As I read the links on Harold McGee’s newest articles the one titled “THE CURIOUS COOK, Prolonging the Life of Berries” REALLY stood out. Being the leader in my kitchen at work, I am always looking to cut my food costs with out sacrificing quality or my employees’ well being.
As I sat and began to read the first few lines of his article on berry preservation I was intrigued. Then my curiosity made me hop out of my seat and go grab a pack of berries out of my walk-in. “Does it really work?” I was consistently asking myself during my 45 sec trip to the walk-in.
Once I arrived to the walk-in I began to forage through every pack of berries. I had thought “WOW how ironic! This is the only time in my career where I am doing the complete opposite of what I normally do.” For once I had to look for the worst looking pack, not the best. A standard in the foodservice industry is to take the best-looking berries and use them in raw states. Then usually you take the overripe ones and turn them into compote, or bake them into pastries or make them into a batch of berry coulis.
In Harold McGee’s article he discussed such a simple yet logical solution to my question. Cutting cost sometimes doesn’t require ordering different product, sometimes its just how you apply what you have. I tend to order 1.5 times as much as I need for work. This in the culinary world is known as ordering by “edible yield percent.”
When ordering you traditionally tally what you need and order more due to non-edible waste. So in turn your food cost goes up. An example of this is if your recipe calls for eight ounces of romaine lettuce and a head of it weights ten ounces you will have just enough. So once you remove the inedible high cellulose core and the bruised outer three to four leaves you are left with 80 percent of the starting weight.
When dealing with highly perishable foods chefs tend to be able to use 100 percent of a berry but not 100 percent of the ordered product. In turn they end up with a mass of overripe berries.
These overripe berries end up leading to the chef searching for ways to use them up, practically giving them away. Utilizing McGee’s process I can order less, stop handing out as much and waste less. The whole problem with raw berries is two basic well-known issues.
The first one is the most obvious one to many chefs and it is taught at the base of many culinary programs, acetylene gas.
As some fruits sit they release their own reserve of acetylene gas. This gas will speed up their ripening process if in high concentration. If you leave a banana in a bag the acetylene gas builds up and will ripen the banana at an extremely accelerated rate. This is true with the berries in our experiment.
Second half to the problem is lead by the surface area’s bacterium and molds. The cause of decay and rot and can happen at an accelerated rate due to bacterium and mold. Mold spores are easily found everywhere, and the moisture exhaling fruits create a breading ground for them.
Along with the thin skin of many fruits it tends to lead to the rapid and easy penetration of the molds into the nutrient rich inner-flesh.
Mcgee’s preservation process is called Thermotherapy, which basically a very hot fruit bath.
This bath allows the gentle berries and fruit to maintain their raw unprocessed states with out sacrificing much. The minimal sacrifice is some nutrient loss in the thermotherapy bath.
In my experiment I took three pints of blueberries and poured them out on to a sheet pan and separated the molded or bruised ones.
Then I evenly divided the healthy ones into three groups. Then I heated one batch in 140°F water for 30 seconds. After I emptied the sample onto towels to cool down and dry, just as McGee had done. Then I took the second group of berries and “washed” them under plan cold tap water. Finally, I left the third batch of berries alone, as my control group. I did this just as i was taught by Dr. Eaton while doing scientific food based experiments in Food Science.
Once all three were processed I took three brand new airtight deli containers and placed the samples in them. The containers were clearly marked with their lids and all . Then stored on the counter top to accelerate the results. I came to realize at that point my patience would have to hold me over until the next day.
Twenty-four hours later I came back to discover that the project did result in the same out come that I had predicted. The thermotherapy treated batch had zero moldy blueberries. Meanwhile the washed batch had only three moldy berries. Finally the controlled unprocessed blueberries only had eight moldy berries.
McGee’s Blueberry experiment concluded with these results…
Out of a batch of 150 thermotherapy treated berries 2 moldy berries resulted.
Out of a batch of 150 non-thermotherapy treated berries 20 moldy berries resulted.
McGee also asked, “Why is it that delicate berries can survive heat high enough to kill mold and injure fingers? Probably because they have to do so in the field. One study of tomatoes found that intense sunlight raised their interiors to 122 degrees.”
I would like to know if that one is also true. I guess I will have to wait until my tomato plans have some maters on them this summer to find out. So, until the next page enjoy your food and CHEERS!
Jason Sokolowski C.C.
Chefsoko@aim.com
Showing posts with label Experiments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Experiments. Show all posts
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
"How Much Water Does Pasta Really Need???"
According to my pre-knowledge of this article I was taught to boil water to a rolling boil before adding pasta. I was also told at least two galloons of water per each pound of pasta. According to the article by McGee my grandmother was off by a long shot.
