Chemistry of Food and Cooking:
Reflection Questions:
How does the ingredient you experimented with affect the food’s overall characteristics?
For my experiment I was changing the type of oil used to fry my funnel cakes. My hypothesis was that this would affect the crispness of the funnel cakes. I thought this would happen because of the different levels of saturated fat and how this would effect how densely fried the funnel cakes would be.
This ended up being the case with my funnel cakes. Changing the type of oil changed the amount of saturated fat drastically. This allowed for the frying to be packed more tightly with fats. Because of this, the funnel cakes cooked with oils that contained a higher saturated fat content can create a better steam barrier. With the extra hydrogen molecules more can evaporate from the cake while frying. This keeps the oil from seeping into the cake giving a more desirable, crunchy funnel cake.
How successful was your experiment in helping you understand your food and improve its characteristics? What
would be next steps if you were to continue research on this topic?
My experiment was fairly successful at helping me understand the chemistry behind frying. I was able to get conclusive evidence showing that the oil with the highest saturated fat content creates the most crisp funnel cake. To increase my confidence I would like to have an increased sample size. My sample size was on the smaller side and this would just give me more confidence in my results. I am very confident in my measurements of my independent and dependent variable. Using the same batch of batter for all the different types of oil made sure that there was no variation besides the change in oil. Also, using the same amount of oil and a fryer that maintained an extremely accurate temperature of 375 degrees kept everything but the independent variable the same throughout the tests.
This test has been relevant because it isn't limited to only funnel cakes. What I learned can be applied to almost everything fried and can drastically change the food's crispness. If I were to continue researching this topic I would look into another problem I was having. I noticed throughout the tests the batter floated differently depending on the oil it was submerged into. I kept my pour distance to 1 inch from the oil in every test so that was not the reason and this would be interesting to find out. I looked into some ideas that might have explained this problem I had like the viscosity of the oil, and the density of the oils, but was unable to find anything conclusive enough.
How does the ingredient you experimented with affect the food’s overall characteristics?
For my experiment I was changing the type of oil used to fry my funnel cakes. My hypothesis was that this would affect the crispness of the funnel cakes. I thought this would happen because of the different levels of saturated fat and how this would effect how densely fried the funnel cakes would be.
This ended up being the case with my funnel cakes. Changing the type of oil changed the amount of saturated fat drastically. This allowed for the frying to be packed more tightly with fats. Because of this, the funnel cakes cooked with oils that contained a higher saturated fat content can create a better steam barrier. With the extra hydrogen molecules more can evaporate from the cake while frying. This keeps the oil from seeping into the cake giving a more desirable, crunchy funnel cake.
How successful was your experiment in helping you understand your food and improve its characteristics? What
would be next steps if you were to continue research on this topic?
My experiment was fairly successful at helping me understand the chemistry behind frying. I was able to get conclusive evidence showing that the oil with the highest saturated fat content creates the most crisp funnel cake. To increase my confidence I would like to have an increased sample size. My sample size was on the smaller side and this would just give me more confidence in my results. I am very confident in my measurements of my independent and dependent variable. Using the same batch of batter for all the different types of oil made sure that there was no variation besides the change in oil. Also, using the same amount of oil and a fryer that maintained an extremely accurate temperature of 375 degrees kept everything but the independent variable the same throughout the tests.
This test has been relevant because it isn't limited to only funnel cakes. What I learned can be applied to almost everything fried and can drastically change the food's crispness. If I were to continue researching this topic I would look into another problem I was having. I noticed throughout the tests the batter floated differently depending on the oil it was submerged into. I kept my pour distance to 1 inch from the oil in every test so that was not the reason and this would be interesting to find out. I looked into some ideas that might have explained this problem I had like the viscosity of the oil, and the density of the oils, but was unable to find anything conclusive enough.