Kids in the Kitchen Wednesday: Fizzy Fruit

SB in the Wisconsin Test Kitchen loves few things more than science. She loves experiments and finding out why things work the way they do. We enjoy fostering this love of learning; and are always on the lookout for some teachable moments. While we're not a homeschooling family; we do find her best learning happens at home in a hands-on environment. 

A few weeks ago, Kevin's co-workers at Angelic Bakehouse (shout out to AJ!) told him about a fun food experiment involving dry ice and fruit. Here's a link to the website if you want to learn more: Fizzy Fruit

The gist of the experiment is the dry ice turns from a solid to a gas inside a cooler overnight; and carbonates your fruit- making it fizzy (think, pop rocks). This is an awesome learning experience that teaches your kids about states of matter: solids to liquids, liquids to gasses, etc. If you're looking for a helpful video to further explain matter, we highly recommend our friend Bill Nye!

Phases of Matter

Word of warning before proceeding with Fizzy Fruit: you need to wear proper protective equipment while working with the dry ice! This means warm gloves. 

Fizzy Fruit

1 block dry ice
Fruit of your choice (we went with strawberries, grapes, kiwi, oranges, blueberries and grapefruit)
1 medium sized cooler- cleaned out
Plastic wrap

Wrap the dry ice inside a towel, and place it in a corner of the cooler. 

Place your fruit inside the cooler (we found fruit that wasn't in plastic bag or cartons received more carbonation than the fruit that was).  

Wrap the cooler in plastic wrap to prevent too much of the dry ice from leaking out. You don't want to secure the cooler too tightly (duct tape would be too much); but rubber band the plastic wrap to the cooler to create a firm seal. 

Let the fruit sit inside the cooler for 12-15 hours. We did this after dinner on a Friday night; so we could have Fizzy Fruit for breakfast on Saturday. 

After 12-15 hours, remove the plastic wrap from the cooler and take your fruit out. Be careful: there might still be some dry ice inside your cooler, and you don't want to burn yourself. 

Enjoy the Fizzy Fruit!! We found the grapefruit, orange and kiwi were our favorites: they all had a slight fizzy quality to them that was extremely enjoyable! Fizzy Fruit would be the perfect dessert or snack to enjoy on a hot summer day. We were talking about how amazing fizzy watermelon would be! 

It was a fun experiment to try, and the end result was really delicious. Try fizzy fruit if you're looking for an edible science project to try with your kids. SB loved it, and is already asking for more Fizzy Fruit. Give it a try, and let us know what your favorite fruit was!

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew