No, it is not cooked in Red Bull. Hello users of the internet and welcome back to my blog once again! For the DYOM, we had to discuss about the future prospects of food, which might be a bit dry to read, so I’ll try to spice it up!! Some of you reading this probably didn’t have a choice and was forced to deal with my shenanigans but well…I hope you learn some new facts today 😀

1) The Meat of Affliction

Keep your friends close and your enemies…as food? The article actually talks about the authors experience at a convention for the future of food. He talks about how he is disappointed that only 2 developed countries had Belgium and Netherlands had incorporated insects as one of the future foods. To add on, he was shocked to find out that countries (Thailand etc) that have already been consuming food insects as part of their diet were not showcasing them at the convention. After which, he discusses that consuming insects is currently seen as something “only developing countries do” or a punishment and he wishes that people would just see the insects as how one would see a thick cut of beef. Well, the article was more of a descriptive essay, so now I’ll give my $0.02.

Firstly, maybe it’s because I am not sure of what exactly the convention wants, but I assume they want the countries to display what their own country thinks is the future. If Thailand is already consuming insects as part of their daily meal… why would insects be the food of their future? I do not really understand why he was shocked and disappointed but oh wells. Secondly, I have eaten meal worms before and they do taste great fried, but keep the fried grasshopper and cockroaches away from me. I can’t even stand the taste of almond milk (which supposedly tastes like what a dead cockroach smells like), let alone eat the real thing. However, I am pretty sure more people would not mind consuming them if you crushed it into powder. I have also learnt this disgusting fact from my course mates, that there are cockroach farms in China. Yes, the cockroaches are being raised in a “5-star hotel” for consumption. (I hope you guys are safe from covid-19 by the way)

2) Recent development in 3D food printing

Despite the bland title, this was a pretty interesting reading. The article discusses about how with research 3D food printing  might be the food of the future. Firstly, it is said that using the printer, we can customize the food according to our preferred tastes/colour/texture. It would be interesting to find out how they get the ink for food printing. I would suggest using crushed insect powder for the best of both worlds :^) . Also, if we could customize food to our tastes, I believe we can reduce food wastage as they become more appealing. (Time to reduce the trash bin of food I have to eat when i die; this is a chinese urban legend) Well its work-from-home so we are all lazy so heres a summary of the impacts:

Positive: (1)less space required  (2)customizable, can incorporate more nutrients  (3)more food options

Negative: (1)Major change in industry if commericialised = what is going to happen to the farmers/food places?  (2)how many times must i sell part of my liver to sustain this way of food consumption  (3)might not be environmentally friendly= printing emits radiation and fumes/how much electricity needs to be generated to feed 7billion people/ electronic waste (WHICH IS ESPECIALLY BAD IN SINGAPORE)

So, as you can see, I am really skeptical about ‘printing our food’. Sure the rich can do it, but what about the other 90% of us?

3) Planting Seeds for the future of food

This reading talks about how to ensure a steady and stable food supply, we must prevent soil erosion. It also discusses about soil health, plant health and possible mobile technologies. I initially did not find this reading really applicable in tiny Singapore, so it did not strike a chord with me. But, upon researching, I have realised that Singapore do have their own aerofarms! These SMEs have built vertical farms in Singapore, though unfortunately are not really well known. Singapore airlines has also planned to launch a “farm-to-plane” dining programme, where the ingredients for their meals are purchased from a local vertical farm in Newark, New Jersey.

4) Climate Change and Food Security

The title is pretty self-explanatory, so I will dive right in to my thoughts. The world currently has 7.8 billion inhabitants. In 36 years, we are expected to have 10 billion inhabitants. I hope you guys are ready to fight for your daily nutrition with 10 billion people at the age of 60. Climate change is a very current and worrying issue for us youths who would still be alive to witness its aftermath. But with the very overpopulated earth, another issue of food security have arised. Food security is the availability of food and how well one can gain access to food. In Singapore, everyone does have access too food, so much so that we take it for granted. In other countries, unfortunately the poorer or more rural communities do not have enough to eat. It really makes one wonder, how is it that 13% of the world populations are malnourished, yet 10% of the same population is obese (excluding those overweight). There are ways to change that, and one thing that us Singaporeans can do to help is to reduce food wastage. By reducing food wastage, food redistribution can occur by donating our food surplus to those who truly need it. However, this is but a short term solution. For other countries to obtain food security, food systems must improve.

