Instant Ice Cream Machine Is A Great Crowd Pleaser

Instant Ice Cream Machine Is A Great Crowd Pleaser FARM HOME Food 25-2-22 There's instant coffee and instant iced tea. But have you ever heard of instant ice cream? The recipe is simple. Because liquid nitrogen is about -300 degrees F, when the two liquids combine, the ice cream freezes instantly. It's a phenomenon that chemistry teachers have used for years to show students what nitrogen can do. But until recently, no one had found a way to commercialize the process. It all started when TJ Paskach and Will Schroeder, both graduate students in chemical engineering at Iowa State University, were challenged to come up with a way to spotlight their student organization at an annual celebration. Schroeder says the students had made instant ice cream in the past, mixing up small batches in a bowl. "It was a neat trick, but impractical if you wanted to actually serve to a crowd," he says. "So we decided to design a continuous process where we freeze ice cream with liquid nitrogen and give away free ice cream cones." They tried several methods but the instantly hard ice cream kept plugging up the machines. Finally, they came up with a process that was fairly reliable and they gave away 1,500 ice cream cones at the celebration. "Nitro" ice cream, as it's called, tastes better than regular ice cream, says Schroeder. The main reason for the improved taste is the ice cream freezes so fast that ice crystals don't have a chance to form. It's much smoother than normally processed ice cream, even soft-serve. And while it's frozen solid, it can be dipped easily. After their first success, the two formed a company they called Nitro Cream to build a working prototype. A patent is now pending. In their latest design, the ice cream mix and the liquid nitrogen combine in a freezing chamber. As the two liquids meet, the liquid nitrogen boils and expands, causing a lot of turbulence that provides a natural mixing of the ice cream. The result is a consistently frozen liquid. The nitrogen becomes a gas and dissipates into the atmosphere. (Air is about 79% nitrogen gas.) Using their prototype, they demonstrated the process at the Iowa State Fair and sold thousands of cones. They're planning to take it to other such events, including the Minnesota State Fair and Taste of Minnesota next year. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Nitro Cream, Thomas J. Paskach or William D. Schroeder, 420 Hilltop Road, Ames, Iowa 50014 (ph 253295-2755); E-mail: tjp@iastate.edu or schroede@iastate.edu.)

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