Did anyone do the temp test using a convection oven?

stevez wrote:Did anyone do the temp test using a convection oven?

I left convection off-- I was afraid the sugar would blow around!

Hi,

I didn't use convection setting, because of what Pie-love stated. If it wasn't the sugar blowing off, it would be foil taking off like a kite with the sugar.

My organic chemistry course finally got a little use. I was rather happy to identify those structures, noting to myself the fat was in liquid form and not solid. Who says I did not pay attention!

When they were calculating moles, I began to wonder where my programmable calculator was last seen.

I love it when I feel my brain stretching.

Regards,

The lectures this week were pretty good, especially Dave Arnold demonstrating the effect of small differences in cooking temps on eggs. Once again, the recommended reading in McGee's book was more informative and entertaining than the lectures. His chapter on eggs was full of tidbits I never knew such as the difference between AA and A grade eggs, the effect age has on the results of different kinds of cooking, why you shouldn't store eggs in the fridge door, and much more.

Best McGee fact of the week: Did you know that raw eggs contain little nutritional value. Lab animals lose weight when fed a diet of raw eggs, which contain proteins that inhibit action of digestive enzymes. This makes eggs less appealing as a food source to predators! Rocky Balboa could have beat Apollo Creed if he had cooked that glass full of eggs before drinking. (McGee didn't say that, but it is intuitively obvious from the facts he presents on eggs).

Just finished watching the coffee-infused rum demonstration-- I couldn't believe he poured the rum right into the centrifuge bucket-- you're supposed to put your liquid in a bottle, then put the bottle in the centrifuge bucket! I can't even think of an analogy for how weird that was... ick!!

...but the cocktail looked great.

Who is doing the egg homework? I'm thinking the ricotta might be easier, but then my daughter is home from school tomorrow with a little virus-- so I might have time to babysit eggs at specific temperatures.

Jen

Just finished watching the coffee-infused rum demonstration-- I couldn't believe he poured the rum right into the centrifuge bucket-- you're supposed to put your liquid in a bottle, then put the bottle in the centrifuge bucket! I can't even think of an analogy for how weird that was... ick!!

...but the cocktail looked great.

Who is doing the egg homework? I'm thinking the ricotta might be easier, but then my daughter is home from school tomorrow with a little virus-- so I might have time to babysit eggs at specific temperatures.

Jen

P.S. Edited to add-- Bill, thanks for the report on McGee-- I need to order a new copy of that book!

For this week's lab, I decided to do my own version of the Dave Arnold egg demo using my immersion/circulator setup, plotting energy transfer from the water to the egg as a function of time.

Bill/SFNM wrote:For this week's lab, I decided to do my own version of the Dave Arnold egg demo using my immersion/circulator setup, plotting energy transfer from the water to the egg as a function of time.

Cool! Did the "cookedness" plateau? Because it looks to me like the eggs get more cooked, even between 30, 35, and 40 minutes-- and this was at 62C, hmm.

Cheers, Jen

Jen,

By eye and by touch, the 30, 35, and 40 minute eggs seemed very similar. Differences could be attributed to variations among the individual eggs and the way the egg landed on the tray. For example, much of the "thin" white is behind and beneath the 30 minute egg, but it is in the foreground of the 40 minute one.

My conclusion was that equilibrium (T_egg = T_water) was reached between 20 and 30 minutes. More importantly, 62C is, to put it in scientific terms, too yucky for my taste. I think I'll shoot for 63C next time and see how I like it.

At the local Farmers' Market I picked up some super-fresh, raw milk. I would estimate at least 25% by volume was cream. After reading McGee's chapter on milk, I opted to pasteurize it using the ricotta recipe from the this week's lab. This was the best ricotta I've ever have, perhaps by virtue of its freshness and fat content. This cheese should be more heat-resistant, so I'm thinking of a enjoying it on a white pizza with mushrooms while I write up my lab report.

Beautiful ricotta!! I wish I could get such lovely milk here....

I tried the pasta experiment-- very interesting. I think I will do the ricotta too, but (alas) with Costco milk.

Cheers, Jen

Well, I tried cooking eggs-- I'm not sure if my attempts should be posted in "Worst Things..." or "Crimes against food", but they were not successes. I was intrigued by the calculation that one could add a specific amount of hot water to an egg and get it to cook perfectly. I had visions of boiling a kettle, brewing tea, and "steeping" an egg for breakfast after the school bus picked up my daughter. Bleh! I tried a range of water amounts and the whites always had this unpleasant texture like curdled milk. The proteins denatured, but instead of setting, they curdled. With smaller amounts of water, the yolks stayed liquid, but with more water they did cook. None of the eggs was even remotely edible.
I also tried incubating the egg in water at 63C-- that was okay, but never achieved the texture of a perfect poached egg-- the white was still too flobbery. Maybe if you like that texture of egg white. Yuck!

Well, at least I only wasted 4 eggs, not the full 12 as suggested in the lab writeup. Did anyone get the eggs to work?

Cheers, Jen

Jen,

What are you using to measure the temp? Kitchen thermometers can easily be off by a few degrees which makes a world of difference for egg whites in this temperature range. You can easily calibrate your thermometer with boiling and freezing water, but accuracy at the extremes doesn't guarantee precise readings in the mid-range.

Bill/SFNM wrote:Jen,

What are you using to measure the temp? Kitchen thermometers can easily be off by a few degrees which makes a world of difference for egg whites in this temperature range. You can easily calibrate your thermometer with boiling and freezing water, but accuracy at the extremes doesn't guarantee precise readings in the mid-range.

