HOWTO Make honest, simple fake snot

Oh, I know that there's this huge vogue today for making fake snot with molecular gastronomy techniques, a kind of gourmet fetishism for this basic, simple, honest farmland staple. I don't care. I like my fake snot like I like my text-editors: simple, powerful, and green. Lucky for me, About.com Chemistry's Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., has an old-fashioned, traditional folk-recipe for fake snot.

This is a gooey, gross variation of the traditional slime recipe, great for Halloween and other occasions requiring snot.

How To Make Fake Snot (via Make)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Green • Happy Mutants • Kids • maker

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Evil Jim

What’s wrong with just straining the yolk from an egg?
Takuan

stench
Antinous

I never seem to run out of the real stuff.
fizzding

Another very easy “snot” can be made by boiling a cup of flax seed in a few cups of water.

It is edible, has a clear-to-opaque look that I imagine is easy to modify with food colouring, and is very inexpensive.

It also makes a nice egg replacement, go figure.
waugsqueke

Do not accept dishonest snot.
Phikus

ANTINOUS: Everyone nose you are a good honest ol’ factory? Does it run in the family?
Takuan

don’t be so phlegmatic.
Anonymous

I used to work in makeup effects and I know that we always used methyl cellulose for slime. The toy “slime” is the same stuff. Methyl Cellulose is non-toxic (you see it as a food thickener on ingredients labels and is used as a food supplement for constipation) and comes in the form of a white powder. Mix in cold water to desired thickness and you’re good to go. Use food coloring in the water before mixing to tint it. I saw some online for about $12 a pound. Have fun getting slimy!
glatt

The article says “Don’t eat or inhale the snot. Borax isn’t particularly toxic, but isn’t good for you either.” but then a linked page on the same website says “The estimated lethal dose (ingested) for adults is 15-20 grams; less than 5 grams can kill a child or pet.”

If eating the snot will kill you, I’d say that constitutes being “particularly toxic.”
5t311a

I used to make this when i was 4 years old but my friend and I emptied the stuff from the Hoover and dirt from the garden into it to make it real!! No green food coloring tho……..I didn’t try it, but it did put me off from eating my boogers for a week……..
mork the delayer

What text editor do you use?
nanuq

You’re supposed to buy green, not make it.
Takuan

has to be a PVA glue?
andrewkantor

I’m just glad I can give up that dishonest-snot recipe I had been using.
Anonymous

You might think this is funny, but it’snot.
Kabur Naj

Wouldn’t the only way to make *honest* snot involve soliciting donations from a bunch of people/animals? Any other type of snot would, by definition, be ersatz.
buddy66

wonderful things
help i cant comfirm my username themelonbread

What about just dieing the mucilage from an aloe vera green?
mondegreen thoughts

#6….Ersnotz?

(somebody get me Wham-O…)