Spork

OR P K S

What Happened to the Congress Trailers? page 16

MAGAZINE

Play with your food Page 6 Evolution of food Page 12 Food Chemistry in the kitchen Page 24

Issue 1 December 2013

contents

6

How the pros plate their food

2

12 11 The evolution of food

Which food goes with what?

24 16 Where did the South Congress trailers go?

Sorry, no potions or explosions: this is the chemistry of food

20

28 Cookie inception: A how-to

The history of chocolate

3

About The Creators Favorite dinner: Tacos al Pastor Favorite snack: Nutella Burritos

kendall

Favorite restaurant: Zen Japanese Food Best kitchen utensil: Piping Bag

Favorite dinner: Pasta

sarah

Favorite snack: Nutella Favorite restaurant: Torchy’s Tacos Best kitchen utensil: Wooden Spoon

Favorite dinner: Chicken Enchiladas Favorite snack: Sarah’s Chex Mix

lena

Favorite restaurant: Pei Wei Best kitchen utensil: Slotted Spoon

Favorite dinner: Mashed potatoes

bella

Favorite snack: Cookies Favorite restaurant: Freebirds Best kitchen utensil: Blender

Photos by Winter Lomme

4

Letter From the Editors Photo by Winter Lomme

Dear Readers, All of our passion for food exploded and splattered across our first issue of Spork. We editors take pride in all of our work and research that we have done to produce this magazine that you see in front of you. We hope you enjoy your reading experience while learning more about the wonderful world of food. All of the stories, whether they deal with how to make cookies or the relocation of the trailer park, were created Spork to educate and entertain our readers.

Through this entire working experience we strived to make this magazine the best it can be. We accomplished this through extensive interviews, tons of writing and hours of wrestling with the computer. Interviews made us realize that the fear of talking to strangers was a little irrational after we realized they are just as nervous as us. These stories took an eternity to write and format. We shouted at our computers to that people started to feel concerned for our well being. Aside from our struggle, it was absolutely worth it to bring these stories to you, the reader. Enjoy!

- The Spork Team 5

Photos by Bella Myers, Mike Sutter and Kyle Jernigan

pretty pretty

By Bella Myers

The pros give plates height, contrasting textures, and bright colors to make the food appetizing .

When it comes to food, taste isn’t everything.

The way a plate looks can make or break the dish, even before the first bite.

“People eat with their eyes before their mouth,” said Jacob Weaver, Head Chef at Asti Trattoria. He explains the plate must include contrasting colors, visual textures and height.

he has designed. The masterpieces appear one by one, all intricately crafted. Each has a variety of shapes and colors. If he sees a dish that looks a little bland he asks himself, “How can we make the color pop?” “[We] add anything from parsley to green onion tops, [but it] doesn’t always have to be green,” Weaver said. “You could garnish with a butternut squash” to contrast with the main look of the plate.

“eat People with

their eyes before their mouth.

Alexander Velando, general manager of Fogo de Chao, who has worked in the food industry for over twelve years, explains Weaver’s point further.

“Viewing [is] like a candy or a work of art.”

Velando said.

Jacob Weaver stands close to the counter supervising the cooks as they prepare the food

”

Elizabeth Zerega, the manager of Kome, a Japanese restaurant and sushi bar, agrees with Weaver. She said in traditional Japanese cooking the color in the fish contrasts with the neutral colors of the noodles or rice. This natural color provided by the fish usually-

The quail special made with quail stuffed with sausage, basil, and butternut squash.

brightens up the plate by itself but on the rare occasion when there isn’t a naturally bright color in the dish, she said, “a lot of the time [we] use parsley or a bright sauce to bring contrast to the plate.”

Even in places like Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian Barbecue restaurant, the chefs consider color. This aspect of food is considered not only in the main dishes

but also in other dishes, like salads and desserts.

“People aren’t going to pay for some wilted leaves or some asparagus that just doesn’t look nice,” Velando said. “For the premium that people go out to eat, they want everything to look fresh and clean, [and] to feel pampered.” And this is the goal for many restaurants.

