So on the ship at some point the science party has got to start to wind down. The actual sampling begins to slow and soon, for some, no more cores to section or mud to analyze. This was just the case with the WWU and UW crew. Bonnie Chang finished the last of her flux analysis and realized she still had a large supply of liquid nitrogen. Usually that means an ice cream social is in order. Maggie went to ask for the necessary ingredients and found there was no cream or half and half on the ship. To spare everyone’s disappointment, Emily and I just had to think of something to do with all that liquid nitrogen. Afterall, there are only so many things you can freeze before that even gets old. So we put our heads together and decided we should make an experiment using the liquid nitrogen.
We knew we wanted to make some kind of frozen concoction. Emily said why not just try milk? So she got a cup of milk. I said what about a sorbet? So I got a cup of orange juice. Then we looked around the galley for something metal…ah, yes a pie pan. That would do and we headed down to see Bonnie in the science lab to try out our experiment.
So we got the last of our materials, the liquid nitrogen, gloves, and something to stir with. Thinking back on the situation, we should have grabbed some spoons when we were on the mess deck. So we tested out the milk first. Slowly pouring the liquid nitrogen and stirring vigorously, we ended up with what was basically frozen milk chips. Not bad, but not great.
Next was some orange juice. We thought this had potential and as we stirred are hopes were rising. As we sat back and let the liquid nitrogen finish bubbling, we waited in anticipation. We got a spatula and tried it and it made a pretty decent sorbet. So with our new results, Bonnie said she would find a recipe for us to use by Friday.
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