Great point-- I have a Thermoprobe instant read-- but you're totally right about accuracy with any thermometer. Yet another reason I find this method totally unsuitable for my kitchen! If I still worked in a wet lab, I might give it a go with our water baths-- we generally had a bath at 65C, which I could have lowered-- but I'm now more a writer than a bench scientist.

Too bad, I had high hopes for steeping eggs!
Jen

Hi,

I made ricotta to the lab instructions - actually I microwaved the milk. I have scorched milk on the stove a few too many times. I stirred the heated milk (which had boiled), measured the temp at 198 and added two tablespoons white vinegar. No stirring. I then moved the container over to the sink to cool the container in ice water.

I then made a second batch immediately for making lasagna tomorrow.

When the first batch reached 96 degrees, I poured it into four thin layers of cheese cloth. The upper half of this container had curds, the bottom half had not coagulated. I practically had the same experience with the second batch.

I took the wey-milk back to the microwave and heated it further to get everything to coagulate.

I do make ricotta when needed, though I may be impatient by the standards of this lab. I heat the milk, add the vinegar and stir. I recall once not getting many curds, so I heated milk-vinegar once more to get it going.

I wonder if the containers I used (a mason jar and a tall silicon quart measuring cup) didn't allow the vinegar to seep deeply into the milk. A pot has a larger surface area and is less deep than the containers I used.

Yes, I know, I diverted from the instructions and got what I deserved.

Regards,

Hi,

For those still thinking about this online class, first homework assignment is due December 3rd.

There is still time!

Regards,

Anyone still working on the MOOC? I got behind, so I just finished week 3. Thanks to the technical glitch, they extended the deadlines for 2 weeks, allowing me to sneak in under the wire. The ice cream was fun-- we had a similar project with my Girl Scout troop for their Kitchen Scientist badge.

Jen

I'm still in. Just finished the last week. Started working on the final project. In spite of the technical glitches, generally sloppy course organization, and useless cooking demonstrations by some of the celebrity chefs, I learned a great deal. Sent me down some pretty interesting rat holes. I probably ended up spending over 20 hours each week on the course material, but mostly on related tangents.

Decided this weekend to play with the meat glue enzyme, which was the most interesting part of the final week for me. I broke down a chuck roast into the individual muscles, removed much of the fat, sinew, etc, glued it back together, rolled it into a cylinder, sealed it in a pouch, and cooked in a water bath for 36 hours:

Bill/SFNM wrote:I'm still in. Just finished the last week. Started working on the final project. In spite of the technical glitches, generally sloppy course organization, and useless cooking demonstrations by some of the celebrity chefs, I learned a great deal. Sent me down some pretty interesting rat holes. I probably ended up spending over 20 hours each week on the course material, but mostly on related tangents.

Decided this weekend to play with the meat glue enzyme, which was the most interesting part of the final week for me. I broke down a chuck roast into the individual muscles, removed much of the fat, sinew, etc, glued it back together, rolled it into a cylinder, sealed it in a pouch, and cooked in a water bath for 36 hours...

Cool! That roast looks great. I'm glad you enjoyed it and am looking forward to catching up on some of my more tasty homework-- I would hate to drop out before molten chocolate cake!

Pie-love wrote:Anyone still working on the MOOC? I got behind, so I just finished week 3. Thanks to the technical glitch, they extended the deadlines for 2 weeks, allowing me to sneak in under the wire. The ice cream was fun-- we had a similar project with my Girl Scout troop for their Kitchen Scientist badge.

Jen

Jen,

You and I are on the same tier. I did the ice cream last night while visiting a friend.

Just the lectures for lesson three was close to three hours without taking into account all those mini quizzes. I do agree the celebrity chef demo's so far don't do anything for me. Most of it in Spanish, which I need to read and cannot really watch their demo.

Bill - what will you be doing for your final project? If you want to keep it mum for a while, that's ok.

I will be borrowing a laboratory immersion heater after Christmas, I cannot wait to try your roast pictured above.

In parallel, my Dad has been reading Modernist Cuisine. He is absolutely busting to see sous vide practiced. That roast may be our big foray into this.

Regards,

Cathy2,

I'm with your father. One of the big ratholes I fell down while taking this course was the Modernist Cuisine book. When it first came out, I was dubious. I still have a lot of quibbles with Myhrvold, but he has inspired to learn much more.

It quickly became clear to me that my interest was not to use cooking as a vehicle for learning science, but, rather, to use science to improve my cooking. If I were doing this all over again, I think I would have skipped the lectures, homework, and labs and hunkered down to read McGee and Myhrvold.

You may notice I said nothing in my description of the SV chuck roast about how good it was. OK, it was pretty good and the meat glue trick was fun and if I do it again, I'll add some seasonings to the pouch. But I think I prefer doing an eye-round roast. But the one cut of beef that I love more than any other via SV is short ribs.

My final project will revolve around a "hamburger". Meat glue will be used to study enzymatic activity and elasticity. Pickles - fermentation. Aioli - emulsion. Bun - fermentation and baking. Calculations and measurements for elasticity, heat transfer, ... you get the idea. Plan changes the more I think about it. It's not due for a long time.

Glad to find this thread. Seems I am where a couple of you are, slogged down in week three. Squarely behind but working to get caught up. Planning to put some serious time in on it tomorrow.

Thanks for the pictures!

jpeac2,

The first class with the moles and molarity was driving me crazy. I did all those comfortably years ago. I somehow had a problem following their approach. I had to pull up my old chem book and notes to work through it.

Regards,