Hi users of the internet!! As usual, last week for the DYOM mod, we had learnt about ice-cream (we made sorbet actually) and chocolate! To be honest, I have always thought that nitrogen ice-cream was a gimmick and is just there to scam me of my parent’s money, but after this lesson, I would actually try them! Also, as someone who’s favourite chocolate contains absolutely 0% cocoa (white chocolate), the chocolate mousse we had made was…well read on to find out more!

Ice cream magic

In the workshop on 6 March 2020, we had learnt about the science behind ice cream. Ice cream is actually made of 5 major components; ice crystals, fat, sweeteners, air and other solids. First of all, since this my blog I am allowed to say that ice cream should be creamy and smooth, if it is rough it does not deserve the cream in its name. Anyways, whether the ice cream is smooth and creamy depends on the size of the ice crystals formed- the smaller the ice crystals the better! Hence, the faster the freezing rate, the smaller the ice crystals. This is the reason why nitrogen ice cream is so popular -> it only takes seconds to turn your milk solution into ice cream, compared to traditional freezing which takes 45minutes!

Milk, which contains fat, adds to the richness and texture of the ice cream. (Maybe this will give you a reason to say no to dairy-free ice cream) Sorbet however, does not contain any milk 😀 perfect for lactose slightly intolerance me. Sweeteners not only makes the ice cream taste like sugar rush, but also lowers the freezing point of the mixture, ensuring that the ice cream does not over freeze and become ice cubes. This really makes you wonder about how bad dairy and sugar free ice cream might be…  Air is the cheapest (most dangerous and dirtiest ingredient that we have… stay healthy during covid-19 times guys) in the process of making ice cream. Ice cream contains many tiny air pockets, which give them the consistency we all love. Other solids refers to non-fat milk solids such as proteins and mineral salts, or even the toppings such as crushed oreos. They help give your ice cream a different texture so that you don’t get bored of the creaminess. Also, more of these solids helps prevent formation of big ice crystals!

Sadness part 1

This happened when we added ribena to dry ice!!

In the workshop, we had actually made sorbet, which was basically dry ice + syrup. As someone who loves soft serve, I was slightly disappointed that we were only making sorbet, but my bowels thank me. In the future, I would like to learn more of the Turkish ice cream, which looks delightfully stretchy, creamy and delicious! It makes me wonder how that actually happens??

How to be a chocolate scientist

The second part of the workshop involved us making chocolate mousse like a pro and using only 2 ingredients (and all of my arm muscles)! But before we become failed michelin chefs, we first need to learn about the science behind chocolate and its glory. Like all things in life, chocolate is actually very complicated as during the ‘hardening process’ there are 6 possible ways the molecules in the cocoa butter can be stacked together (polymorphs) and we only want polymorph 5. Polymorph 5 (gourmet chocolate level) gives us the shiny, smooth, snappy and “melt in your mouth” chocolate. Manufacturers (or cooks) must repeat a cycle of warming up and cooling down, aka tempering. Greasy chocolate sounds like a nightmare and to prevent this, we need to ensure that the fat molecules in the cocoa butter are able to form a dense network of compact of stable crystals. This means that little liquid fat are left over to ooze out between the cocoa butter crystals. Hence, this is why tempering is important! Also, if you see a whitish layer on your chocolate, it means that the chocolate is ‘blooming’ and the fat crystals are damaged, causing the quality to drop.

How to be a failed Michelin chef

What you need:

100g of chocolate of your choice

80g of hot water 

A bowl of ice

Energy for an arm workout

The steps are pretty simple –

1) crush chocolate for easier melting

2) Pour in hot water and melt the chocolate

3) Place the bowl of melted chocolate on top of the ice and whisk like your life depends on it

Tadaa!! You get your very own chocolate mousse :). Hopefully it turns out better looking and tasting than ours haha.

Our group had used 90% cocoa dark chocolate so the mousse was as bitter as my soul;

and we might have over whisked our chocolate mousse so it was like eating $3 tub ice-cream but without the ice…you gotta see it to believe it so here:

NOT THE MOST APPETIZING LOOKING MOUSSE

Sadness part 2

As expected, white chocolate is still the best for me, so I might actually try making a white chocolate mousse myself!! (ask me next time if i succeeded) Honestly, the chocolate mousse might have tasted much better if we had used hot whipping cream instead, but well, water is more readily accessible for everyone. So now when you are at home  and you crave chocolate mousse, here’s how you can make them easily! See ya next time 😀

Not so fun fact: Cocoa beans are expected to be extinct in 2050…white chocolate will take over the world!!

