Ongoing discussion for students in Chemistry III

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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Dry Ice in Cooking


Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide skips over liquid form, going directly from a solid to a gas through the transitory process of sublimation. Many chefs have begun to harness dry ice as a tool, since it can be used very effectively as a cooling agent. Since dry ice sublimes (changes from a solid to a gas) at approximately -78.5° C or -109.3° F compared to water which freezes at 0° C or 32° F, it is much more effective as for keeping a substance cool. One of the primary uses of it in the culinary world is that it can be used to make instant ice cream. In addition, many ice cream vendors, like the ones all across New York, use dry ice to keep their products cold. It is also very effective in a power outage. With dry ice, goods can be kept cool for much longer than the typical 4 hours in which the refrigerator keeps them safe.


There are a few safety problems with dry ice. If it touches your skin, you will almost instantly get frostbite. In addition, if you breathe in the “smoke” from dry ice in an area that has poor ventilation, you could suffocate because of oxygen displacement. However, in my opinion, the pros of dry ice greatly outweigh the cons. As long as proper safety precautions are adhered to, there is no reason why dry ice shouldn’t be used in the culinary world.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnORu5p9neY

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