Schuyler Van Amson
Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. Dry ice has advantages to water ice because it can reach a colder temperature and leaves behind no residue besides accidental frost. Dry ice also sublimes when put near water, skipping the liquid phase and turning into gas.
When you think of Dry ice used in cooking the first thought goes to refrigeration, keeping food preserved and cold with dry ice. Dry ice has been used for preserving frozen foods, ice cream and other materials when mechanical cooling is not used however dry ice is becoming more commonly used in other ways….. However dry ice is very dangerous, without protection dry ice can cause severe burns because of its low temperature, this is called frostbite. Dry ice has been sometimes used to actually cook food. A chef would harness the extremely low temperature of the dry ice to cook seafood. The dry ice would be so cold it would sear the seafood giving it a very unique taste; this method is not widely used. I believe as innovative and interesting this is, it is a bad idea. I like to follow the idea, if it’s not broken don’t fix it and cooking by regular means has no real problem and cooking with dry ice seems not only complicated but has many limitations. Also people have been known to get sick from being around too much sublimed dry ice and we would be consuming those materials in large portions.
1 comment:
Dry ice is carbon dioxide in frozen form. Carbon dioxide is a very common part of the earth’s atmosphere. Dry ice is mostly used for freezing things and keeping them frozen. Dry ice can range from the temperatures of -109.3 to -78.5 Celsius. Dry ice is easy to use while at the same time being very dangerous having the ability to cause frostbite. Insulated gloves is necessary when dealing with dry ice. When strolling in the park and decide to stop at a cart for ice-cream that card uses dry ice to freeze the ice cream. Dry ice gives twice the cooling energy per pound and three times the energy per volume compared to frozen water. When cooking with dry ice it could put the chef and customer in danger. While dry ice can cause frostbite for the chef it can also expose the customer to un safe and toxic levels of carbon dioxide damaging inner organs. I believe to keep such a strong substance away from the kitchen until we are able to rule out any possibility of harm caused by dry ice.
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