Tuesday, September 11, 2012
9/4: Lab Week 1!
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR. It's another semester here in lab! This week's lab was all about building your palate and learning new ways to evaluate food. We started off by having you get to know the other people in your class - by feeding each other mystery foods while blindfolded. The other experiments were a bit less awkward, like tasting the differences between three different kinds of apple juice and evaluating four kinds of ice cream. Chef Kristi led an experiment where students sampled eight different fruit juices. Students then had to guess what type of juice each one was. Sounds easy, right? You'd think, but no. Chef tried to trick everyone and make you really use your tastebuds. So she used food dye to dye the differents kinds of juices.
Another experiment we did was to have you compare four different apples. We started with a reference (or control) apple, a Red Delicious, which we then compared to a Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Pink Lady apples. The comparisons were based on sweetness, tartness, juiciness, crispness, and mushiness, on a scale of 1-10. This experiment was an example of hedonic scaling (how much you like each item). See you next time for some practice with weights and measures!
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At first, I was a little intimidated. Between the closed-quarters seating and small time frame allotted for the period, I feared that each class was going to be stressful and difficult. But as I became familiar with the Chef Kristi, the TA's, the structure of the course, and the subtle differences of various ice creams, my worries quickly faded. My group is filled with extraordinarily pleasant people, I've already learned a wealth of information, and I have had nothing but a good time since we've started. I'm looking forward to having a good rest of the semester with everyone!
ReplyDeleteDuring the previous class I experienced so many new things including making sushi for the first time! I have always wanted to make sushi but never had the chance. I learned that you have to fan the rice as you mix in the vinegar so that it spreads throughout. I also thought it was interesting how the veggies had to be placed on the rice and seaweed wrap so that it created a perfect roll. At first it was hard to roll the seaweed pieces, but in the end I think I got the hang of it and really enjoyed it. I also loved tasting all the other wonder full food like the macaroni and cheese!
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