TwoFors- Fruit and Weapon

I recently received a request to write about two malodorous foods.  Normally, I’d never reject the requests of my readers, but I am going have to object to researching Stinky Tofu.  I’m sorry if I offend anyone and their love for this double-fermented soybean, but I hate chou-tofu (臭豆腐).  I’ll travel and go out of my way to get dinner with my significant other/friends/family, but not when this sour, deep-fried legume is present.   To date, I’ve only had one experience where this concoction was tolerable, and that involved a pitcher of Amber Bock and the company of Ethan and Suana.

[http://lh6.ggpht.com/vincent.vanwylick/R_cRaMqShvI/AAAAAAAAAh0/WLenxeoql9U/stinky+tofu+vegetarian+restaurant.jpg]

The other ingredient comes from the warm, tropical environments of Southeast Asia.  This fruit has evolved to synthesize sulfuric compounds that are notorious for being unfruit-like.  Some have described it as putrid and rotten while others describe it as a freshly cut onion, or left out cheese.  Personally, I think it smells as if someone rips one in your face after a meal of frank and beans.  Yes, that is how I describe smells!  So what’s this blissful fruit you ask?

[http://www.durianss2.com/durians_files/DURIAN-RAJA-KUNYIT_big.jpg]

This armor-plated, thorny fruit grows as clusters in trees and is called Durian.  I think it’d be cooler if it was called “Morning Star...” Anyway, the smell that is emitted propagates from the spiky rind and has evolved to attract the senses of large jungle creatures such as elephants, tigers, and pigs.  Like our mammalian brethren, fans of durian prize it for its savory and creamy texture.  After peeling the carapace exterior, you’re pleasantly greeted with the meat that has the firmness of custard.  The meaty flesh near the seeds, contains high amounts of sugar and taste fruity and savory.

Throughout parts of Asia, the Durian is highlighted in many desserts, drinks, cakes and other types of sweets.  It’s also combined in many sauces and makes a wonderful starch substitute for taro, cassava, and yams.  However, many hotels, resorts, and hubs of public transportation ban durian due to its aromaticity.  To counter this, many researchers are breeding variations of durian hoping to eliminate the sour, gym-sock odor.   

[http://a993.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/51/l_afb940b01c63639e5f0d670deb961078.jpg]

And if the smell doesn’t scare people off, Durian substitutes as a wonderful weapon to bludgeon thugs.  

Why We Love "Head" ... In Our Beer

Back in season 2 of Top Chef, one of the contestants routinely experimented with molecular gastronomy through the use of unorthodox equipment and chemicals.  This naturally caught my interest and I remembered how Marcel would use a Nitrous Oxide injector to “foam” components into his dishes.  Though I’ve yet to experience the taste of airy coconut, I’d imagine the texture to be similar to the foam on my expresso.  More so, I remember Freddy, Carlo, and Brian talking about achieving the perfect head back in the days of Ebar, so I thought..

Why is the Head so important?

[Source: http://beerbeer.org/image/2009/beer/beer-head.jpg]

Let’s begin with why beers bubble.  During one of the manufacturing processes, yeast is added to the barley and hops to do an important chemical reaction.  What the yeast does is eat up Glucose to create three by-products, Ethanol (the alcohol), Carbon Dioxide, and Released Heat.

Glucose - > [2]CH3-CH2-OH + [2]CO2 + Energy

Yeasts gradually release Carbon Dioxide gas as they nomnomnom on the barley and hops, sorta like humans (they’re Eukaryotic too!).  Though some of this CO2 is removed during manufacturing, some of this gas dissolves into the beer and remains there throughout the bottling process.  As a person begins to pour the brew, the movement of beer from bottle/keg to glass (or red cup) causes some of this gas to escape.  As expected, more gas is released with increased disturbance and vigorous pouring pisses off even Mr. Bubble. 

