Props to Mr. Fontana for taking all the effort to make a presentation in english! Good man who seems really passionate about what he does.

I love that he set up a powerpoint lol makes it feel like he was excited to talk about it!

Bless you Dr. Fontana. You didn't have to force yourself to speak English, and you didn't have to prepare slide shows to help us understand better, yet you did. It truly is an honour to be able to learn from you about salt.

ive worked at the Maldon Salt factory and I can honestly say that you made this whole process a hell of a lot more interesting than those at the factory did.

Nothing is more pure than the excitement on Adam's face when he starts talking about space salt growing at 9:39

Adam getting all these experts for fact videos are something else

love seeing the grin Dr.Fontana got when talking about the space crystals

Dr Fontana seemed very excited to tell us about this topic, makes me really happy seeing him talk so passionately about it Edit : Ohh thanks for the likes, didn’t thought anyone would see the comment

When I read the title, I thought salt crystals grew "inside" pyramids - like Egyptian pyramids. I guess I won't ever get to try tomb salt one day. :(

Thank you so much Dr Pietro Fontana for taking the time to share your immense knowledge with us.

I reached out to the Nile Red KZfaq channel to see if the channel would be interested in taking this project on. The guy who performs the chemistry experiments on that channel is always fascinating and entertaining much like yourself. I would love to see the two of you do something together. This sounds like a perfect crossover project.

funny that adam has to explain hoppers as something from industry but most people under 25 will know it from minecraft. edit: In theory you don't need to do the skimming part if you can get the water thin enough right? if you can find the height of the hopper crystals when they sink then just make your brine solution super thin. that is probably extremely hard to do because of water's surface tension causing it to stay together even on a perfectly flat surface. the other option is to find an additive that decreases water's surface tension dramatically, is non toxic to humans, and doesn't bond/interfere with salt hopper crystals forming.

Dr. Fontana seems like such a nice professor!

11:44 I've made tons of salt crystals just like those! I've only made hopper crystals accidentally, but in the past I've tried to make big "cubes" many times, with limited success. I think the vodka helped dilute the ions and made the crystals grow more slowly, basically the opposite of what you are trying to do. If I were to give you any tips for growing hopper crystals, it would be to try to emulate the fleur de sal method a bit more, maybe insulating / cooling the bottom of the bowls and putting a fan over the top of the bowl. Also, if you're patient, I don't recommend making supersaturated solutions by heating them up and putting more salt in. That tends to really mess stuff up when you want a specific crystal growth. I can also recommend having a PURE salt solution - like, REALLY pure. I know it doesn't look to clean to see them growing salt over literal dirt, but I can assure you any contaminants / anti-caking agents will greatly affect the crystal's nucleation, as well as tendencies to agglomerate / form a raft. An easy way to do this is by using a pure pickling salt, and running the solution through a coffee filter right before pouring it out into bowls - if you're not already. However, since Maldon uses "sea salt" then normal pickling salt will not be the same. Sea salt has other ions in it like Mg and Ca, and these will also affect the growing tendencies. Not all sea salt is the same, though, so it would be really handy if you could analyze some of Maldon's sea salt to see roughly what concentrations of elements they have. You might also be able to do some undercover investigating by asking them where specifically they source theirs! Anyways, good luck! Salt crystals are VERY finnicky, but replicating something that's been perfected to a T should be at least doable. I want to grow bigger, clearer cubes, like natural Halite crystals, but they take years of water filtering through rocks to grow like that 😭

Between the scientist and the reporter we have a clear understanding of salt crystals. Well done gentlemen.

If you are looking for other things to try, my first addition to your method would be testing out different speeds on a magnetic stirrer. Small initial investment, but a hands free agitator that works from the bottom up -- not something that you stick into the brine from the top and stir, which would mess with your prospective hopper crystals floating at the surface.

As a Swiss person myself, I was really happy when I heard Dr Fontana's Swiss accent in one of your videos ^^ Really interesting topic as well, great job Mr Ragusea!

About a month ago the other cooking youtuber, the French guy Alex, did a video on this flakey salt and he was actually succesful in producing hollow crystals

"My name is Pietro Fontana. But everybody calls me Fontana."