Hello users of the internet! On 14 February 2020, I had attended a pancake workshop at the Science Library. (I still find it hard to believe that we were allowed to make our own pancake batters in THE science library!) We had to randomly choose whether we were to make the traditional flat or the Japanese Souffle pancakes. Fortunately, we were assigned the Japanese Souffle Pancakes which were harder to do… Yay at least now i have something fun to write about in this post! The ingredients can be seen below.

The Batter

Before you scroll down to the results, it would be fun if you could try and guess if our souffle pancake succeeded just by looking at the photos and the steps we took in the batter and meringue sections!

Firstly, we whisked an egg yolk together with sugar, milk and oil in 3 batches. A neutral flavour oil was used instead butter since oil is a liquid and can coat flour proteins better, giving a more consistent texture. (Note: NEUTRAL flavour, nobody wants a sesame tasting pancake.)

Then, all-purpose flour and baking powder was sifted into the same bowl with the yolk and whisked generously. baking powder and baking soda is actually different! Baking soda is really just sodium bicarbonate (a base) whereas baking powder is baking soda and a powdered acid. ACID? Yes, we need the acid to react with the base to form carbon dioxide so that our souffle would not become crepes when cooking sometime later; this is the roele of the leavening agent. Honestly, I would have preferred if we use buttermilk (acid) +baking soda instead of baking powder, since buttermilk would elevate the taste of our pancakes. Also, we have to sift our flour so as to prevent lumps in our batter and ensure even mixing. At this point, we have to whisk really hard so that we can form gluten, the holy grail of baking formed by mixing glutenin, gliadin and proteins in flour with water. Holding the batter together (structural integrity)? Gluten. Trapping air bubbles to make the pancake flufflier? Gluten. Celiac disease? No gluten please.

Then, we added a pinch of salt and a some vanilla extract. Remember the oil we had added previously? Well oil actually weakens the gluten network, so we add a little salt to tighten it slightly (not too much because we aren’t making bread). Furthermore, salt and vanilla extract helps enhance the flavour of the souffle! A photo of our batter is shown together with the meringue below.

white= meringue, bottom right corner= batter

The Meringue

Next we made the delicious meringue. Egg whites were whisked together with sugar until shiny stiff peaks were formed. I find it really amazing that beating any food (or anyone) brings them down, but beating egg whites just serves fluffs them up… really motivational. Egg whites are 90% water, and the rest of it being protein. Proteins are made of amino acids, which contains hydrophilic (water-loving) and hydrophobic(water-hating) parts; thus when we beat the egg whites and incorporate air into them, parts of the protein attaches itself to the water while the hydrophobic parts attaches itself to the air. This unfolding of the proteins causes the meringue to fluff up and is also why we do not incorporate yolks (they contain fat which interferes with this process)

Sugar is hygroscopic and cannot be added at the start, since they would interfere with the unfolding of the proteins and the souffle would not be as fluffy. Sugar must also not be added too late, since they would either not be able to completely dissolve, or they would draw out moisture from your egg white foam, causing the structure to collapse. Before this workshop, I really did not know that there was actually an order you had to follow when making a meringue! (No wonder my meringue failed) We had whisked the sugar in in batches, until stiff peaks had formed.

The end product

We folded our meringue into the batter gently batch by batch, praying that our mixture does not deflate.

Finally, we cook the pancake at low heat, since heating at high heat would cause the proteins in the egg (in the batter) to denature and stiffen up quickly, so we would not achieve a soft and bouncy texture. We used dry heat cooking (on a science laboratory hotplate.. because why not), which gave our souffle the beautiful browning thanks to the Maillard Reaction!I researched abit and found out that dry heat cooking is actually NOT suited for slow cooking. Perhaps in the future I would try and see if souffles can be made using moist heat cooking, stay tuned! (Some shots of our souffle below, thanks for reading!)

Hello users of the internet! On 7 February 2020, I had attended yet another interesting workshop on the chemistry behind everyday food items. This time, as you might have guessed from the title, is about the fermentation of tea, or what is commonly called, “Kombucha” (no, it does not contain seaweed). The speaker Tan Ding Jie, who had attained his Masters in food science in NUS, had also generously provided us with 2 bottle of kombucha to take home! The one in the wider jar which contains only the culture is drinkable!

What is fermentation

First off, one must know what fermentation is in the cooking world. Fermentation is a biological process carried out by microorganisms which can transform raw materials into flavours. Simply speaking, you add a microbe to a substrate to liberate flavour. It is known that beer is barley (substrate) fermented using yeast (yeast), and yoghurt is milk (substrate) fermented using bacteria (microbe)…but what does Kombucha use? Kombucha is tea fermented using BOTH bacteria and yeast called SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts) and both anaerobic and aerobic air exchange occurs. Usually aerobic (in the presence of oxygen) ethanol oxidation to acetate occurs first or , followed by anaerobic (in the absence of oxygen) fermentation.