[Source: http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n102/KMEADE27/BUBBLES.jpg]

The bubbly, white foam is a gas-liquid-protein interaction that holds everything together.  This interaction includes hydrophilic ends that associate with the liquid, while hydrophobic proteins cling to the side of your glass.  These two types of proteins work together to increase the stability in the Head and their effectiveness can change due to many reasons.  These include the species of cereals used, the acidity of the hops, and temperature at which the alcohol is held at.  I wonder how many people I put to sleep with this paragraph.

Beer enthusiasts look for this head because the escape of carbon dioxide helps prevent some of the “prickliness,” described as undesirable flavor aromas.  There’s even a term called lacing, qualifying the foam’s ability to stick to the glass.  Of course, lacing can be manipulated due to confounding factors, such as temperature and the presence of other chemicals.  For example, oils and soap interfere with foaming and you’ll end up with a “flat” beer.  They do so because they contain hydrophobic ends that pull apart the hydrophobic proteins.  This prevents the creation of new bubbles. 

Likewise, if you’re a neophyte at pouring beer and it begins to “foam over,” you can prevent this by touching the rim of the glass with your fingers.  The natural oils in your skin work in the same manner described above.  Or you can just stop the foaming with any other part of your body.

[You made the blog Ms. Tang!]

Due to the increased demand for Head, many breweries and restaurants now inject beer with Nitrogen gas to prolong its foamy duration.  The bubbles that form due to Nitrogen (as opposed to Carbon Dioxide) release at a slower rate because it is less soluble in water than CO2.  This means your Head won’t deflate as quickly as you quest for 30 bars within 30 days.  In addition, Nitrogen gas doesn’t carry that tart bite that Carbon Dioxide can carry as it is converted to Carbonic Acid.  

Thank you Foodie Blogroll

I wanted to thank the wonderful people at Foodie Blogroll for highlighting Eatsology as a featured blog!  Thanks again for your great services in connecting other food bloggers out there!  To help with their SEO, here's a traceable link to the post!

I plan to transition my blog in a few days so stay tuned for that!  I also want to add the ability for readers to submit questions they have regarding food-science/ history / what I look for in women / chemistry (hah...you see what I did there?).  For the time being, feel free to email questions to Eatsology [at] gmail.com or leave your comments here!

TeeWhy,  
Jon

Identity Crisis: Neither Egg, Nor Plant

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Don't Spray Me Bro (Part Two)

Chillis have been documented over 5,000 years ago in parts of Central and South America.  Chilles production is ubiquitous just because their farming requisites are less demanding than most fruits and vegetables.  The fruits of this small plants can be grown in Europe, the Middle East, parts of Africa, and regions of Asia such as the Sichuan and Hunan provinces of China (this explains why this style of cuisine is a spicy inferno).  The best part is that these fruits bring many flavors and aromas without the usage of starches and sugars.

Chillis are actually fruits and contain seeds that are normally dispersed by animals and Mother Nature.  Animals such as birds swallow the chillis whole and the seeds are then displaced either by the wind or the excrement (yum).  Now you’re probably wondering, why would birds devour these fruits whole…I mean, only buffoons would put a whole chilli (or jalapeno) down their esophagus.  Well, it’s because birds are immune to the chemical agent, Capsaicin, the active ingredient that causes the “irritable pain.” In fact, it appears only mammals are susceptible to this chemical weapon since our flavor and sense profiles differ from our avian brethren.  Makes me wonder, do you think dinosaurs are immune to Chile peppers?

There’s actually a common misconception that the “seeds” causes all the spiciness.  Capsaicin is actually produced in the spongy mass called the placenta, the white portion in this picture. 

[Source: http://www.egglesscooking.com/images/food-events/green-bell-pepper/remove-seeds-top.jpg]

Under physical stress, the placenta secretes capsaicin throughout the cells and escapes onto the surface of the seeds and into the matrix of the fruit.  So when you run that knife through that Serrano chile, the capsaicin bursts from the vacuole and clings throughout the fruit.  The proximity of the placenta and seeds serve as an evolutionary advantage to protect the chile-DNA (remember, the goal of the plant and fruit is to make more chile-babies). 