7

Another feature in presenting food, Zerega said, are the plates.

Each dish in Japanese cuisine has its own plate. For example, it is

common to use “wood en boards [with the] sushi for a clean, overlooking feeling,” she said. Also the rice is almost always served in

(top) Little Gem Lettuce with Cauliflower and Butternut Squash. On the side pine nuts & raisin agrodolce add color and contrasting shapes. (bottom) Linguine & Littleneck Clams with chili flakes, garlic, white wine, olive oil and bread crumbs.

Photos by Bella Myers

small cups, and soups are placed in shallow bowls so the small spoons can reach the food to make it easier for the customer to eat.

The way the food is placed on the plate is as important as what plate is used. Professionals use various traditional techniques, such as placing the sushi in locations that are “easy for the chopsticks to pick up, [with] either their size or shape.”

Zerega said.

Weaver at Asti’s also considers the dish he serves the food on: “You wouldn’t want to present something that’s soupy or wet on a plate because it

would kind of all go over the edge, so you would put that in a shallow bowl.” One must think about the functionality of the dish when cretain foods are placed on it.

A bowl would not be good for finger foods, and at the same token a plate would not work well for a saucey dish.

Another technique Weaver uses is creating height in a dish. “[Chefs] pile [the food] very high,” Weaver said “Then [the custumer] can deconstruct it at the table, but it’s important it gets to them [looking] nice.”

Along with height, Weaver describes the importance of the contrasting shapes and textures in his new cauliflower salad.

“The square, kind of cubical butternut squash, with the round, organically lopsided cauliflower and then the straight clean lines of the Romaine sticking out of the top [is] aesthetically pleasing whether it be knife cuts or shapes or different textures.”

Shapes give depth to the plate, and makes it interesting, but it also can also be useful in differentiating between ingredients.

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Photo by Bella Myers This dish, Beets and Ricotta, made with red beets, ricotta cheese, pistachios, and olive oil, demonstrates contrasting shapes, textures and height.

Sometimes texture is used to for more practical presentation rather than to look appealing.

“The texture of the meat is a good way to tell people about the difference in the meat,” Velando said.

“Marbling is the distribution of fat in the meat and helps enhance the flavor so

you can talk to people about what they are looking for in the kind of meat ... and the different textures also give the different flavors to the meat.”

In Japanese food, the different knife cuts used by Japanese chefs add much of the texture and shapes to their dishes along with the natural shapes.

“There are different ways to slice fish. Each chef has special ways of slicing, like a signature. It is really the biggest art in Japanese food presentation.”

Zerega said.

All these Chefs have many techniques and ideas in common, but you can tell with one glance at the plate who they were made

by. Each has their own take on the many rules followed in the kitchen making each of their plates unique.

“It’s extremely important, the one thing you hear a lot in restaurants is that people with their eyes before their mouth,” Weaver said. “It’s really important that things are appetizing.”

9

Out with the old and in with the new

The Dish Co. 1-800-555-4736

Food pairings By: Lena Teckenbrock Foods can be sometimes be boring and average, and when you try to spice it up, it can become overwhelming. Here are some pointers to adding flavor but not ruining the dish, along with some food pairing examples with some you may not have thought of.

Sweet and Sour

Sweet and Salty

This classic pairing rule works because the sweet flavor mellows out the sharp sour flavor

The way this pairing rule works is the salty flavors amplify the sweet flavors.

Sugar Water

Strawberry

Lemons

Balsamic Vinegar

Caramel

Milkshake

Popcorn

French Fries

Creamy and Spicy How this pairing works is creamy foods calm your mouth after you eat agitating spicy foods.

Chocolate

Ancho Chile

11

The Evolution of Food

By Lena Teckenbrock Sarah Edwards is a British chef who decided not to cook.

Photo by Sarah Edwards

“I’m too old to cook.

Because it’s quite hard work. So I write about food instead.” Edwards said.

