Nakita, as Nathalie in the video ask a very valid question, 'what the hell are you doing?' I often ask myself the same question when i find myself spitting liquid nitrogen out of my mouth or burning stacks of hay on the streets of SW1, with passing traffic thinking that the riots have finally hit Victoria.
If there was one thing that i hope this blog shows, i think that it would be that i dont easily give in! its been nearly a year now and im still on the question that started this whole blog, 'how to make the perfect Peking duck?'
So why the liquid nitrogen? Well the theory behind the madness is FREEZER BURN. Ever looked into your fridge and found that chicken breast from last year, all dessicated and elderly looking :-) well the reason for this apparently, is that the water molecules from the chicken breast have escaped the meat in search of a preferentially colder part of your freezer. This is one half of my theory.....
The second half of my theory is that when water molecules freeze, they expand. Now, the thing that prohibits the skin from a duck from going crispy is the moisture within. Therefore, if i freeze the skin, the water molecules from within the skin will expand, swell and upon melting, leak out of the skin, and hence dry the skin.
Why not just stick the duck in the freezer and forget the really really really expensive liquid nitrogen. (many thanks to Peter from Mansfield Cryogenics who has not only lent all the gear to me, but having seen me, still think that im responsible enough to be using something that has a boiling point of -196C. Peter says it best, one second in the liquid, your natural heat and oil from your skin will repel the liquid nitrogen, 5 seconds and your going to get frost bite, 25 seconds and you better get down to A and E as your finger is snapping off like a strawberry flavoured ice pole!) Let us return to to the question at hand, why not stick to whole duck in the freezer? Well, placing the whole duck in the freezer would not only freeze the skin but also the meat, with food hygiene it is deemed dangerous to let substances freeze more than once. However by using the liquid nitrogen, i only freeze the SKIN each time, with the flesh unaffected and therefore i can repeat the process several times without having to worry about poisoning people.
I dont claim to be Herve This, so this could all the bullshit! But theory aside, we will never know until we try!!!!