Of course, it’s not just the physical stress that releases the Capsaicin, chemical and environmental stress also cause the placenta to release more Cap into the body of the fruit.  Production of Cap increases in drought, high temperatures, and as the fruit ripens. It does so to prepare its defenses and increase the chances of survival when the fruit falls off of the plant.  Spiciness reaches it maximum when the fruit is most ripe and declines with time as the chemical degrades.  This generally means (in most, but not all situations) that green chillis are spicier, for example, a green serrano versus a red serrano.  Of course, different species of chillis produce different amounts of pungency which explains the mildness of Bell Peppers, where as the Peruvian Death Pepper makes me want to scream bloody murder.

[Source: http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/2000/ga000917.gif]

While driving from Berkeley, I was talking to my buddy, Jason Chan, about meal-size regulation.  You see, by slowing the rate at which food enters your gullet, you can trick your body at satiating itself much quicker.  In addition to fooling your brain through portion-sizing, you can also increase your body’s metabolic rate through the use of Capsaicin.  Many of you have experienced increased sweating after eating spicy curry and it’s due to increased blood flow.  In short, Capsaicin affects your body’s temperature regulation making you feel hotter than you actually are; it induces sweat to evaporate and cool one’s self.  Though the caloric energy used for this mechanism is minor (no more than 10 kcal/hour), the spiciness alone will cause to you eat less, as your mouth receives shocks of peppery goodness. 

Too much spiciness can be bad and cooks can reduce the pungency by removing the placenta and the seeds (rereading this sentence makes me cringe).  However, if you’ve already downed that habanero, you can do some things to trick your brain.  Anything cool, such as ice water, distracts the pain receptors in your mouth and slightly overrides the Capsaicin-induced signal.  You can also do the saltine-cracker challenge (six saltines, one minute) as rough/salty foods deceive your brain in the same fashion.  Finally, there’s milk, which encapsulates the Capsaicin molecule preventing its binding to your mouth receptors.  By the way, carbonation actually increases irritation so lay off that soda if your mouth is burning; milk does a body good. 

And Pepper Spray, you know, that stuff you spray on thugs (like the Oregon football team)?  That’s synthesized from Capsaicin.  

[Source: http://citizenfall.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/oregon-duck.jpg]

In lieu of a post

You're welcome Jane.

Don't Spray Me Bro

I spent most of my childhood with a pack of behemoths.  My weekends usually were spent hanging out with my older brother, Eric, along with our friends Nick and Chris (whom are older than me by eight and six years, respectively).  Like many Asian families, our parents shared the familial bond through food and mahjong allowing me to hang out with this pack of giants on the weekends.  This gave me plenty of opportunities to mature at a quicker rate than my elementary school classmates.  Being treated like contraband at theaters, playing Bomberman until sunrise and experiencing McDonalds challenges that would shame Man Vs. Food became a rite of passage to gargantuan-hood.  But because I was the youngest and most naïve, I was also given the privilege of being the guinea pig/punching bag for much experimentation.

In 1993, Pizza Hut offered a deal for four-one large topping pizzas.  To a normal person, this would seem like a great deal for a Superbowl party, a bachelor party, or a TMNT party.  Well, a few nights back, we just accomplished the feat of pillaging McDonalds by devouring 50 cheeseburgers (@$.39 each), so ordering four pizzas for three teens and a nine year-old would be a walk in the park.  We picked the usual suspects, sausage, pepperoni, and mushrooms, but were left in quite a predicament, we needed one more to join the festivities.  Then Chris introduce the idea of an ingredient I never heard of.  I read the list of ingredients from the flyer and thought, ”what the heck is a Ja-La-Pen-O, and why is that “n” all funky?”