Factors affecting fermentation

But, what if I want to eat my kimchi as soon as possible? How does one speed up the fermentation process? A wide range of factors affect the speed of fermentation, so I will only go through some of it. For example, yeasts usually grow at pH 4-4.5; a 10 degrees celcius increase in temperature could cause rate of fermentation to double; the water used to ferment is also very crucial. Water treatment plants usually add a certain amount of chlorine into water to kill any harmful bacteria, hence it is no surprise that these chlorine would also kill the bacteria used to ferment the substrate.

However, when trying to be efficient in fermentation, one must also consider the taste of the end-product. A faster ferment would also mean a more superficial flavour since not enough time is given for the flavours to slowly build-up.

Kombucha making

According to Ding Jie, his regular kombucha recipe is 1% tea, 7% sugar, 10% starter culture and the rest is water. Starter cultures are the microorganisms added to kick-start the fermentation process, but cannot be added directly into hot water/tea. The heat would cause the culture to get killed hence, we must cool the tea fast before adding the starter culture. We were also instructed to ferment the kombucha in the jar for 5-7days, inserting a paper towel before capping to ensure some aeration. A top layer of cellulose pellicle had formed after 5 days, as shown from the picture below. Ding Jie had confirmed that the layer could either be discarded or eaten. However, should there be mould, it has to be thrown away!

Microbiomes link your gut to your brain

Firstly, kombucha is fermented tea, which means it has both the benefits of tea and fermented foods. As such, kombucha contains antioxidants similarly to tea, but also contains probiotics. Our body, especially the gut, contains many friendly microbiomes(bacteria) that helps digest food and provide us with nutrients. Every body contains different amounts of microbiomes, but everybody faces stress everyday. Research has shown that stress does indeed alter the gut’s microbiomes, which is why health problems(especially surrounding the digestive tract and gut) always arise during stressful times.

There has been an ongoing research study about the “gut-brain axis” or more specifically the “microbiome-gut-brain axis”. Not only is there a link between the gut microbiome and sleep, mood disorders and anxiety, but 70% of people with autism also suffer from gastrointestinal problems. This is a very current research topic and scientists are funded millions of dollars to try and provide evidence for the relationship.

On 16/1/2020 I had attended my first ever coffee workshop which was hosted by the owner of “The Coffee Roaster”, NUS almunus Swee Heng! (No, he doesn’t own the bakery) Through him, I have learnt about the complexity of the art of coffee brewing and I was even able to taste test 2 different but commonly used brands. Disclaimer: I am a tea-girl so this post would not only be informative, but also biased yay!

Coffee Tasting

The first activity we did was to taste test 2 unknown blends of coffee beans. Due to my apparent lack of interest in coffee and taste-buds, both cups only tasted incredibly sour to me. According to the coffee connoisseurs in the module though, the cup on left had a fruity taste and had less of an aroma, whereas the cup on the right had a stronger aroma and tasted more bitter. Lo and behold, it was revealed that the left cup of coffee was made from an Ethiopian blend, whereas the cup on the right was made from a Colombian blend. Interestingly, Swee Heng had explained that different regions of the world produces coffee of a different taste; and that Asian coffees usually are heavier.

Types of Coffee Beans

I learnt that there were mainly 2 types of coffee beans used commercially- Arabica, Robusta. Arabica coffee beans which are more elongated, are harder to grow and thus usually used for “gourmet coffee”. Robusta beans which carries twice the amount of caffeine are easier to grow and thus used in cheaper instant coffee.

The Art of Brewing

Brewing is the process of extraction into water of desirable substances from the coffee beans, in amounts that produces a balanced drink. In the words of Swee Heng “Extraction is everything that the water takes from the coffee”. This means that brewers have to make sure that only the desired substances are extracted- the science behind it was explained simply to us by Swee Heng. The sequence below is arranged in decreasing solubility and what contributions to the coffee they provide when extracted.

Caffeine (bitter) > Acids (sour and thin) > Lipids and Fats (for good mouthfeel, viscous) > Carbohydrates and plant fibres (bitter)

Caffeine, which is polar and the most soluble in water, would be extracted first, followed by acids. Lipids and carbohydrates are hydrophobic(non-polar) thus are insoluble in water and takes the longest to be extracted. Hence, the flavor, colour and body of the finished drink are determined by the (1) Grind size (2) Brew time(for immersion brewing) (3) Brew temperature (4) Brew Ratio(for expresso) (5) Pressure (6)Water hardness.

