Later, after a chance comment regarding the rumoured powers of cornstarch, a visit to Tesco was called for. We stocked up on cornflour, hoping it was the same thing, then proceeded to make one hell of a mess all over my kitchen…

The instructions in Penn and Teller’s How to Play With Your Food were to add a little water and ‘just play’. So we did. It’s such cool stuff! If you push your finger slowly the mixture sloshes like water, but if you scoop up a load it globs and you can roll it around. Once you stop it immediately ‘melts’ back into liquid and flows away. The harder you push, the more resistance there is - it even cracks if you punch it!

It’s more fun than is legal in some countries. It also lends itself to incredibly filthy comments, but we didn’t make any of those; oh no. We messed about for ages, getting mixture everywhere. After a while it becomes a little too solid, but a touch more water fixes that. We added food colouring, which worked surprisingly well…

…and managed to avoid the temptation to start a cornflour-fight. We eventually killed it by adding washing-up liquid. As Tamsin pointed out, we should have realised that wouldn’t work - washing-up liquid is designed to get molecules to separate, after all.

I highly recommend you have a go One caveat, though: it’s a complete git to clear up. I’ve wiped down the surfaces twice now and the damn stuff keeps coming back.