FOOD SCIENCE PART 2: SHAKE IT BABY!

Flush with our success with the agar tequila sunrises and the cornstarch rum pills —

Did I tell you about the candy cane vodka? I don't think I did. To sum up: 49¢ spent in Target on candy canes reduced to clear, left to dissolve into a potato vodka for a day. Filter to remove any excess fat and prepare yourself for the kick.

Testimonial from Emily: "It's actually kinda awesome!"

— Stacie and I had more plans. In particular, rum-flavoured lollipops and handmade aero chocolate. Simple.

It all went horribly wrong. Our first attempt at the aero bars seemed to go well; we melted the dark chocolate, warmed the iSi whipper with a hair dryer, filled it and shot the contents of a NO2 canister into the chocolate, but as we watched the molds being filled, we couldn't see any evidence of bubbles.

I'm fully prepared to admit that the lollipop disaster was my fault. I assumed from what I had read that lemon juice could completely replace corn syrup, but I was wrong. So wrong. I also forgot just how much sugar syrup bubbles as it goes past 100ËšC. Laura's stove got covered in napalm-like sugar goop, cracking and flaming before turning into a hard black sugar ash. Pleasant!

To make matters even worse, the thermometer wasn't properly in the solution, so when we thought it was reaching the hard crack stage, it was happily turning into caramel and bonding to the pan.

"You know, I think that's my housemate's pan."

Thank goodness for the way the sugar dissolves if you pour enough boiling water on top of it...

We then re-read the instructions for the aerated chocolate and realised that we'd forgotten to shake the whipper before firing the gas. Wanting to have something out of almost ruining Laura's kitchen, we melted the chocolate down and tried again.

Homemade Aero

Aero. On demand. We can do milk, we can do dark, we can do white. We can make orange flavour, mint flavoured, whatever else you want. We have the technology.

currently playing: Saturday Looks Good To Me – Hands In The Snow