Chemistry of Food and Cooking: How to Create the Cheesiest Quesadilla Ever
How can food’s energy content, nutrition, texture, taste etc. be explained in terms of the atomic, molecular and macromolecular structure of the food? In our recipe card, Caity and I wanted to focus on the texture of the quesadilla. Would it be chewy or gooey on the inside and crisp on the inside? We wanted to make sure that it wasn't completely soft on the inside or outside, not melted at all, or chewy and hard. I looked at the science behind finding the right, melty cheese. I found that casein, a type of protein in milk that includes micelles, is important to finding the meltiest cheese because it includes calcium. These micelles hold up to 2/3 of the calcium in milk. Changing the properties of these proteins causes the casein to clump and leave behind a milky waste called whey. You can use rennet, an enzyme found in lambs or calves stomachs, or acid along with heat to cause the clumping. When the milk is treated with acid and heated, the caseins squeeze out the fats and liquids and forms a curd that is creamy but not elastic. This is not good for quesadillas because although the cheese is creamy, it breaks apart. But when the milk is treated with rennet and heated, it traps the fats and liquids into a gel-like network which is really good for quesadillas because the cheese is gooey enough to spread the quesadilla apart and still have cheese spreading with it. (if you would like to read more in depth on this, you can look at the recipe card below)
How can we measure the qualities and desirability of a finished recipe both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to determine the success of our recipe experimentation. If you wanted to measure how many people liked the finished recipe, you could use a quantitative test such as a survey and use the results to make a graph. For example, if you wanted to know how desirable the pizza is that you made, you could have people taste test it and fill out a survey. The results from this survey could help you produce a chart or graph to present how desirable your recipe is. If you wanted to measure the quality of the finished recipe, you could create a scale from 1-100% and have people taste test your recipe, if they really enjoyed it but felt that it could be improved they could rate it an 80%. If they loved it and thought it tasted like heaven, they could rate it a 100% but if they think the total opposite, they could rate it a 2%. This would show the quality of your final recipe.
In what way(s) is cooking like doing science and in what way(s) are they different? How are a cook and a food scientist similar or different? I think that the only difference between food and science is that in science you are using a lot of chemicals and elements that take even the slightest change to effect it completely. Whereas, if you were to put the slightest amount more of salt in a cake, then it won't completely change it too the point where it isn't edible anymore. They are similar because they both have a "recipe" or rules of how much of certain substances or ingredients can go into the mixture, and they both have something that these ingredients added together make. I think a cook and scientist are similar because they are always experimenting and trying something new with their ingredients. They are constantly modifying the recipes to have new or improved outcome. They both use heat and cold to change the properties of their mixtures. But they are also different because a scientist works in a lab and a cook works in a kitchen, a scientist uses ingredients that can result in food, something life threatening, or toxic and a cook uses ingredients that can result in food, can get you sick, or can taste gross.
Energy & the Environment
1. Rank the sources you cited on your infographic from “Most Reliable and Least Biased” to “Least Reliable and Most Biased”. Provide an explanation for your ranking scheme. Most Reliable and Least Biased: http://www.moneycrashers.com/hybrid-cars-pros-cons/ This source is least biased to me because it is just about informing buyers of what the pros and cons are of hybrid cars. They aren’t trying to force you to buy hybrids. But there are more pros than cons which could make it seem more biased towards hybrids. I would say this source is reliable because it has been featured in CNN, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, etc. so it has been used for other topics other than hybrids. Least Reliable and Semi-Biased: http://www.carsdirect.com/green-cars/major-pros- I think that this source is pretty reliable because it is a website focused on cars but it can also be a little bit biased because it shows more pros than cons and shows that there was more effort put in to find and support the pros than the cons. Pretty Reliable and Most Biased: http://www.plugincars.com/electric-cars-pros-and-cons This source is really reliable because it had some really good points on the pro and con sides and they had a balance of both. I would say that it is the most biased source because its main focus is hybrid and electric cars so it may try to urge you to buy hybrids or electric cars.
2. Classify all of the sources cited on your infographic as primary, secondary or tertiary. Explain the rationale for your classification for each source. All of the sources I used were secondary sources because they were all articles that were not published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal like most primary sources and none of them referenced another source like tertiary sources do.
3. Read over the Abstract from one of the primary sources you used. If you did not consult a primary source for your infographic, find one that is related to your topic and use it for this question. Primary source used: http://www.livescience.com/5216-energy-debates-hybrid-vehicles.html 3.a. Who are the authors of this paper, what journal is it published in and when was it published? Charles Q. Choi, Published in Live Science on December 17, 2008 3.b. Summarize the key points from the abstract. There are many different types of hybrid technology available to car makers, the pros being saving money and helping cut emissions, and the cons being that it’s more expensive to produce a hybrid than a regular car and each hybrid is different in size and gas mileage. 3.c. Based on this abstract, what do you think the purpose of an abstract is and what information do you expect to find in the abstract of a scientific journal article? I think the purpose of this article is to show what types of hybrids are out there and to state what the big pros and cons are for hybrids.