Hey Adam, I recently uncovered a big can of worms that I think could be a classic Ragusea research topic. It has to do with how often people go to the store and buy groceries. Living in American suburbs (Portland, OR in case it matters), I grew up with the family going to the store every 1-2 weeks, loading up fridge freezer and pantry, and then eating from the stockpile until it's no longer practical. Recently it has come to my attention that a very large portion of the world buys their groceries day-of or day-before. The topic arose from a discussion (argument) about urban planning and transportation. Cities in the US, Canada, etc are primarily low-density and designed for cars, whereas in Europe and many other places, they tend to be higher density and lean primarily on mass transit. I expressed dismay at how one could possibly get their 2 weeks' supply of groceries while relying on light rail, and this was the first many of them had heard of such a thing. This lead to a bit of mutual culture shock. They couldn't imagine how I could keep 2 weeks' worth of bread (7 loaves for 2 people) fresh. I couldn't imagine anyone eating that much bread. I'll buy 1 loaf of sourdough and have real trouble getting through it in 2 weeks. They imagined the only reason one might shop for more than 1 day of food was because it takes 45 minutes for an American to drive to the grocery store (a fashionable myth that probably comes from LA and NYC having a duopoly on media). Whereas to most Americans I know, the only reason one would schlep to the store every single day would be due to not owning a car for whatever exotic reason ($8/gal gas, roads designed circa Caesar or Stalin, etc). All this leads to some interesting thoughts and questions. How much does something as seemingly unrelated as road planning affect our diets? When you have no choice but to get your food fresh every day, there's a lot less demand for something that'll be shelf-stable for weeks. Which method leads to more food waste, the one which gives food more time to go bad, or the one in which more foods are use-it-or-lose-it? Speaking of food waste, create less of it with the sponsor of today's comment, HelloFresh! The Europeans I spoke to tended to think I was lying when I said my lettuce stayed fresh for 2 weeks. Does that mean we're storing it differently, or are the lettuces different (GMOs, cold chain, etc)? Is this even a difference between the US and Europe, or are there large populations living both ways everywhere? Is there a nation-level correlation between car ownership and consumption of frozen and processed foods? And most importantly, how in the name of all that is holy can people eat that much bread and still be healthy?

Dr Fontana: my hobby are crystals. HELL YEAH BROTHER

As a chemist, I absolutely love videos like this because it's always fascinating seeing where two of my biggest passions intersect. And I ALWAYS learn something whenever I watch one of your videos. I'm super grateful that you clearly take the time and effort to truly understand a subject before you bring it to us, and it's refreshing seeing content that's so well-informed. And I'm not an expert (though I do grow a lot of crystals in lab), but my best guess at trying to solve the salt crystal dilemma would be to use supersaturated solution just to initiate the crystal growth, and then when you use it to seed another solution, make it less concentrated than fully saturated. I like to get my solutions to the point just before saturation and let evaporation take it down the rest of the way.

I love your videos Adam, you are a great model for journalists, you try hard to be unbiased, highly informed and you cover important and interesting topics many people dont even consider

I could tell from his accent that Pietro Fontana is swiss. English swiss German accent 🥰 hi from Zurich

KZfaqr *Nile Red* might be your man to grow a hopper crystal for you. maybe you should do a collab together

That is awesome. Dr Fontana was so excited to talk about his "hobby" he wrote a paper and did a powerpoint.

Judging from history, Adam will soon give us a salt recipe.

I love Dr. Fontana! It's so cute that he made a powerpoint presentation for you! 🥰

Those "hand quotations" are making me feel like I am "missing" some sort of "innuendo".

If it's agitation that can prevent agglomeration, I wonder if you could evaporate brine over a vibrating plate, or even in one of those ultrasonic cleaner tanks to keep then separate

Grüezi Herr Fontana! 😁🇨🇭

Crazy! Never knew that! Salt science is more detailed than i would've thought

His voice is actually quite relaxing because he is taking his time to enunciate!

Hi Adam. Let me speculate about why your ethanol experiment produced solid crystals: the surface tension of ethanol is only about 1/3 that of water. Maybe what's going on is that the ethanol molecules are creeping up over the edge of the hopper (bringing sodium and chlorine ions with them) and into the interior while the hopper is still floating on the water/ethanol mixture. If this is in fact happening, you might get a better result by reducing the concentration of ethanol in your solution (e.g. try 3 parts water to 1 part ethanol).