In order for food companies to keep up with what people desire, they will look at concepts developed and collected by companies, like the one Edwards works at and co-founded, “thefoodpeople”. At first,They started out as a team that helped develop food for supermarkets. “[We were] making up their food products, cooking it [and] getting it through all the quality procedures that there are,” Edwards said. But then they discovered something.

“We realized quite quickly,” said Edwards, “that there was a real gap of knowledge [about] what was going on around the world and who was doing

12

sort of educational bits of it.” Edwards stated.

“I liked knowing who the chefs were and why they used certain ingredients and the history of all the food…

So being able to move into a slightly different avenue is quite good. Writing, for me, has been good because it’s still very much to do with food.”

we are going to eat much more for our own personal health,” Edwards said, “because family meals aren’t really happening any more… [and] people are having to eat more out of home on their own…

So [food] will be[come]... more functional... to keep you healthy and full of energy.”

real“izedWequite

Edwards at a food confrence held at the One World Trade Center.

what … so we quickly changed from actually doing the cooking to just providing information.”

The group now travels the world, attending big food conventions to keep up with the ever changing food world. The group also uses contacts from all over the map to make sure they get the best, most up to date information they can.

This information helps companies including KFC, Papa Johns, Nestle and Heinz develop their products. “[When] I was at the school and teaching I really liked the all the

quickly, that, in fact, there was a Edwards shaped the foodwatching real gap side of the company. She of knowl- In our creates the society, reports that are edge people are available on working [about] “thefoodpeople’s” more hours website. and taking what was Companies pay less vacation for subscriptions going on days so food to the website. is becoming around themore It includes everything portable to world. from the latest adapt to the packaging to new restaurant concepts and rising chefs.

Edwards also specializes predicting future food consumption trends.

“I think down the line

”

needs of the consumers. Walking down the aisles of a supermarket this trend becomes obvious especially when you see the individually wrapped snack bars, the portioned trail

mixes and the pre made lunches. The ever present sense of urgency causes people to want a quick snack that helps promote health in some new way.

“

in downtown areas of just some cities. But the thing is not many people care about the lack of expensive restaurants because they can’t afford to go to them enough for it to affect their life.

As more people earn a sufficient amount of money that they can use to splurge on the big, high-end restaurants, these restaurants will be more common.

Chefs doing things like that “At the really sparks moment, we’re in recession.” imagination said in everybody Edwards, “The sort of else around snob end of food is the world. gone. So, things are… cheaper. As we come out of recession, I think … there will be a bit of reversion back to snob food [with] very expensive ingredients and people showing off really.”

The cheap fast food restaurant business persists as a stable trade. People never really hear about a fast food chain that went out of business but people do hear a lot of news of a new McDonalds getting built across the street from the Starbucks.

On the other hand, people can only find high-end restaurants

Photo by Sarah Edwards

Chefs Wylie Dufresne and Alex Stupak talking about their food phliosophies at .

Photo by Wikipedia

”

“But there is quite a bit of fun going on in food as well.” Edwards said, “One trend that has hit… globally is this sort of hybrid food that started from Dominique Ansel making his cronut which is the… mixing of a croissant and a doughnut. Chefs doing things like that really sparks imagination in everybody else around the world.”

After Ansel invented his cronut, the food industry experienced a boom in combining

Ansel’s cronut which sparked the hybrid food trend.

foods that aren’t normally put together. Chefs made pizzaburgers and spaghettitacos and some chefs just straight out copied his cronut.

This cross breeding of foods even spread to fast food joint such as Taco Bell with the Doritos Locos Taco or Which Wich with their Pizzawich. Trends like this show just how much just a tiny piece creativity can cause the

whole food industry get innovative.

“Food is quite like fashion.” Edwards said, “Where the big fashion designers will have their catwalk and show off all their clothes every season. The… top chefs with three Michelin stars [and] really famous ones kind of start trends by showing off their creativity and new food pairings and how it’s going to be served.”

