Make Carbonated Fruit
Template:Attention There are many ways to eat and enjoy fruit. They can be portable to eat on the go or fit into your purse to be eaten later as a snack. It is not unusual to see a fruit bowl that includes many fruits, cut and served with a platter of cheese and crackers. To add a bit of a fizz to the fruit, next time put the fruit into a jar, add dry ice, and enjoy a refreshing plate of fruit, with a bubbly taste that is unique.
Steps
- Cut the fruit as if you were making fruit salad without any seeds or orange peels. Peel the skin off the apples and discard. Place all cut fruit in a plastic bottle with a pop off top bottle. The pop off top acts as a safety valve.
- Cut off a small chunk of dry ice from the block. Only about 2 grams is needed, or a piece about half the size of a thumb. There is no harm in putting in too little dry ice - you will simply end up with only slightly fizzy fruit. We are looking for only a little bit of pressure (approximately 30 psi) and so there is no need to add a big hunk of dry ice. The dry ice in the picture below (roughly 5 square inches or 30 square centimeters) was enough for the plastic bottle of fruit.
- Put the dry ice into the plastic bottles, seal the top, and wait a day or two. Watch as it turns into its gaseous phase. Most of the dry ice will sublimate in an hour and fully pressurize the plastic bottle. Wrap the bottle in a towel to prevent injury if it explodes. Then place in the refrigerator for the night before opening.
- Open the bottle and bleed the pressure by opening the cap carefully, keeping it turned away from your face and eyes, as you would when opening a soda bottle that had been shaken. Pour the fruit out of the bottle and it's ready to eat! It loses its fizz quickly, so make sure you serve it in the first 15 minutes after opening. Carbonated fruit tastes like regular fruit, but it tingles on your tongue. It's a totally unique experience to eat, and makes you burp if you have done it right.
Tips
- Softer fruits like kiwis, strawberries and bananas do not work as well. Apples in particular seem to work the best.
- If you have a vessel that is designed to take pressure, like a beer keg for example, then by all means try using that.
- Alternatively, if you have an ISI whipper, load the fruit into the chamber and charge with a CO2 cartridge, and let stand in refrigerator.
- Do not use a small mouthed soda bottle. It is too difficult to get the fruit in and out.
- You will need a plastic bottle or a container to put the fruit into. A wide mouth container works best. You can also use a wide-mouthed {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} bottle. Adding a pop-safety valve into the cap would make it much safer; one that would last approximately forever in this application can be bought for under $10.
Warnings
- Putting in too much dry ice is dangerous. An unpressurized block of dry ice will convert completely to CO2 gas. Since the bottles are going to be sealed tightly with their caps, too much CO2 gas built up inside and will burst the bottle or cap. (Technical detail: Regular ice made from H2O melts into liquid water, then evaporates. Dry ice sublimates directly from its solid phase to its gaseous phase - no liquid phase in between.)
- Dry ice is extremely cold and will hurt you if touched or used inappropriately. Please exercise caution when working with it; wear proper safety protection, like gloves and long sleeves; and use it responsibly.
- Do not use a glass jar. The bottle will be under pressure and broken plastic is safer than broken glass.
Things You'll Need
Related Articles
- Make Dry Ice
- Make Fruit Salad
- Make a Fruit Bouquet
- Make Dried Fruit
- Make a Snack from Yogurt and Fruit
- Wash Fruit and Vegetables
Sources and Citations
- instructables Article by Noahw. Source of original material. Used with permission.
