Bubbling Over With Kitchen Experiments
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Heston Blumenthal’s used one to make “champagne” – with suprisingly effective results (apparently in the kitchen it is possible to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear – or at least to crumb and deep fry one to crunchy and golden effect). But did you know that the penguins were getting busy with the fizzy first?
I’d love it if it was possible to have a drink that was slushy and fizzy... unfortunately you have to give up one to get the other, it seems (well, you do in the sort of chemistry I remember). Unless you get the slush and the fizz from different places, but much as it can be delicious to put sorbet into sparkling wine and so on, there’s a two-partedness to it that just isn’t quite what I have in mind.
Although thinking about combining different fizzy elements brings up the possibility for a savoury version of an ice cream float (or a spider, depending on where you come from). Some sort of sparkling soup or stock, with a sorbet that dissolves into it and adds another flavour. The initial thought was of the fizziness being chilled, but perhaps it could also work with a hot liquid (to dissolve the sorbet more rapidly, and create a contrast). I suspect either that Heston’s been there and done that already, too. Or that it would just make an interdeterminate gloopy and entirely unconvincing mess. Perhaps both*.
Somthing to think about for any molecular gastronomists, maybe...
* Because Heston definitely offers proof that the initial baking fail can be a necessary stop on the route to culinary impossibility and seven impossible things for breakfast. Or perhaps he knows the answer all along, and just likes getting a Mythbusters element into the kitchen...