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The Better Burger

By Kendall Brice

Not every burger you eat has to kill you. Here you will find how to make your burger and what to use. With insight from cooking professionals, your next burger will definitely be everything you want minus everything your body doesn’t.

Average Burger

White Wheat bun

Nonorganic veggies and other toppings (cheese, ketchup, mustard, etc.)

Nonorganic beef

White Wheat Bun

Healthy Burger Whole Wheat bun/ Whole Wheat English muffins adds fiber and cut down on calories Grilled veggiesreduces sodium and calories Homemade pattyreduces fat and calories Whole Wheat bun/ Whole Wheat English Muffins

What the Pros Say

“The more vegetables you eat the lower the calories.” — Andrea Hinsdale, Dietitian

Substitute vegetables into your meal wherever you can. “[We] take something that’s typically full of mayonaise, and instead of mayo, we use hummus.” — Hinsdale

Take fat-filled sauces and spreads and replace them with hummus, Greek yogurt, and other healthy alternatives.

Sources: eatingwell.com Andrea Hinsdale - Regestered Dietitian for Snap Kitchen Restaurant

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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of America’s Top Five Fast Food Restaurants

By Kendall Brice

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of America’s top five fast food restaurants - using this guide, you will know the difference between the healthy and the not. No more inspecting the drive through menu for what you think is the healthiest choice. The best and the worst foods are now revealed- from the hamburger at McDonald’s to the Hot ‘n Juicy Triple at Wendy’s.

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

Hamburger: 250 calories, 9g fat, 520mg sodium

Filet-O-Fish: 380 calories, 18g fat, 640mg sodium

Big Breakfast: 740 calories, 48g fat, 1560mg sodium

6-inch Turkey Breast sandwich: 280 calories, 4g fat, 810mg sodium

6-inch Turkey Breast sandwich: 280 calories, 4g fat, 810mg sodium

Philly Cheesesteak sandwich: 500 calories, 17g fat, 1310mg sodium

Fresh filter coffee (short): 2.6 calories, 0.1g fat, 5.3mg sodium

Soy Cafe Mocha (tall): 239.5 calories, 11.4g fat, 118.8mg sodium

Whole Milk Signature Hot Chocolate (venti): 690 calories, 40g fat, 186mg sodium

Side Caesar salad: 60 calories, 4g fat, 115mg sodium

10 piece Chicken Nuggets: 450 calories, 29g fat, 930mg sodium

Dave’s Hot N’ Juicy ¾ pound Triple: 1,060 calories, 67g fat, 2,020mg sodium

Side salad: 25 calories, 0g fat, 45mg sodium

Double Hamburger: 420 calories, 22g fat, 720mg sodium

Triple Whopper with Cheese: 1,250 calories, 84g fat, 1,410mg sodium

Sources:

globalassets.starbucks. com wendys.com

fastfoodnutrition.com bodybuilding.com healthchecksystems.com

eatthis.menshealthcom bk.com

15

What Happened to the South

By Kendall Brice

Photo by Kendall Brice

Congress Trailer Park?

There were people and trailers. There was music and food. There was Austin.

Early this year, the food trailer park on Milton Street and South Congress Avenue that Austinites knew and loved was buzzing with activity. But now, this is not the case. The trailer park is no more and there will soon be a multi-use high rise going up where one of Austin’s most iconic attractions once was.

The new development is proposed to be a hotel with a ground floor for restaurants and other small businesses. The high rise will generate many new jobs and is estimated to bring millions into the local economy, but this will come at the cost of the beloved trailer park.

Many South Congress regulars like Finlay Scanlon, a freshman at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy High School, were disappointed and shocked to hear the news of the hotel that would soon take the place of the trailers. “[People of] any age, from different parts of Austin, the U.S., and the world, [went to the trailer park]. Visitors or Austinites, there were

18

enjoys bringing Thai cuisine to Austin. She originally worked as a server in a Thai restaurant which inspired her to start her own food trailer in Austin.

Coat and Thai trailer at their new location

always many different kinds of people,” Scanlon said. The trailer park appealed to not only locals, but a wide variety of people from all over.