The concluding sentence raised a very important question: What's his favorite *organic* substance? Then it hit me. White wine, duh.

I really appreciate how incredibly detailed and well curated this whole video was

Dr. Fontana’s passion is really inspiring ✨

Alex just did it. I think the composition of the salt has a lot to do with the pyramid shape. I tried Alex's process and I was forming cubes that float. They were flaky but they were too small. They were sinking before they could get big (because of the shape) so I had to harvest them while still floating.

I love the way you collaborate with researchers and other experts. It adds a lot to your videos.

Thank you to Dr. Fontana for devoting so much effort towards educating and enlightening us, and another thank you to Adam for the subtitles; that habit became a great, indispensable tool in this video!

I was wondering about this a few years ago. Nice to know!

This is a very interesting question, crystal eng is hard stuff. Have you tried seeding with Maldon salt? Here’s something I might try: obtain a saturated (but not super saturated) salt solution at room temp in very very clean water (distilled and put though a .25 micron filter) with extremely pure salt (>99.99%) in a dust free environment if possible on a brand new glass Pyrex dish (no scratches for nucleation). Cool down the solution to ~34-40 F and carefully put 5-6 crystals a time of the maldon crystals on the surface start growing crystals put back in the fridge and wait 1-2 hours checking every 30 min or so but not touching the dish.

I just want to say that I always appreciate the smooth transition from the video to the still image squarespace background

I absolutely LOVE these types of videos, so interesting. Shoutout to Mr. Fontana as well, his english is great!

I'm going to try this with my kids. To maximize the rate of precipitation and minimize the sinking: - pour the hot saturated solution out just a few mm deep on a sheet pan - ice packs under the sheet pan - very dry air and/or a fan?

I wonder if the crystals respond to electrostatic forces differently than the solution? Perhaps gravity could be somewhat offset if the crystals could be charged slightly and attracted upwards towards an opposite charge (or repelled from below). Diamagnetic forces are incredibly weak but who knows how they might alter crystal growth. Be interesting to see. Or sonic levitation that will act upon different shapes in different ways, but not the solution? Have you tried running the crystallization in a partial vacuum to lower the solution temperature, and hence Brownian motion? Perhaps growth will change under exposure to different frequencies of light as forming crystals might build up a charge. Or go the opposite and try growing crystals in a centrifuge. This shit is so cool!

The things i learn in this channel. Love it !

Thank you for the detailed presentation Dr. Fontana!

Explain why paneer doesn't melt like normal cheeses

I'm trying to loose weight, but was aching for a salty snack...so I was literally snacking some salt crystals when this video popped up in my feed....wtf ragusea? now I'm playing with my food, searching for tiny pyramids!

I just love how transparent you are with your videos. I know that you have to disclose adds, but you didn't need to tell us that Mr Fontana was reading off of a script. I wouldn't have noticed, but it is still nice to know. Keep up the great work

Adam, I applaud your ambition and curiosity. Thank you for sharing the result in such a easy-to-enjoy way.

Ah yes, now I clearly see that egyptians invented salt. Jokes on the side, quite interesting topic!

The Hopper Cubes from Space is simultaneously fascinating and horrifying if you're prone to imagining dystopian fiction when paired with the notion that food companies have a vested interest in producing more 'efficient' salt formations. In 2050, people will be paid $11 an hour to go on their daily commute to space to work at the Antigrav Salt Farm!

Honestly one of the most interesting videos you've made (yet)!

I was surprised how exited this video made me, you really make all things food super interesting Adam, great job!

Already knew Mr Fontana is Swiss from the first word. But i guess it would be the same when i talk English. ^^ Very interesting video! After stumbling across the video fo Alex and this one, i want to try it myself. All that's left to say: Thanks to you both for this very interesting video! Cheers from Switzerland

Great video as always. Are you ever going to make that video you mentioned once about the health implications of types of pan surfaces or did that idea get scrapped? I’d be really interested if it’s still on the docket.

I've always appreciated your research, interest, understanding and presentation of the science of food!

