Cadbury Patent Prevents Chocolate From Melting Before 104 Degrees
There are few small pains worse than a half-remembered chocolate bar melting in your pocket. A new patent from Cadbury may make this cocoa conundrum a thing of the past. The producer’s method involves processing sugar grains much smaller. These smaller grains have a much lower tendency of being coated in fat, which often interrupts the sweet crystalline matrix. My only concern is how well this will work with my personal favorite: high cacao dark chocolate.
Source: popsci.com
Analyzer Ensures Great Pizza Crust
Brookfield Engineering Laboratories offers the TA-PTF Pizza Test Fixture for their CT3 Texture Analyzer. The Pizza Test Fixture is designed to test the extensibility and tensile breaking strength of pizza crust and other similar food items. The measurements are used as an indicator that corresponds with the firmness and stringiness you experience as the pizza is pulled away from your teeth and palate. Brookfield works with customers to develop the testing methodology required to provide consistent test results.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Analyzer-Ensures-Great-Pizza-Crust-052112.aspx
Tensile testing pizza! It’s not every day you see materials science interact with food like this. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find this interesting.
Weird Science of the Week: The BACON gene?
Are you a Ron Swanson when it comes to bacon? Can’t resist a bbq pulled pork sandwich? Absolutely salivating just thinking about a big plate of ribs? Well, a team of scientists lead by Duke University Medical Center want you to know that your love affair with all things pork might stem from your genes.
They conducted an experiment where they requested that a group of people with different levels of a particular odor receptor gene to take a whiff and a couple bites of certain pork products and rate them. The goal was to gauge sensitivity to androstenone, a testosterone-like steroid found in male pigs.
What they found was that people insensitive to androstenone (due to a specific gene variant) had a greater fondness for pork than those with the “more sensitive receptor to androstenone.”
So the next time you get a hankerin’ for all things bacon, you can blame it (at least partially) on your genes!
I now have an excuse for not being bacon crazy!
Harvard Science & Cooking Lectures - Eat 'Em Up
Who says you have to get into an ivy league school to experience ivy league awesomeness? Harvard has been teaming scientists up with world-class chefs to deliver lectures on the science of cooking since last year.
And now you can watch them all online! Featuring greats like Ferran Adrià (elBulli), David Chang (momofuku), Wylie Dufresne (wd~50) and more.
Molecular Gastronomy and general food science has been an interest of mine for a while now. Can we say bookmarked?
There’s something about caffeine and high-speed photography that just meshes well.
(Photos by Jack Long)
High-Speed Photos of Coffee Splashes
via Mudwerks
Their slogan should be “Add a little ‘Fuck Yeah!’ to your life.”
Tamas Kalman’s Octopus Kite.
I’m also a Pet Shot Boy.
Jack Long.
Speaking of Casu Marzu…
Casu Marzu is a Sardinian cheese (though it is mostly outlawed even there). While it is supposedly fantastic, I refuse to eat anything that is processed by maggots. The cheese itself is fermented with maggots in it which break it down into a much softer, smoother product. Worse still, the maggots are left IN the cheese for consumption. As they can leap 6 inches from the vile “food” and have sharp hooks, it is generally recommend to shield one’s face while eating… or, you know, AVOID IT LIKE THE FUCKING PLAGUE!
My favorite fruit is grapes. Because with grapes, you always get another chance. ‘Cause, you know, if you have a crappy apple or a peach, you’re stuck with that crappy piece of fruit. But if you have a crappy grape, no problem - just move on to the next. ‘Grapes: The Fruit of Hope.’
Demetri Martin
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