Austin is notorious for being “weird” and culturally diverse, and the trailer park demonstrated that by being one of the many places in Austin where you could find someone from almost anywhere.

“The trailers represent Austin because they are just a quirky bunch of different restaurants,” Scanlon said.

“There’s a Thai place, there’s a everythingin-a-cone place, and it’s just a bunch of random things, and I think that’s what Austin is; just a collection of cool quirky things, and it makes a really good little place to get food.”

South Congress Avenue is constantly filled with

“[Business] was really good,” Kokpluai said. “I liked South Congress because there were really nice people and a lot of tourists.” South Congress is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Austin, filled with crowds all up and down the street. Every day the food trailers would get floods of people coming in for lunch, dinner, or just a good time. The atmosphere is one that is hard to find anywhere else, creating a reluctance for anyone to leave.

The trailers “ represent

people from all over that provide a steady income for the businesses, but now that the trailers can no longer stay on South Congress, will the crowds follow?

Austin because they are just a quirky bunch of different restaurants... It’s just a bunch of random things, and I think that’s what Austin is; just a collection of cool quirky things.

Coat and Thai, a small Thai food trailer moved this past May from its first location at the trailer park on South Congress Avenue to a new location on East 6th Street.

The owner, Nirat Kokpluai, grew up in east Thailand and

After the trailer park was shut down, Kokpluai went back to Thailand, and when she returned to Austin she moved

”

her trailer to East 6th and tried to recreate the business she once had on South Congress Avenue.

“A lot of customers from South Congress recognized [the trailer], and business is getting good, but it takes time to be like South Congress.” Kokpluai said. Many of the businesses that were once on South Congress are coming back at different locations, and like Coat and Thai, it will take time to get back to the way things were at South Congress.

Wurst Tex was one of the luckier trailers, moving just a couple blocks down South Congress from it’s original location. The trailer has been around for about three years and started after the founding couple moved from Los Angeles to Austin and were looking for work and decided to start their own food trailer. The owners of Wurst Tex looked for jobs in Austin, and when nothing turned up they decided to dive in and start their own sausage sandwich food trailer.

In preparation for the move, the Ravers, the owners of Wurst Tex, set up another trailer on the UT campus in effort to keep their

business alive and once the move deadline came, they packed up and moved out.

“We just started looking around for another location that would be similar, though we knew we weren’t going to find anything quite as good as where we were,” Raver said.

“I think anywhere in Austin you could put a food trailer with that much foot traffic you’re going to do pretty good.”

Wurst Tex’s trailer menu at South Congress tralier

Wurst Tex’s new location on South Congress is similar to the original trailer park in that the atmosphere and people are not different, but because of the move and being out of business for the summer the trailer has lost popularity.

The trailer owners are not the only ones left disappointed by the move; former customers are also feeling the absence of the trailers.

“I think that there’s enough hotels in Austin already, and they should just let the food trailers be there,” Scanlon said. “I think it’s a shame that they have to move because there are hotels all up and down downtown, and this is kind of a unique thing rather than just another Holiday Inn.”

Coat and Thai trailer at East Sixth Street

Wurst Tex trailer at new South Congress Avenue location Photos by Kendall Brice

19

The History of Chocolate

By Sarah Piersall

Chocolate is one of the most-loved foods worldwide. Bit it had its had its humble beginnings. Prepare to be enlightened, because below you can learn everything about chocolate from white to milk to dark.

1502: Colombus discovers a Native American boat filled to the brim with cacao beans, ready for trade, and seizes it.

Fun fact: It is thought that “chocolate” came from the Aztec word, “chocoatl”

1828: Conrad J. van Houten patented a hydraulic press which reduced the cocoa butter content by nearly half and created the powder known as “cocoa.” This is considered the start of the “modern” era of chocolate.

1849: English chocolate maker Joseph Storrs Fry produced the world’s first chocolate bar 1879: Rudolphe Lindt invented a process called “conching,” which gave the chocolate a smooth texture by kneading it for at least a day.