This will be one of my favorites of your videos. Congratulations 👏👏👏

Haven't watched this yet but I've watched enough History Channel to know that the answer is ancient aliens

I think the difference with yours to the one I saw that worked, is that he kept his fairly warm and started a little more diluted, like sea salt and evaporated it down till crystals form.

These videos get better and better. Well done

Oh, this is so cool! Dr. Fontana's presentation was great, made me miss my old chemistry lectures.

I love the smirk on your face when you say (paraphrased) “the crunch when you bite into them!” You genuinely love salt and all its wondrous pleasures. Edit: I am just as excited and geeked out about salt and it’s funky/cool science!

Making the crystals are fairly easy. You just use a special mesh floating on the surface as a starter, the mesh keeps the crystals separated you then lift the mesh when you get crystals to your likening shake them off and repeat. This process requires fine control of the solution level but over all it’s pretty easy to do with the right machine

thank you Adam and thank you Dr. Pietro for this video, really, REALLY cool.

This was some of your best time-lapse footage yet!

Cyrstallisation is one of most marvellous creations of nature! 💙

I have a business idea that involves manufacturing those salt hopper cubes in space and then selling them to rich people back on earth, who's with me?

I've worked and hung out with a lot of people from mid to eastern Europe and honestly it didn't even register that he was reading from a script. His English is fantastic! I hope he's having a wonderful day

Another great video. I learn something new every time!

salt can cake together? Found the new birthday cake replacement bois

Ah yes a fellow swiss person, he rocks^^

the prof is so cool! what an interesting subject, love it

This man is one the the greatest teachers I have ever seen. I have been learning to cook for the past couple months and learn so much and always useful information. Thank you.

I have Maldon salt and it's pretty good to use as a seasoning and food added with it tastes better than traditional salt. I experimented by making simple lemon and salt drink using 3 4 different salts and the Maldon salt was just significantly better than any salt.

Yea, don’t go through airport security TSA with the “sea salt” 😂😂😂😂😂

Love this style of video! :) Keep it up Adam

Holy crap, what a cool video. Really appreciated Dr. Fontana's expertise too

Dude, I'm not lying when I say I was Googling how to make flaky salt just this afternoon! Wanted some to sprinkle over tarts, but would never dare to buy those astronomically priced foreign brands. Thanks for the science lesson!

Didn't he Post this already

What a nice bloke took the time to give you a detailed explanation and a whole presentation to go with it makes everything easy to understand

Mrs. Frizzle taught me about crystal formation, thank you for the refresher.

Illuminati confirmed

im eating chips right now

Please Mr. Fontana we appreciate him taking the time and in english too! He was great 👍🏼

Hey Adam I'm a material science student and I have a crystallography exam tomorrow lol. I have some ideas if you're interested. First I'd try supersaturated solution at elevated temp but not boiling. Drop a smaller pan full of ice water on top and see if you can get crystal growth on that substrate. I'd also try a pan full of supersaturated solution, about an inch deep. Drop it in the fridge for a few hours and see what kind of crystal growth you see. More ideas but I think a chilled substrate with a hot solution has some potential

When the salt is Egyptian

BIG CHUNGUS YODA

awww bless his heart. im touched that he took the time to do this in english. thank uu Dr. Fontana!

Cool video! I also grow crystals for a living and love seeing you include these science concepts in your food videos. I suspect with the ethanol, it likely acts as an antisolvent, which lowers solubility of the salt in the solution. Lower solubility typically means fewer nucleation events which will result in fewer, but larger crystals. But depending on setup, might make the growth faster and give you less time between hopper crystal formation and filling it in.

Adam convinced me to adopt an African child for heterogeneity in the family

I think I’m first

Love your videos cutting board man!

Thank You Dr Fontana. His english was superb, i know it mustve been difficult to prep in english but his presentation was well put together

Dr. Fontana killed it! This was a super interesting topic!

Extremely interesting ! Well done !

Adam your content never ceases to amaze me. I thought I wouldn't care one bit about salt crystals, but I am surprisingly intrigued.

Very cool. I appreciate you getting industry experts in you videos. I think it takes it from an interesting topic to a micro learning adventure. I appreciate your channel as it has me experimenting in the kitchen more frequently. I am curious why you location bounces back and forth from Knoxville to Macon.