The harmonious chime of the doorbell rang and my heart began racing; running eight feet from the couch to the dinner table was hard work for a 130lb fourth-grader.  We flocked over the care packages of cheese and dough and ravenously grabbed paper napkins to absorb the excess oil.  After downing victims number one through three, the guys told me to try the green one.  “Eww, it’s green, I don’t like vege-tables.”  Chris assured me, “it’s ok, it tastes like mushrooms,” and all three smiled in a unified grin. 

[Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnT81qC77upGS0SzinUdQb6W0j-P-lIcNVDkaTJdXSsRm-q0Ecis99XqDjGa04p2cEM5zG80x6WBFTeeZojpPny7dn6c1H3g4cQleZffR9Yaa3AlMiz_G0RktZd7mJkuLttmxuH05BHknL/s400/pizza+(own).jpg]

Bite number one: Ohhh, this is good, nom nom nom nom.
Bite number two: ohhh, so tender and soft, kinda sweet
Bite number three: WHY IS MY MOUTH ON FIRE…..IT TASTES LIKE BURNING

Thanks guys.  More on Chillies, Chili, and Chile Wednesday. 

i am scared

Peggy, please do not kick me in the face. 

The rest of the girls are impartial about my butt.

Attack of the Cabbage

I hate cabbage.  I don’t know where my aversion for this plant started, but I think it’s related to the marketing of Cabbage-Patch Kids back in the mid-1980’s.  I mean, why would you want to associate kids with a pot of boiling water?  

[Source: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/mcgur024/curriculumtopics5150/kids.jpg]

-This image freaks me out...I will remove this picture upon request-

Well, thanks to Coleco, Hasbro, and Mattel, I refuse to eat this chemical abomination.  Even as a component in many of my favorite recipes (fish tacos, corned beef, egg rolls), I’m still not a big fan.  It’s bitter, pungent, and relative cousins of this vegetable became the inspiration of the chemical agent, Mustard Gas.  So you’re probably wondering, why write about the cabbage family?  Best said by Sun Tzu, there’s no better way to win a battle than to “know thy enemy.” 

The first cabbages originated along the Mediterranean and began its domestication around 2,500 years ago.  As a venerable chemical warrior, cabbages survive well in cold, salty, and sunny environments and its popularity grew allowing it to be a staple across Eastern Europe and Asia.  The physiology of this plant is a bit strange (more reason to dislike it…ok I kid).  What’s refer to as the “core” or “heart” is actually the stem, and the leaves grow outward forming the “head.”

There are many relatives of this astringent family that notably include Kale, Brussels sprouts, Mustard Greens, and Horseradish.  The flavor comes from two kinds of defensive chemicals in the cells, the flavor precursors (called Glucosinolates) and the products created by enzymes that act on the precursors.  You can imagine enzymes as proteins that consume one substance to create a new product; they eat the precursor and create a new substance…in this case, a foul, malodorous one.  Onions, and other relatives of the Allium genus, work in the same manner, but with different enzymes. 

[Source: http://ayeshahaq.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/cabbage.jpg]

Each given member in the cabbage family contains a different number of glucosinolates and attribute to the different flavors in each vegetable.  This is why cabbage, brussels sprouts, and broccoli have similar, but distinctive flavors.  The chemical defense system is most active when the plant is young and increases when environmental stress of heat is placed on the vegetable.  Because of this, there will be lower concentrations of the chemicals in the cool autumn or frigid winter.

The chopping of the cabbage releases the flavor compounds created by the enzymatic reaction (a term I thought I’d never use outside of college).  The breaking of the cell wall signals the plant to increase production of the precursor; as if the plant’s alarm system activates.  This might sound a bit strange, but imagine this.  Every plant wants to survive, grow, and reproduce to create more cabbage children.  Well, when an animal bites into the cell wall (or in our case, chops with a chef knife); the cabbage responds by not only have products created by the enzyme to attack the animal, but it creates more ammunition to thwart the attack.  Oh you crafty chemical warrior.