1500’s: At the same time, the Aztecs were using chocolate in a drink and believing it to be a cure and an aphrodisiac.

1585: The first official shipment of chocolate from Veracruz, Mexico to Seville, Spain took place.

Fun fact: White chocolate doesn’t actually have any cocoa powder in it, only cocoa butter.

1879: Daniel Peter, a Swiss chocolate manufacturer, came up with the idea of using powdered milk to make milk chocolate.

Chocolate then made its way around the world, enticing all countries with its sweet taste and now easy access.

Sources: www.thestoryofchocolate. com www.exploratorium.edu

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Pick your own berries at

Huckleberry Finn Farm Family owned and opertated since 1923 For more information call: (512) 555-1923

Pizza Italiano!

Albercios Pizzeria 678 Charm Ave. 78799

Foreign Exchange

By Lena Teckenbrock

Trying foreign foods can be daunting with all of the new spices and flavor combinations that aren’t familiar. Below is listed classic American food with their foreign counterpart to help adjust those taste buds and appreciate more flavors.

Currywurst

Döner Kebab

About

About

This Berlin classic is the German equivalent to hot dogs but with more bite. The sauce tastes very similar to ketchup but with the added spice of curry. This dish is usually served at Schnellimbisse (fast food stands) in the busy capital of Germany. It’s a very simple dish that is so adored in Germany that there is a Museum in Berlin dedicated to Currywurst’s invention and role in German media.

A Döner kebab is a piece of pita filled with lamb and a yogurt sauce that is the equivalent to an American cheeseburger. Traditionally, the delicious lamb filling is cooked on a vertical spit but this is a modified recipe so that you can replicate the dish in your own kitchen.

Instead of a vertical spit we have made it possible to just cook this with a more common oven. Afiyet olsun! Enjoy your food!

Directions

Ingredients

2 tablespoon canola oil 1 large yellow onion 2 tablespoons curry powder 1 tablespoon paprika 2 cups whole peeled canned tomatoes ½ cup sugar ¼ cup red wine vinegar Sausages

Put canola oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion; cook until soft. Add the curry powder and paprika; cook for one minute. Using hands, crush tomatoes and add to pan. Stir in the sugar and vinegar.

Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.

Stir the mixture for about 25 minutes until thickened. Blend until smooth then strain.

Serve over sausages.

Sources: http://www.saveur.com http://www.theguardian.com http://currywurstmuseum.com http://en.wikipedia.org http://vertskebap.com

Directions

Finely chop onion and garlic in food processer. Mix the first seven ingredients into a large bowl.

Put into a cleaned out aluminium can.

Fill a large pot half way with water and put the can in the pot. Bake in oven at 300 degrees until the internal temperature is 167 degrees or for about an hour and a half. Take out of oven and remove the meat by stabbing it with a fork. Cut then pieces an serve inside of warmed pita bread with desired vegetables.

Ingredients 1 pound of ground lamb 1 ¾ cup of bread crumbs 1 ¼ teaspoons of salt 2 cloves of garlic 1 small onion 1 teaspoon of cumin 1 ¼ teaspoons of coriander Pita bread Vegetables

23

Food Chemistry in the Kitchen What makes molecules so big in cooking

By Sarah Piersall In the kitchen, Janelle Myers experiments with a new recipe, preparing the dish to be sampled by her roommates. She carefully controls the number of eggs she adds, and makes a mental note of the consistency.

molecular scale.

“I’ve been playing around with what impacts cookie texture, changing things like type of sugar, number of eggs, and overall liquid content in the dough,” she said.

She currently works as a professional baker in a restaurant, but also maintains a blog and enjoys experimenting at home. She earned her job by “baking [the restaurant] a pie the best I know how.” She said her blog, fchem101. com, “gave me the incentive to keep pushing myself to learn more about food science.”

“I love

“I decided to study chemistry because I love figuring out the details of how the world around us works,” Myers said.

