Have You Had Any Accidental Wyoming Altitude Food Experiments? [POLL]

Folks often complain about how much air is in their bag of chips or in their canned or bottled drink. The complaint that these companies are just too cheap to fill the container all the way has some, but little truth to it.

There is a company that makes bagged Cheese Puffs in Berwick, Pennsylvania. The elevation at their facility is a mere 558 feet. By the time that bag of puffs reaches Cheyenne, Wyoming, at an altitude of 6062 feet, the bag has expanded to near the breaking point. Buy that bag in Cheyenne and drive it up Happy Jack Road to Curt Gowdy Park, between Cheyenne and Laramie. That will add an extra 1438 feet. Bags of those treats have been known to pop open just before the park gate, first hand.

Energy drinks are often sold in tin cans with the twist on caps. Finish one of those drinks in Buffalo, Wyoming, crush the can just a little, put the cap back on nice and tight. Drive up highway 16 to the rest stop at the 10,000-foot mark. Watch on the way up as the can expands to its full shape again. Drive back down the other side to Ten Sleep and watch the can crush back down. If the company making that drink had not left a little room for expansion and contraction the drink might have exploded.

Cooking in Wyoming is a little different than lower altitudes. Most cookbooks will tell you that at 3,000 the boiling temperature of the water is 208 degrees instead of 212 degrees. That includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. A cook that has cooked at different altitudes will tell you to watch out for when bread rises and how different items bake in the oven.

WARNING: That tube of biscuits that we are all afraid to pop open pops a lot louder in Wyoming. Thoselowlanderss have no idea.