Nothing is true, everything is permitted

starkmagic:

amiry:

piratesquirrel:

But how do you make silver?

Um, just want to point out that this stuff is not edible… I know it’s made out of salt, but it’s there to form a bond between the color and the metal. There are edible glitter recipes out there, though.

Okay so.  This isn’t the first time I’ve seen it posted that “this isn’t edible” so honestly, Laufeyson, this isn’t really your fault, it’s just that you aren’t fact checking while using the internet. It happens. However, this is one of those moments where I feel like common sense should’ve prevailed for anyone reblogging. 

Let’s take it from the top. 

Ask A Question: Is this “salt glitter” actually inedible because of a chemical reaction that occurs between common salt, aluminum foil and food coloring? 

Research: I did some kind of unconventional research! I called Bruce Banner and this is the conversation we had:

Bruce: I’m pretty sure that unless you are heating this at an unreasonably high temperature that there is no chemical reaction that can occur between the elements listed. 

Tony: Nothing in this equation is unstable enough to cause a chemical reaction to occur at a temperature of around 350 F… 

Bruce: If you got up to, oh I don’t know, 600 F then maybe - because that’s when aluminum foil can start to break down. 

Tony: Right, I have lit aluminum foil on fire before and it just turns to ash. 

Bruce: Correct. But if you have been using foil in the oven and cooking with salt then why hasn’t a reaction occurred before and made you incredibly sick? Because salt doesn’t break down the foil and no chemical reaction occurs there. 

Tony: And separately there’s no reaction between salt and food coloring or food coloring and foil … or else by now you would’ve ingested this - I mean these ingredients totally come together in other recipes without a reaction all the time.. 

Bruce: I just don’t think it’ll kill you. I think this is just internet rumors again. 

We also considered some facts like how if you were having a chemical reaction that you’d have a volumetric loss of an ingredient somewhere or that maybe you’d see little pinprick holes in the foil … at any rate, it should’t be fatal. We also discussed things you CAN find and mix in your kitchen that are fatal! Bruce is making a list. 

Out of six kinds of chemical reactions that can occur, really the only reaction occurring is in the dying of the salt but you dye food all the time with edible food coloring and it’s never killed you before. (If you’ve ever baked a cake with food coloring in it you’re probably aware that baking food coloring doesn’t do anything to it like make it explosive or inedible) Now, I am kind of rusty in chemistry as it’s been a number of years and I just don’t whip it out that often (unless I’m making drinks because alcoholic chemistry is what I majored in at university)…. so maybe I’m wrong and if someone who does have a strong chemistry background would like to step on in and school me, go ahead. 

My research also included this recipe from food.com which is pretty much EXACTLY THE RECIPE YOU’VE BEEN REBLOGGING. Except here they’re using a microwave instead of the oven (and also sugar for fancy holiday drinks!). Which you can totally do. You can also just let it air dry! The oven is just one method of heating. But why foil then? Well because no one wants to do dishes. True story. You don’t even really need the foil - you could do it on a plain baking sheet but then it’s a pain in the ass to scrape off or pour into a container.

This is where science happens!  

Hypothesis: My hypothesis is that people are fucking retarded and will reblog anything that they think has a scientific basis because it sounds legit even if it is not legit at all. That said, my real hypothesis is that there is no actual chemical reaction that occurs between salt, food coloring and tin foil which makes this “glitter” inedible. In fact you can achieve the same glitter using alternative methods to the aluminum foil thus negating the foil completely and busting this myth! 

Experiment: 

1. I colored two bowls of salt, one black, one green. 

2. I used two cookie sheets. The first cookie sheet had half covered in basic aluminum foil shiny side up and half in basic aluminum foil shiny side down. The second cookie sheet just has basic parchment paper on it.

3. I then labeled the shiny side up aluminum, top half was a spoonful of green glitter, bottom half was a spoonful of black. Then I did the same on the shiny side down aluminum. I drew a line on the parchment paper and did one half with a spoonful of green and a spoonful of black. 

4. I set my oven to 350 F and set the timer for 10 minutes putting in the cookie sheet with the aluminum foil. 

5. After 10 minutes was up I pulled it out and set it to cool before putting in the cookie sheet with the parchment paper. 

6. After 10 minutes was up I pulled that cookie sheet out and set it to cool as well. 

7. I walked away from the experiment, took some painkillers because I burned my hand like a novice and passed out for a few hours. 

8. When I woke up I had two bowls of air-dried colored salt, and two pans with neatly dried piles of colored salt from the oven. 

Analyze Results and Draw Conclusions: I took pictures of all the salts and compared them side by side to see if there was a visual difference in any of the salts. I really don’t have a clever way to test if anything’s chemical composition has changed so I’m not going to ingest any of this. I also did some salt in the microwave as a side variable group - and kept it on parchment paper there too. (This is how I burned my hand - I scorched it on a hot ceramic plate and managed to dump all that salt into the microwave - but I could still examine it from there before I had to shamefully vacuum it out.)

Now, if I wanted to work with a true control group I could’ve shoved a cookie sheet in the oven with just plain salt on it and just plain food coloring - but at this point I’d wasted enough kitchen resources and if I’m honest I’ve done enough cooking over the years to know that if in fact a chemical reaction occurred between salt and aluminum foil I WOULD BE DEAD BY NOW. Especially if we’re talking pumpkin seed season because that’s nothing but salt and foil and butter and seeds and somehow that hasn’t killed me yet. Also no amount of food coloring in baking has killed me yet and man, I use a lot of that. 

Examining the foil and parchment I saw nothing that indicated a loss of volume (i.e. little holes in the paper or foil) but since I can’t beyond a shadow of a doubt confirm this we’ll let it slide. 

Results: If you air dry food colored salt, microwave it, or bake it on aluminum foil or parchment paper there is no discernible difference between any of them. They all look the same. The only reason you would heat the colored salt at all is to facilitate it drying faster since the heat in the microwave or the oven would cook off any remaining liquid much faster than air drying would.

Additionally you would only really need the parchment paper or the aluminum foil if you were lining the pan and wanted an easy way to remove it from said pan and pour it into a waiting vessel of some sort.

As far as I can tell using the scientific method and my own base knowledge of chemistry (and using Bruce Banner as a call-in), there isn’t a fucking chemical reaction that occurs between food coloring, salt and aluminum foil to make salt glitter inedible. 

THESE ARE MY CURRENT FINDINGS! I WELCOME ANYONE TO CHALLENGE THEM USING EITHER THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD OR SHOWING ME THE CHEMICAL FORMULAS AND REACTION THAT WOULD MAKE ME WRONG. SERIOUSLY PLEASE DISCREDIT MY FINDINGS. OKAY. 

Also the picture that’s been reblogged around is NOT what glitter salt looks like - that’s just plain ass fucking glitter. 

(Source: handbymade)