Myers has a degree in food chemistry from Northwestern University. “Something like cooking is such an amazing example of how interactions of the tiny molecular scale can have huge impacts,” Myers said.

figuring out the details of how the world around us works.

She focuses on what happens in recipes on a

24

”

“I think my favorite creation was the blueberry coconut bar,” Myers said. “It was something that I imagined and then created and it worked out really well.”

She describes that her success is at least

Illustration by Sarah Piersall N

N Pyrazine

O

Furan

N H

Pyrrole

Diagram of a pyrazine, pyrrole, and furan

by part of an understanding of lactones, pyrazines, pyrroles, and furans.

She gave a thorough description on her website of how these molecules played a role in her appetizing description.

bread depend on the development of a gluten network while flaky or crumbly things like most pastry try to avoid gluten development,” Myers says.

Whatever your specialty is in cooking, an under-standing of food chemistry can be greatly beneficial.

“Something

like cooking While she is with is such an happy her current job, she amazing aspires to a bakery example run that supports of how programs interactions teaching kids science Myers through of the tiny then tells cooking. me about molecular what she’s “Better underbeen up to scale can standing of recently. food science have huge “Lately can really I’ve been make people impacts. particularly better cooks interested in doughs and the role of gluten because sturdy things like a loaf of

”

and bakers,” Myers said. She admits her secret weapon in the kitchen her beloved

books, Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking and The Guide to Good Cooking from America’s Test Kitchen.

Now for a good list of some essential reactions that you should know about while you’re busy in the kitchen.

“Better

on page 26.

Talcott tells me where his passion for food science comes from.

“I always loved science and reactions with good and natural compounds...

I am currently working with Acai fruit, purple sweet potatoes for natural colors, and mangos,” Talcott says.

understanding food science can really make people better cooks and bakers.

We have to come to Texas for that answer.

Stephen Talcott, a professor with a doctorate who teaches at Texas A&M, gives us a brief list.

“Fun kitchen trials are: add lemon juice or baking soda to milk or eggs, which denatures proteins, banana in the refrigerator which causes chill injury and turns black, freezing or thawing milk, lemon juice on apples or bananas to prevent browning by polyphenol oxidase, etcetera.”

An illustration of these reactions and more are

CH2OH H

HOCH2 O

O

OH H

H

OH

OH

OH

CH2OH H

OH

H

OH

OH

CH2OH

Sucrose O H

H

OH H

H

H

HOCH2 O

H OH

OH

H

H

OH

OH

CH2OH

H2O “The lines represent chemical bonds between the atoms. If an atom isn’t labeled–like in the rings below–we assume that it’s carbon. A subscript–H2– means two of that kind of atom, here two hydrogen.”

-fchem101.com

Talcott wants “safe, healthy foods that people enjoy to eat.”

“I always

Despite having different professions now, both Talcott and Myers said that one of their wishes as food chemists is that people learn to eat a more balanced and healthy diet.

OH

H

H

”

He said that his favorite subject in food chemistry is Phytochemistry, which is the study of natural plant secondary metabolites.

Fructose

Glucose

loved science and reactions with good and natural compounds.

Myers explains that “the more we know about how food works and what is in it, the better we can understand how our bodies use it and

”

how to best meet basic nutritional needs.”

There are a couple basic biomolecules that are involved in cooking. Sugar is the one we’ve decided to focus on this month.

In Myers’ blog, she summarizes the differences in glucose, fructose, and sucrose. When it comes to health, sugar is remarkably relevant. First off, glucose and fructose

25

Food Chemistry, continued are monosaccharides, and sucrose is actually a glucose molecule and fructose molecule combined, making it a polysaccharide.

Sucrose is man-made sugar, and turns out to be the worst for us, health-wise. Fructose and glucose are natural sugars, and are found in things like fruit.

A lot of reactions in the kitchen occur because of enzymes present in the ingredients. This is another big point on food chemistry.

