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Custard's Cult Following
Custard is delicious. It may also be miraculous—or at least non-Newtonian. Mixed with enough starch, uncooked liquid custard has the strange property of becoming more solid the more you press on it. It is therefore possible to walk on custard, as demonstrated in a clip from the British television show Brainiac that’s been making the blog rounds, most recently on Spluch.
In this video, a swimming pool is filled with uncooked custard, which the cohost then carefully walks across. The secret is to keep moving. Once the pressure is let off, custard becomes quicksand, as you can see at the end of the video.
Walking on custard has since become quite the popular party trick, employed at summer camps and science fairs. The odd properties of custard have even spawned a proposed cult. But would a custard god be a benevolent god? Judging from recent coverage of the world’s largest custard pie fight, the answer is “Mmmph.”
Posted by | Thursday, August 2, 2007 at 6:16am | 2 comments
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I was a little scared for him at the end of that video. And I had a secret hope that the Oompa Loompas would come out singing as he sunk into the goop.
Sort of a bummer that it's not cooked. Basically, this isn't uncooked custard--it's slurry, a.k.a the mixture of cornstarch and water that's poured into sauces as a thickening agent.
But even small amounts of cornstarch and water (enough to fill a Silly Putty egg) are really fun to play with.