In today's video,
we are taking a look at the carbonation process,
how it works,
and finding out just what and what shouldn't be turned
into a fizzy treat.
[Music]
Guys, you have seen both Grant and Nate make different sorts
of carbonated treats over the years.
You've seen Nate make carbonated fruits for summer.
And you've seen Grant make carbonated ice cream.
So today, I want to take that,
push that limit, and see what can be carbonated.
Here's the basic idea.
We are taking a variety
of snacks to find out what can and cannot be carbonated,
and whether or not you should.
To start out with,
we're going to go with some tried and true things.
We're actually going to try a cucumber and a bell pepper.
Those are things that I'm pretty sure can be carbonated
because they are a little bit more porous.
They hold a lot of water in them.
They should work,
but the question here is, do we want them to?
All right, to start out
with we have got a cucumber and a bell pepper.
Technically, anything
that is porous or liquid should be able to absorb
the carbon dioxide from dry ice in a sealed container.
Now, this isn't going to be airtight
because that wouldn't be safe, but it should still work.
So that's why I'm going with a cucumber and a bell pepper.
These both have a very high water content,
and are technically a porous sort of flesh.
So the carbon dioxide should absorb very nicely.
[Music]
All right.
To make fruits,
vegetables, and literally anything else carbonated,
it's a very simple process.
All you really need is
your carbonated snack of choice, a cooler,
and some dry ice.
We're going to take our cooler,
and put a decent amount of dry ice at the bottom.
[Music]
All right.
So we've got a lot of dry ice in there.
Now, I want to put my cucumber and my bell pepper in there
with the dry ice to kind of absorb that carbon dioxide.
Here's the problem.
I don't want them to freeze,
so we have to make sure they're elevated above the dry ice
so they don't have contact with it.
Easiest way to do that,
I'm gonna put my slices into a bowl.
I'm going to elevate them on top of a paper cup.
And now, for the really fun part,
we're actually going to seal it with some cling wrap.
Now, normally,
you do not seal anything with dry ice inside of it.
But even with cling wrap on a cooler,
it's not actually going to be airtight.
Some of that air still going to escape to the carbon dioxide
isn't going to have a chance to build up,
and make it to pressurized.
All it's going to do is make sure
that pressure is more
or less staying internal without being dangerous.
Perfect.
Let that sit for about an hour.
We should have a fizzy cucumber and bell pepper.
Now, while we are waiting for our bell pepper and our cucumber
to hopefully get fizzy,
I want to try something else, Jell-O.
It is possible to make a fizzy Jell-O
if you mix it with a seltzer water
when you're preparing it.
However, I've noticed that a lot of the bubbles died out.
So I want to see if mixing it with dry ice
in the cooling process will actually carbonate it
as we go.
[Music]
Let's put this into a container that will hopefully,
contain it a little better?
All right, now normally,
you can add ice water to your Jell-O to help it set faster,
or just pop in the fridge for a few hours.
I'm just going to add dry ice until it cools.
Okay, I have dry ice Jell-O.
[Music]
Okay, so I got impatient with the Jell-O.
So I'm going to leave it over there,
let it do its thing,
and we're going to try something even weirder.
Guys, I want to know if you can carbonate steak.
Now, the reason
that I'm using steak instead of any other meat like chicken is
because steak tends to be a little bit more airy,
I guess you could say.
It's very porous
so I'm hoping that that means
that the carbon dioxide is going to sink in a little bit easier.
Whereas if we used a cooked chicken breast,
it's a lot denser,
and I'm not sure if carbon dioxide could get through that.
All right.
So I've left this steak decently rare in the middle.
I'm hoping that'll make
it a little bit easier to absorb that CO2.
So I'm going to cut some really thin slices,
and I'm going to throw it
in the cooler right beside our veggies.
Let's see how our cucumber and our bell pepper turned out.
[Music]
Oh, did they just fall off of the cup
when I moved them?
I can't tell if they're going to need more time.
Let's see.
[Music]
They do not need more time.
[Music]
That is bizarre.
That was a fizzy bell pepper.
It's not bad.
It's just very strange.
Now, I have had carbonated watermelon before.
Cucumber tastes similar to me.
[Music]
Now, that's also really weird.
