Liquid Nitrogen

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Karubecue

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We have an annual church fundraiser coming up. Guessing 1600 lbs raw weight over 4 cooking days. Most customers want product frozen for later consumption, so this sets up a bottleneck in the freezing department. Has anyone ever tried dunking a (cooked and rested) brisket/butt/chicken in LN2 to freeze quickly for transfer to a holding freezer? I'm guessing the thawed texture would be improved as well. Thoughts appreciated. Bill
 
Popdaddy has only dumped people that break the rules in liquid Nitrogen.

Ya Gotta Shake somethin, right?

Oh... don't dip food.
 
Boy, some of my customers use 500# cylinders of that chit, piped into a box to freeze bushings so they will shrink a few thousands....I'm not sure if I would introduce food to something like that....
 
DivaHerself said:
...can you imagine if you dropped a freshly-dipped butt? That stuff'd shatter like glass, and then you'd have one hell of a time explaining how you put your eye out with a pork splinter.
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MMMMmmmm ... shattered pork sandwich.

Lots of food is frozen with LN2 immersion - it's not harmful and the texture is better. But it's usually used with smaller items, I think. Like frozen pies.
 
Liquid nitrogen:twisted::twisted::twisted:, almost as fun as a weedburner. That is what we use at work. It is -298 degrees F. average. Very dangerous. Personally I don't see it happening. How are you getting the LN2? Is it in a dewar? Open top or pressurized vessle? Got to remember LN2 will expand as it gass's off. Don't want to trap it. We thermal shock stuff by dunking it in LN2. We chill stuff using a coil of copper and run pressurized liquid through it. A standard dewar is pressurized at 20-25 psi. If you have a cooler you can put a copper line in sidewall, vent on other and inject/bleed liquis into it and rappidly bring down temp. Will try and see if I can get picks of a set up we got going right now. Depends on security classification. Will post tonight is possible.



Side note if you have liquid you can make some awesome icecream. I will see if I can dig up recipe/procedure. Horseplaying with LN2 someone at work put a 2 litre of coke in a ss bucket with cap on. Froze so fast it blew the top off. Imagine coke showered acoustic ceiling, electronic equipment. Also stuck a stick in a bananna and froze it, slammed it on the grouns and it shattered. Real cool until the pieces that went unger equipment started to rot. Makes quick work of a "Borrowed" $5 for a magic trick :twisted:. Heard of a hot seat? pour a little in the cushion of a coworkers office chair, dust off frost and if they sit down before it totally gass's off and Bam! frozen Nards.
 
Karubecue said:
We have an annual church fundraiser coming up. Guessing 1600 lbs raw weight over 4 cooking days. Most customers want product frozen for later consumption, so this sets up a bottleneck in the freezing department. Has anyone ever tried dunking a (cooked and rested) brisket/butt/chicken in LN2 to freeze quickly for transfer to a holding freezer? I'm guessing the thawed texture would be improved as well. Thoughts appreciated. Bill
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That's ambitious. I wouldn't try it, but I'd be interested in knowing the results. Hell, I don't know if I'd want to let the Fire Department know or not!
 
Norcoredneck said:
Liquid nitrogen:twisted::twisted::twisted:, almost as fun as a weedburner. That is what we use at work. It is -298 degrees F. average. Very dangerous. Personally I don't see it happening. How are you getting the LN2? Is it in a dewar? Open top or pressurized vessle? Got to remember LN2 will expand as it gass's off. Don't want to trap it. We thermal shock stuff by dunking it in LN2. We chill stuff using a coil of copper and run pressurized liquid through it. A standard dewar is pressurized at 20-25 psi. If you have a cooler you can put a copper line in sidewall, vent on other and inject/bleed liquis into it and rappidly bring down temp. Will try and see if I can get picks of a set up we got going right now. Depends on security classification. Will post tonight is possible.



Side note if you have liquid you can make some awesome icecream. I will see if I can dig up recipe/procedure. Horseplaying with LN2 someone at work put a 2 litre of coke in a ss bucket with cap on. Froze so fast it blew the top off. Imagine coke showered acoustic ceiling, electronic equipment. Also stuck a stick in a bananna and froze it, slammed it on the grouns and it shattered. Real cool until the pieces that went unger equipment started to rot. Makes quick work of a "Borrowed" $5 for a magic trick :twisted:. Heard of a hot seat? pour a little in the cushion of a coworkers office chair, dust off frost and if they sit down before it totally gass's off and Bam! frozen Nards.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking pour from a dewar into a steel tub and dunk in that. Or maybe the dewar itself is big enough?
 
I wouldn't personally pour it right on the food. Maybe in a tub, in cardboard box off bottom (on bricks), pour in and put a piece of plywood over tub. Have you ever fooled around with LN2? Pot some in a styrofoam cup. It will boil until gone. Put a piece of cardboard ocer cup. it will calm down and vent as needed. LN2 will hold a lot longer. I just feel dunking it is too much of an instant shock. I honestly don't think food is dunked but more introduced to an extreme cold environment. A little LN2 in a vessle will rapidly change the temp. It's more about recovery time than actually submerging it.
 
I'm eager to see the results. I'm thinking it will take a while, using more LN2 than may be worth it for just texture. I'm also wondering if the fact that it's going to take a little bit to freeze through, if there won't be some cracking.
 
I would phone a couple freight companies and see if they would donate some time with one of their refer trailers. Lots of trailers sitting m/t right now.
 
Balls Casten said:
I would phone a couple freight companies and see if they would donate some time with one of their refer trailers. Lots of trailers sitting m/t right now.
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Bingo... they rent cheap even if you can't get the donation.

I've heard that they can freeze beer kegs at the American Royal. :wink:
 
If you use liquid nitrogen, use a face shield AND safety glasses to protect your eye, gloves to protect your hands (cryo glove that can be quickly removed, ask they'll have them when you get the dewar), an apron to protect your body, and closed toed shoes in case there is a spill.

There isn't any inherent danger in using LN2 except a cryo burn and asphyxiation (don't keep the dewar in the trailer overnight, it will displace the oxygen - you'll never know it happened.

Other than that it's pretty safe.

We lost two technician at Kennedy Space Center when they entered a GN2 purged Shuttle aft main engine compartment. They didn't know it was purged, took two steps in, and never walked out....

It can be used safely, please be careful.

RMR
 
rocketmanray said:
We lost two technician at KennedySpaceCenter when they entered a GN2 purged Shuttle aft main engine compartment. They didn't know it was purged, took two steps in, and never walked out....

It can be used safely, please be careful.

RMR
Click to expand...

Had a couple guys go down in a thermo vacuum chamber also. Thank god for safety procedures. Pulling 220 lbs. with a rope teather is not as easy as you would think.
 
NotleyQue said:
You could use dry ice. Slab on top, slab on the bottom. Will freeze it pretty fast, and it will be safer.
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this will work perfect. I worked at a further processing poultry plant and we used this method. first we placed a plastic liner in a tub, filled with meat, then placed a layer of plastic on top and then poured a scoop of dry ice on top. worked great.8) then it went to a cooler until needed for production cooking!
 
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