However, some these enzymes can be very susceptible to heat and pH levels. Therefore, most reactions that happen in food must do so before being cooked. There are too many different enzymes to exlain in a magazine, so it is recommended that you make sure you understand what you are doing in the kitchen on the molecular level, if you want to successfully improvise in the kitchen. Check back next month for an article on lipids!

26

Kitchen Experiments Food Chemistry Illustrated

By Sarah Piersall

Lemon juice to milk: With milk, lemon juice can make sour milk, a substitute for buttermilk.

Lemon juice and eggs: With adding lemon juice and eggs, lemon juice helps to prevent green colored scrambled eggs.

Baking soda and milk: Baking soda added to milk can help milk last longer in the fridge Baking soda and eggs: When baking soda is added to boiled eggs, they become easier to peel.

Lemon juice on apples or bananas: This helps to prevent browning by polyphenol oxidase.

Banana in the refrigerator: This causes chill injury and turns the banana black.

Freezing or thawing milk: Milk separates when it is frozen, and despite

some people claiming the milk to have a slightly different taste after thawing, this can help the milk last longer.

Soaking eggs in vinegar: By soaking an egg in vinegar, the outer shell deteriorates until the point that it becomes rubbery.

Sources: Stephen Talcott, Ph.d www.about.chemistry. com www.thekitchn.com www.ochef.com

The Flamethrower’s Bar-B-Que pit

Real people like real Bar-B-Que

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New location coming soon at 12506 Peppers Ave. Austin TX 74751

Cookie Within a Cookie

By Bella Myers

A cookie within a cookie. Sound like perfection? It is.They seem like a normal chocolate chip cookies from the outside but as soon as a bite is taken a crunchy Double Stuf Oreo appears. Here’s how to make it yourself.

1

Preheat the oven

350

2 sugar

brown sugar

3 flour Cream butter and sugars in an electric mixer until well combined. Add in eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined.

SOURCES: http://www.craftsy.com/ article/cake-decoratingtips-and-their-uses

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In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined.

4 Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie, press down, pushing toward the edges. Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo Cookie. I sealed mine by pressing the dough to the edges, then rolling the cookie between my hands until it was completely smoothly covered.

Photo by Bella Myers

5

Chill in refrigerator at least 15 minutes before baking.

6 Place onto a parchmentlined baking sheet and bake cookies 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of cookie scoop you use. They should be just golden and the bottoms lightly

browned.

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The Columbian Exchange

By Sarah Piersall

Sugar Bees

Horses

Pigs It is widely known that Columbus brought things like smallpox into the New World, but there was a silver lining to all of this. We exchanged lots of things like earthworms, drastically changing our whole ecosystem and rendering a lot of recpes we use today nearly impossible if not for this big event. Below, you’ll learn about the full extent of this great trade off.

Maize Squash Cacao

Potatoes

Sources:

http://public.gettysburg.edu/ http://www.utexas.edu/ http://www2.palomar.edu/users/scrouthamel/colexc.htm

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Know Your Tips

By Bella Myers

There many ways to decorate your desserts, and with that comes lots of information and things to get right. These tiny silver cones can take desserts from just looking bland to being the life of the party.

ROUND TIPS: Used for details, outlining, writing messages, lace, dots etc.

BASKET WEAVE TIPS: Has two sides, the flat sides is good for wide smooth stripes, and the wavy side wide ribbed stripes. Used to make baskets.

LEAF TIPS: Makes leaves or simple floral designs. can be plain, ruffled or stand up straight.

ROSE TIPS Has wide then narrow opening making it easy to draw petals.

Can make any flower not just roses.

DROP FLOWER TIPS: Makes little flowers. (Number of cuts in the tip determines the number of petals)

SPECIALTY TIPS: Are deeply ridged and have very 3-D borders and ruffles.

RUFFLE TIPS: Makes ribbons, shell border, streamers and bows. Tear drop opening decides how wide the

MULTI-OPENING TIPS: Groups of small shapes (stars etc.) used to make strings, beads, grass, etc.

pattern is.

Sources: http://www.wilton.com/ http://www.craftsy.com/

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