxygen?"
-- Connor, Age 7, August 2006

Yes, it's been another one of those Basque months... remember, we're professionals -- never do this at home. Following the Popular Science article on creating ice cream with dry ice we thought we should revisit the old standard -- liquid nitrogen ice cream. All you need is a Dewar of liquid nitrogen:

some ingredients (chocolate, cream, sugar, vanilla, etc.), a bit of caution, and about 120 seconds.

Read more...

Stir together all the ingredients, and get a whole bunch of ladles of liquid nitrogen (notice it boiling away furiously at room temperature):

Add the liquid nitrogen to your soon-to-be-icecream:

Stir until solid:

You can download a 3-minute movie of us making vanilla liquid nitrogen ice cream here (note: the movie is 15MB).

Next week -- how to have your charcoal grill ready to cook in 20 seconds -- all with the wonder of other liquid elements.