Enzymatic activity generally increases with a rise in temperature meaning more generation of the fetid odor.  However, activity capacity occurs around 140F and the enzyme begins to denature in boiling water.  Submerging your cabbage in hot water prevents the creation of the by-products while maintaining the flavor of the glucosinolates.  However in some species such as mustard greens, intense cooking actually minimizes the “hot/pungent” flavors while sustaining the bitter aromas.  But the real nasty stuff comes with overcooking, where the sulfuric compounds transform into trisulfides; this smell is reminiscent of a convalescent home.  

I'm not down for cabbage-patch kids...on the other hand, I'm totally down for sour-patch kids.

The Asparagus Strikes Back

I concluded last week’s post with countering foul smelling odors in fish.  The upcoming posts will be dedicated to obnoxious aromas in a different category, vegetables.  Before I explore the (minor) negative side effects of consuming veggies, I do want to emphasize that these verdant creatures provide a great deal of nutrition everyone should be thankful for.  Not only would life cease to exist without these highly evolved autotrophs, but imagine how much time you’d spend on the toilet!  We’ll enough with the toilet talk, so let’s explain why asparagus makes your urine smell.

Asparagus is a native Eurasia plant and its culinary history has been documented since the third century.  It was mainly harvested by the Greeks and Romans, but because asparagus’s labor-intensive cultivation, it only became popular in the 18^th century after the Agricultural Revolution.    Unlike many other plants where we consume the flowers, fruits, or leaves, Asparagus is actually the main stalk.  Other plants may have leaves, but asparagus equips itself with small projections.  The branching appendages, called phylloclades, protect immature photosynthetic clusters until they’re ready to follow their energy-generating brethren.

[Source: http://www.worldcommunitycookbook.org/season/guide/photos/asparagus.jpg] 

There are many color variations of asparagus including white and purple.  White asparagus are shielded from direct UV light by remaining underground until harvested.  Once displaced from Mother Earth and exposed to the sun, they convert to yellow or red.  The chromatic color change is due to the absorption of yellow and red wavelengths from the sun…whereas, purple…well, I couldn’t find reliable research about the purple asparagus.  However, I’m going to say they know what’s right with human-equality.

[Source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3546/3428907676_f178514cae.jpg]

Like many freshly harvested plants, young asparagus tend to be juicer and noticeably sweeter due to higher concentration of sugar (thus more liquid).  Sugar levels decline as the farming season progresses because of the growing clusters (the apical stem, if Bio1A memory serves me right).  A key indicator for detecting fresh and asparagus is to examine the tip and look for a tightly-closed cluster.  If they tip begins to open up or branch, then it’s a sign of maturity.  However, you can “refreshen” your asparagus by submerging the veggies in a 5-10% dilution of sugar to water for a few minutes before cooking.  Just mix 5-10 grams of sugar with 100 ml of water (sorry, but I’m pro-Metric system). 

The main responsibility of the stalk is to provide support and act as a transport medium for water.  Therefore, asparagus can sometimes be tough due to its well-supported external surface composed of chewy lignin and cellulose.  Some cooks choose to peel their asparagus while others repeated bend and exert physical stress loosening the structure.  I personally like the stemy exterior, it reminds me of eating an artichoke.

Ok, so back to the unusual side effects of consuming asparagus.  The green-spear contains a compound named Asparagusic acid (clever!) that contains sulfur.  The body then metabolizes Aspargusic acid into a funky chemical found in skunks called methanethiol (mentioned in an earlier post).  There have been studies showing some individuals are immune to this odor, and genetic variations account for why some humans can’t smell the by product.  I wonder why this would be a genetic advantage?

Many vegetables and fruits create compounds for natural defense, I bet this is an asparagus’s way to tell you not to eat them.