Harold McGee stated traditionally four to six quarts should be brought to a full rolling boil, then well salt the water The reasoning is “the usual rationales are that abundant water quickly recovers the boil when the pasta is added, gives the noodles room so that they don’t stick to one another, and dilutes the starch they release, so they don’t end up with a ‘gluey’ surface.”
McGee believes that it is possible to cook pasta successfully with less water then the traditional. The rough figures McGee stated says if we all cut our pasta water, it would be between 250,000-500,000 barrels of oil, or $10 million to $20 million at current prices.
To break down pasta cooking…
Traditional Cooking Experimental cooking
4 to 6 qts of water 2 qts of water
Rolling boil cold temp
Salted 2 teaspoons salt
1# pasta 1 #Pasta
My Detective Work…
I tested this theory on my slowest day at the JWU Radisson I took two identical pots and heated four quarts of water in one then six quarts in another, both received two tablespoons of salt and two pounds of dry pasta instead of going with a subjective analysis like McGee, I decided to go along with a more scientific approach. I cooked the pasta until equally done (al denté). From there I decided to weight the pasta, granted I could not accurately determine the starch less versus water absorbed. In turn this was more for personal curiosity, but the two pounds of pasta did not vary in weight. What varied was the clearness or viscosity of the boiling liquid.
In analysis of food and its responsive behaviors we used a variety of equipment to determine differences in scientific experiments. In turn the pasta cooked with in the two quarts less of water (four quarts all day) had a Brix Refractometer reading of dark blue number four which means there was a high concentration of sugars. Where the pasta cooked in six quarts had a lighter blue reading of +2. In turn there were more sugars in the four quarts versus six quarts sample.
You may be saying that’s obvious there is less water so the particles pulled off less liquid to float around in. So as any scientific analyzing chef would do, I rebalanced the water contents. I did so by taking one cup of four-quart solution and added ½ cup water and blended it with an emersion (or stick) blender. Finally I reanalyzed the solution to find a dark blue reading of +3. In turn both pastas really aren’t the same although they tasted the same and were cooked to the same point.
Until later with a fun food based entry,
This is Jason Soko CC signing out,
Goodbye and Happy Cooking!
Harold McGee stated traditionally four to six quarts should be brought to a full rolling boil, then well salt the water The reasoning is “the usual rationales are that abundant water quickly recovers the boil when the pasta is added, gives the noodles room so that they don’t stick to one another, and dilutes the starch they release, so they don’t end up with a ‘gluey’ surface.”
McGee believes that it is possible to cook pasta successfully with less water then the traditional. The rough figures McGee stated says if we all cut our pasta water, it would be between 250,000-500,000 barrels of oil, or $10 million to $20 million at current prices.
To break down pasta cooking…
Traditional Cooking Experimental cooking
4 to 6 qts of water 2 qts of water
Rolling boil cold temp
Salted 2 teaspoons salt
1# pasta 1 #Pasta
My Detective Work…
I tested this theory on my slowest day at the JWU Radisson I took two identical pots and heated four quarts of water in one then six quarts in another, both received two tablespoons of salt and two pounds of dry pasta instead of going with a subjective analysis like McGee, I decided to go along with a more scientific approach. I cooked the pasta until equally done (al denté). From there I decided to weight the pasta, granted I could not accurately determine the starch less versus water absorbed. In turn this was more for personal curiosity, but the two pounds of pasta did not vary in weight. What varied was the clearness or viscosity of the boiling liquid.
In analysis of food and its responsive behaviors we used a variety of equipment to determine differences in scientific experiments. In turn the pasta cooked with in the two quarts less of water (four quarts all day) had a Brix Refractometer reading of dark blue number four which means there was a high concentration of sugars. Where the pasta cooked in six quarts had a lighter blue reading of +2. In turn there were more sugars in the four quarts versus six quarts sample.
You may be saying that’s obvious there is less water so the particles pulled off less liquid to float around in. So as any scientific analyzing chef would do, I rebalanced the water contents. I did so by taking one cup of four-quart solution and added ½ cup water and blended it with an emersion (or stick) blender. Finally I reanalyzed the solution to find a dark blue reading of +3. In turn both pastas really aren’t the same although they tasted the same and were cooked to the same point.
Until later with a fun food based entry,
This is Jason Soko CC signing out,
Goodbye and Happy Cooking!
Monday, April 4, 2011
"Fruit as Caviar"
Today I looked up an author for the New York Times; his name is Harold McGee writes about a variety of topics. He also has a lot of food based discussions too. One article that stood out as interesting was his article “Fruit Gets Dressed Up as Caviar.” The original article was written on March 22, 2006.
The article discussed the combination of food with three chemicals: Sodium Alginate, Sodium Citrate, and Calcium Chloride. The three chemicals combined in the right ratio can cause a sphere of yummieyness. The Sodium Citrate is also used as an anti-coagulant in the ice cream making industry. As for the Sodium Alginate it is used as a gelling agent when making preservatives.