But awesome.
Okay.
Carbonated vegetables.
I'm actually a fan, that's kind of cool.
All right, I'm going to toss these back
in here with the steak.
I want to see if we can get these even fizzier,
and see if the steak is going to work.
I want to add as much dry ice as
possible without freezing the bottom of my bowls.
Just the tiniest bit of water to help
it sublimate a little faster.
All right, I've cut
these little strips of steak very thin,
in hopes of making this work.
Then close it back up, seal it with Saran wrap again.
Leave it for about an hour.
All right, here's a sign that we know that it's working already.
Now, this isn't just regular cling wrap.
This is Press'n Seal,
and it's still being puffed up by the carbon dioxide,
which is perfect, because it is escaping.
This isn't airtight so it's not dangerous,
but it is definitely building up some pressure.
So what that means is we're basically forcing
the carbon dioxide into the flesh of the meat,
and into the flesh of our fruit and vegetable.
We have a cucumber, a bell pepper,
and a piece of steak being carbonated.
Our Jell-O is still going.
Let's make some ice cream.
We're going to be using Grant's recipe on how to make
carbonated ice cream today.
I want to try it for myself.
That's going to be 2 cups of Half & Half,
half a cup of powdered sugar,
and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
[Music]
Yeah. It's gonna be very sweet ice cream.
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All right.
Now, we just add dry ice, and stir until it freezes.
[Music]
I may have added too much dry ice.
But you know what?
This is looking awesome.
So if you decide to make this at home,
just like Grant told you in the previous video,
make sure you don't swallow any of these pieces of dry ice.
That would not be good for you.
But the ice cream on its own should be carbonated now.
[Music]
That's fun.
That is really cool.
I'm going to try and drop it into some water, and see
if we can actually see that carbonation
as it dissolves.
Oh, you totally can.
Just a little around the edges.
We had some bubbles rising to the surface there.
[Music]
Little bit.
You can see some of that CO2 rising
to the surface just around the edges.
Our Jell-O is mostly solidified.
But look at how many bubbles are captured right underneath.
Now, I've seen bubbles rise to the surface in Jell-O,
and stay there as it solidifies,
but these are massive bubbles.
I've never seen that before.
[Music]
Okay, that just dissolved in my mouth.
You know, it's just like jello cotton candy,
but a little bit fizzy.
That's really cool.
I am concerned
because that didn't have as much fizz as I wanted it to,
but that's just the bubble.
So let's get down to the Jell-O itself.
And you can see our jello wasn't completely set up in the middle,
just try around the edge here.
But look at those bubbles.
These aren't bubbles anymore.
These are just divots in the surface of the jello.
Moment of Truth.
[Music]
That's my favorite.
Guys, you can make carbonated Jell-O just
by adding dry ice to it.
That is really really fun.
That is easy to do, and that tastes so good.
That's fun.
All right, guys, it's been a few minutes.
And I have Josh with me.
Josh, you ready to try whatever I put in this cooler?
Not really.
You're gonna.
If you had to guess
for something that I may have tried to carbonate,
what do you think it might be?
I don't--
I mean, I don't really know what you've got going on here.
That's right, it's steak.
Oh, sure.
Of course.
That was my second guess.
Yeahm, of course.
Of course, it was.
All right.
I'll try it first.
How is that?
Okay.
[Music]
Go on.
Not only is it carbonated.
It's cold, I assume.
[Music]
That's weird.
Fizzy steak.
That's really weird.
But we made it happen.
Here, I'll try one of these.
Are these--
That's a bell pepper.
Oh, that's fuzzy as well.
[Music]
That's weird.
All right, so I think out of all these,
the cucumber is actually got the most carbonated.
They have the highest water content.
They're very porous.
It was easy
for the carbonation to sink into them.
So let's see.
[Music]
Yep.
That's like fruit pop rocks.
That feels really weird.
That's cool though.
I'm getting a full meal here.
Can you carbonate most ordinary food?
Well, if they have a high water content,
yes, you can.
Should you?
Josh, should you?
No.
But you can, and it's easy to do.
You can do this at home.
All you need is a cooler,
some dry icem and some cling wrap.
Just make sure
that your food never touches the dry ice itself,
and you're good to go.
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