[eeediot]

hi all, does anybody know where a retail consumer can get some liquid nitrogen (for ice cream making)? My dermatologist is too afraid to slip me some. I live in NYC. Thanks.

[Suzanne]

Have a look at WillPowder - Specialty Powders and Spices from Chef Will Goldfarb. He supplies chemicals to the "molecular gastronomy" crowd, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has that, too.

[Von Milash]

eeediot,

anywhere that provides goods for commercial plumbers/pipe fitters/welders will (or **** well SHOULD) have liquid N2. Praxair comes to mind. I would think most would deal. The problem is storing the stuff. It typically requires a vacuum Dewar which can be expensive and dangerous in the wrong hands.

you might also be able to pull off the ice cream trick with dry ice, which can be stored for a day or two in a couple brown bags in a styrofoam container. Also avail at praxair.

[amazingrace]

Dry ice is available at grocery stores in my area.

[Von Milash]

well hey, there ya go! Never knew that. Good to know.

[I <3 Vodka]

Probably Airgas. I doubt they'd furnish it unless you provide an appropriate container though. I doubt they'll just sell one gallon or so either.

[Von Milash]

you might be surprised Vodka. Sometimes the company might be very large, but the location is rather small, and they sometimes will deal with the public. I used to get about a gallon sized bucket of dry ice at a time from praxair.... which to them was peanuts, to me more than I needed, but vital. sometimes the guys will even give you what you need comp, simply because it's so small it costs them nothing. you just give them a fin for a round of coffee. never hurts to ask....

but youre right about the container. probably tough/expensive to come by for the average person.

[abefroman]

I actually looked into this, you have to buy the container (empty), which you can get online, then there are companies who deliver liquid nitrogen and will come out to your house to fill your container.

[LuvPie]

there is a liquor store that sells it here.
maybe check one by you

[eeediot]

Originally Posted by abefroman

I actually looked into this, you have to buy the container (empty), which you can get online, then there are companies who deliver liquid nitrogen and will come out to your house to fill your container.

Any idea what the costs are? of the container and the liquid nitrogen. thanks

[abefroman]

Originally Posted by eeediot

Any idea what the costs are? of the container and the liquid nitrogen. thanks

I forgot the exact price, I think the container was about couple hundred bucks, and the N2 was at least a hundo.

So basically you can get a nice ice cream maker for the same price and/or serveral gallons of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

[Blueicus]

The liquid nitrogen around here costs about 3.75 per liter, which makes it about 4 times as much as gasoline. Depending on the technique you use you will need about 2 liters to spin one liter of mix (it will require proportionately less as you have more mix to spin and of course it also depends on the temperature of your mix as well. Also, if you use a faster method to make the ice cream it will also require less liquid nitrogen... but the quality will generally suffer a little.)

The texture difference between ice cream made by a high-end machine and LN2 are almost indistinguishable, and requires a bit of finesse to get it to turn out without chunks of frozen globs so depending on why you're using it you may wish to stick with the cheaper (over the long term) method. The restaurant I'm at uses a 40L insulation container, so each fill up costs around 150 dollars.

[ED BUCHANAN]

N. A .s. A