Hello Kitchen Chemists!
While you are home enjoying your free afternoon/evening, please take some time to think about final presentations.
Here’s some more information about final projects:
Kitchen Chemistry Final Project
This is an opportunity for you to work with a classmate to delve into your own area of culinary interest. You will choose a cooking technique or topic that you would like to explore. Throughout the course you will be given opportunities to do research using in-class texts as well as online resources. Your goal is to learn the science behind your technique in such a way that you will become our class experts on that topic. On the final two days of J-Term, January 11th-12th, you will present your findings to the class and a lower school visiting class. There should be an edible component that you will share with the class and lower schoolers. You should be demonstrating some aspect of your technique during your presentation but can have some food stored to present in typical “magic of television” fashion. Presentations should be approximately 15 minutes in length and are encouraged to contain visuals and interactive components. Remember, you are explaining the science to lower school students who will range from 4 years old to 11 years old.
You may work with the same partner that you did your tasty video with or with someone new. We will need grocery lists by 9am on Wednesday to get everything that you need and tomorrow we will only be on campus from 8-10 and from 2-2:45.
We will not get to do any of the molecular gastronomy that we had planned so if you’re interested in spherification, gelification, emulsification, or powderization, we do have materials for that. We also have an immersion circulator that you could use to cook something to a very precise temperature. This website could be a good place to peruse: http://www.seriouseats.com/ particularly this section of the website: http://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab
Lauren and I presented our delicious lemon flavored dippin dots to the kindergarteners. The children appeared to enjoy our presentation. They were completely mesmerized by the liquid nitrogen, especially when we added the warm water. The kids also seemed to actually grasp some of the science behind the dippin dots (one boy even remembered the name of liquid nitrogen). Our kids were more well-behaved than we were anticipating. They were extremely patient; they all wanted to volunteer. Overall, our experience was interactive, informative, and fun! :)
ReplyDeleteLiquid nitrogen is an extremely cold liquid that is around -321 degrees Fahrenheit. Thus, we can use it to make our dippin dots, because it will instantly freeze our ice cream bases. Additionally, we taught our kids about emulsions. Our meringue was an emulsion, a mixture of two things that don't usually mix. The meringue was a mixture of the egg white and sugar with the air. The pink lemonade meringue was also pink, so we taught our kids about the red food coloring chemical: carotenoid. Lastly, we taught our kids about CO2/carbonation, which made our ice cream base in the isi whipper bubbly.
DeleteRecipe:
- separate 6 egg yolks
- add 1 cup sugar to the egg yolks
- place mixture over a double boiler setup
- mix until the sugar dissolved & incorporated
- add ½ cup lemon juice
- add 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- add 6 tablespoons room temperature butter
- take the mixture off the double boiler & cool
- add buttermilk to the lemon curd mixture (lemon curd/buttermilk ratio is 1:3)
- place ice cream base into squeeze bottles or syringes
- squirt mixture into liquid nitrogen
- let finished dippin dots warm up
- enjoy! :)
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ReplyDeleteFor our final presentation, we decided to make a household favorite, buffalo chicken dip. I have had this dip many times especially when football is on so we decided to make it. We decided to make our dip in layers, coating the bottom with cream cheese. Then making a mix of chicken, ranch, and hot sauce. Then we topped off the dip with a layer of shredded cheese, in which we baked in the over until the cheese melted. We practiced our presentation and when the kids came. We presented our dip and those who tried it, loved it. I would say that our presentation and our buff chic dip was a success. Everyone seemed to enjoy the buffalo chicken dip.
ReplyDeleteWhat we did/ how it went:
ReplyDeleteCat and I were ultimately very happy with our final presentation. We made 60+ homemade ravioli, and served them to the 1st grade class both traditionally and deep fried. When we first practiced our recipe, the ravioli puffed up when fried, so they did not appear to have much filling at all. Thus, in our second round of ravioli production, we stuffed the ravioli with as much cheese as we could. This worked much better! In terms of our actual presentation, we were able to enlist the help of 3 volunteers to help fill a demonstration batch of ravioli. In hindsight, we could have had all of the kids each get to fill one ravioli, as this would keep them occupied while the ravioli were cooking. The kids seemed to really enjoy the ravioli and were pretty engaged the whole time.
Recipe:
Pasta Dough:
2 1/2 cups flour
4 eggs
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbls extra-virgin olive oil
Ravioli filling:
1 cup fontina cheese
1 cup whole milk ricotta
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 tbls parsley
3 tbls chives
kosher salt and black pepper
Science:
When you drop the ravioli into the oil, it begins to bubble because the outer layer is being dehydrated and the water molecules are escaping, leaving little holes for the oil to absorb into. The inside is able to cook and not turn all crispy or get dry because the batter on the outside is what's being dehydrated and creates a layer protecting the inside keeping some moisture in. This is why all the fried foods you eat are generally softer and and not crispy on the inside. The ravioli is being heated up because of convection from the hot oil. Then all of the food molecules are bumping into each other and transferring the heat energy. This is conduction and its how the inside of the food gets cooked. Different types of cooking oil affect the taste and outcome of the food your frying. This is because they are each made up of different fats. Every oil has a different smoke point, which means they get hot at different temperatures. If you cook food while your oil is at its smoke point, it may make it taste bad. The oil becomes gas, and they can enter the food and change its flavor.