The third salt art experiment we tried (here are parts one and two) was to bake salt blocks to make sculptures with. What we did was to mix the salt with some water to make into a thick paste and then poured it into a microwave safe container, this is where I thought it would be a good idea to 'bake' the salt mix using the microwave instead of heating up the oven. DO NOT DO IT YOURSELF, it was NOT a good idea as I had flames coming out of the box of salt, luckily I was stood nearby and spotted it and turned the microwave off straight away, I have no idea why this happened! So, instead we transferred the salt mix into silicon molds and baked it instead. Not all of the blocks worked, I think they probably needed baking longer but by this time it was getting towards dinner time and I needed to start cooking real food not setting fire to blocks of salt.
Ebi-kun was disappointed that we didn't have enough to salt to build a ceiling high sculpture like the one we had seen at Hakone, he tried sculpting the salt but it was quite crumbly so he gave up and decided to paint it instead...
Turned out quite pretty. We had salt left over and to be honest I don't fancy cooking with it so I have kept it in a tub for more salt play another day.
Sounds quite exciting if also rather terrifying!
ReplyDeleteAs you see I am still in the 'catch up' mode! That fire was because in a microwave, any sufficiently concentrated electrolyte solution will end up sparking. Don't try whole carrots with their leaves attached either. And I think there was one more watery veg which you can't put in unless diced small... Maybe you can check out the Food Detectives website if they still have some info online.
ReplyDelete