The smaller the particles, the harder it is for water to flow all the way through; an analogy would be comparing water flowing through sand or rocks. The higher the temperature (90-93 degree celcius) of the water, the higher the solubility of the solids in water. This is because the molecules gain enough kinetic energy(converted from heat energy) to overcome intermolecular forces of attraction. Water hardness is something I had discussed briefly in the previous post “Welcome to my blog!!”. Hard water contains more minerals and ions such as calcium and magnesium and Singapore’s tap water, which has a hardness of 70ppm, is suitable as it is for coffee brewing. It would be interesting to attend a coffee brewing competition to test each competitors preferred water hardness and how it affects the taste of their coffee!

Types of Coffee Brewing ways

Percolators are like a special electric kettle used to brew coffee repeatedly, but it tends to overextract as it usually operates at a boil. The more commonly used automatic drip brewers nowadays are convenient, but they are not able to dish out near boiling water. This meant that extraction occurs for a long time which causes aroma to be lost and carbohydrates and plant fibres, which further increases the bitterness to coffee, to be extracted. Manual drip cones on the other hand allows some specks of bitter particles to pass through, causing the coffee to taste bitter and not as smooth.

From the coffee workshop, it is evident that many coffee/non-coffee drinkers such as myself, do not know of the complexity of brewing coffee. I am glad that I had attended the workshop!

Hi users of the internet! I’m Grace, an undergraduate from NUS Chemistry and this is my new blog. I will be sharing with you lovely people what I have done and experienced in a new module in NUS, which was created by a current Year 4 student. The module’s name is Chemistry of Food ((DMS1401CM) as seen from the blog web name) and as the name suggests, teaches us about the science behind how certain foodstuff are created. In case you didn’t know, the four basic food molecules are water, fats, carbohydrates and proteins, with the latter 3 being macro-nutrients found in food.

Water isn’t as simple as it seems; each molecule which is made up of an oxygen atom sandwiched between 2 hydrogen atoms and has a positive and negative end. This means that the molecule is polar. Furthermore, the molecule is not linear as the H-O-H bond angle is 104.5 degrees. This is due to oxygen exerting a stronger “force” which pulls the electrons shared between O and H to itself more. Water also clings strongly to itself due to the presence of hydrogen bonds. Water is also a neutral liquid with pH 7; this means that the concentration of H+ and OH- are the same and equal to 1 x 10^-7 Also, there are other ions in water other than H+ and OH-! They are metal ions such as Ca2+ and Mg2+ which also determines the ‘hardness’ of the water. More on water and its “hardness” would be covered in the next blog post on Coffee!

I also learnt about lipids which is commonly referred to as fats. Actually, lipids =/= fats; lipids are a diverse group of biomolecules whereas fats are a type of solid lipids and is usually found under the skin or around the organs. Fats can be classified as saturated or unsaturated fats. The difference between the 2 is that unsaturated fats have a  C=C bond present; the double bond opens up a space void of hydrogen atoms, thus allowing reactive molecules to attack and break up the fat. Hence, saturated fats are also more stable and takes a longer time to turn rancid than unsaturated fats. This is also why saturated fats are bad for the body as they are harder to break down. Who knew this module would aid me in selecting healthier food choices!

Next, I learnt about carbohydrates, the enemy of all dieters. The term “carbohydrates” comes from the early idea that they are made of water and carbon. Carbohydrates can be classified as monosaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. Sugar and starch are 2 of the most commonly found forms of carbohydrates in food. They are our main form of energy as they are broken down into glucose which would enter the cells in our body. Unused glucose would be converted into glycogen and stored in the liver and muscles. However, over-consumption of carbohydrates would cause excess glycogen to be stored as fats for long-term energy storage.

Proteins are what I call the ‘bipolar major food molecules’ as they are the least stable. Unlike water, fats and carbohydrates which are pretty stable and staid, when exposed to a little heat, acid, salt or even air, the behavior of proteins change a lot. Proteins are not passive forms of stored energy, no they are what makes or breaks cells, they are at the heart of all organic activity, growth and movement. Proteins too are macromolecules, and are made up of building blocks called amino acids.

Unfortunately one blog post is not enough for me to discuss and praise the complexity of the basic molecules of food, but my next few blog posts would elaborate more on them and also incorporate my experiences in the food workshops. Stay tuned!