Carbonated Fruit

My Mother-in-law gave me a really fun toy awhile ago, an iSi cream whipper.  To use it you place some cream into the container and then screw on a cartridge filled with N₂O, shake it up, stick it in the refrigerator, and wait awhile.  While you wait the N₂O dissolves into the cream.  You put it in the refrigerator because the solubility of gases in liquids, unlike most solids in liquids, increases as the temperature decreases.  When you pull the trigger the pressure in the container pushes the cream out, when the cream hits ambient pressure the dissolved gas comes out very quickly (like when you open a soda bottle and some of the carbon dioxide comes out of the soda).  This makes the cream become frothy or whipped.  But that's not what this post is about. This post is about carbonated fruit.

The charger is also able to use a CO₂ cartridge.  To make the fruit I cut up some grapes (to increase the gas permeable membrane) and used Mandarin oranges.  I placed them in the charger and charged it with one CO₂ cartridge.  After about three hours I vented the container with the fruit in it and opened the container.  The fruit was delicious.  It tastes marvelous. The carbonation really tickles the tongue but the fruit is still just as sweet as it ever was.  When we did it again later we added sliced strawberries to the mix and they were great too.

Look at how the carbonation has made them swell.  You  can see the bubbles coming out of the fruit.