The Breakdown:
The food product (weather it’s a fruit or vegetable) gets pureed down and sifted through a chinois to remove any sort of fibrous impurities. From there the process requires the bright white powder Sodium Citrate to be sifted together with the off white slightly tan powder, Sodium Alginate; and then mixed with puree.
Then the calcium chloride is blended into a solution with water. From there, you take a marinade injector or an eye drop applicator and fill it with the food puree, Sodium Alginate, and Sodium Citrate. Slowly one drop at a time drop the blend into the Calcium Chloride water. As it hits the substance will create a tear size ball.
The Reaction Breakdown:
The article “Fruit Gets dress UP as Caviar” did not talk about what causes the reaction, so I did further research. Since Chef Chemist Ferran Adria was the first to discover and apply this chemical reaction, I started with google.com and his name. That really didn’t supply much information. So the next search I looked up as “the science behind fruit Caviar” What I discovered is, the anti-coagulant (Sodium Citrate) creates heat as the solution hits and reacts with the Calcium Chloride. So in the right balance, the Calcium Chloride will cook the Sodium Alginate into a barrier around the remainder of the droplet, and at the same time the center will remain liquid, so as McGee described it as ”itsy-bitsy bursts of intensified flavor in your mouth, simulating a slightly tingly effervesce.”
So in turn, the “caviar” has an eggshell around a soft embryo of puree that stayed uncooked. The wrong solution can create a fun different response. Too much Calcium Chloride will cause too much heat and cook the droplet straight though into a firm solid bead of gelatinized puree. Too little can create a “pasta-less ravioli puree.” The sack of puree would not hold a defined shape it would roll and plop around a like a stop and shop bag filled and tied half full of water.
While I was reading about the fruit caviar the thought of application popped into my head. “What if…” was my main thought pattern. An example is”What if I could make a tear drop Tabasco caviar for oysters on the half shell.” Or “What if I could make chocolate caviar into a bite size S’more with a custom gram cracker shell the size of a dime,” but these are for another journal on another day after another session of cruising the internet. Until then I will wait for my Sodium Alginate, Sodium Citrate, and Calcium Chloride to come.
Until later with a fun food based entry,
This is Jason Soko CC signing out,
Goodbye and Happy Cooking!
The article discussed the combination of food with three chemicals: Sodium Alginate, Sodium Citrate, and Calcium Chloride. The three chemicals combined in the right ratio can cause a sphere of yummieyness. The Sodium Citrate is also used as an anti-coagulant in the ice cream making industry. As for the Sodium Alginate it is used as a gelling agent when making preservatives.
The Breakdown:
The food product (weather it’s a fruit or vegetable) gets pureed down and sifted through a chinois to remove any sort of fibrous impurities. From there the process requires the bright white powder Sodium Citrate to be sifted together with the off white slightly tan powder, Sodium Alginate; and then mixed with puree.
Then the calcium chloride is blended into a solution with water. From there, you take a marinade injector or an eye drop applicator and fill it with the food puree, Sodium Alginate, and Sodium Citrate. Slowly one drop at a time drop the blend into the Calcium Chloride water. As it hits the substance will create a tear size ball.
The Reaction Breakdown:
The article “Fruit Gets dress UP as Caviar” did not talk about what causes the reaction, so I did further research. Since Chef Chemist Ferran Adria was the first to discover and apply this chemical reaction, I started with google.com and his name. That really didn’t supply much information. So the next search I looked up as “the science behind fruit Caviar” What I discovered is, the anti-coagulant (Sodium Citrate) creates heat as the solution hits and reacts with the Calcium Chloride. So in the right balance, the Calcium Chloride will cook the Sodium Alginate into a barrier around the remainder of the droplet, and at the same time the center will remain liquid, so as McGee described it as ”itsy-bitsy bursts of intensified flavor in your mouth, simulating a slightly tingly effervesce.”
So in turn, the “caviar” has an eggshell around a soft embryo of puree that stayed uncooked. The wrong solution can create a fun different response. Too much Calcium Chloride will cause too much heat and cook the droplet straight though into a firm solid bead of gelatinized puree. Too little can create a “pasta-less ravioli puree.” The sack of puree would not hold a defined shape it would roll and plop around a like a stop and shop bag filled and tied half full of water.
While I was reading about the fruit caviar the thought of application popped into my head. “What if…” was my main thought pattern. An example is”What if I could make a tear drop Tabasco caviar for oysters on the half shell.” Or “What if I could make chocolate caviar into a bite size S’more with a custom gram cracker shell the size of a dime,” but these are for another journal on another day after another session of cruising the internet. Until then I will wait for my Sodium Alginate, Sodium Citrate, and Calcium Chloride to come.
Until later with a fun food based entry,
This is Jason Soko CC signing out,
Goodbye and Happy Cooking!
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