The article below was written for Imperial College London’s physics department and will be used for outreach purposes to show the range of projects undertaken by MSci students. It gives an introduction to our 2014/15 MSci project in the context of wider research on the physics of multi-sensory cuisine.
Up until recently our project has focused on engineering an acoustic-mechanical texture analysing device. As Leon mentioned in his last post, we have now completed the construction of the device and, over the past couple of months, have been carrying out preliminary measurements. During the data acquisition and analysis process, we have drew heavily on existing research. The picture below links to my review of all the pre-existing literature concerning acoustic-mechanical measures of crispness.
In my first post I discussed how there was a sparsity in existing research with regards to quantifying crispness in crusted foods with high-moisture cores (e.g.
Acoustic data was acquired using the program Audacity at the standard sampling frequency 44100Hz, producing signals showing sound pressure level (SPL) over time. Background noise was removed by subtracting the noise profile from the signal. Different noise reduction levels were trialled on an example signal (see below) and a 48dB reduction proved most effective.
A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) was computed on the signal to translate it to the frequency space. A Hanning window function was used for the spectrum and different sizes of FFT (number of frequency bins) were trialled to see which gave the most suitable frequency resolution (see first diagram below).
In my last post I outlined our measuring equipment. We have since attached microphones to the equipment and have measured and recorded data for crisps. We started off looking at normal potato crisps, however, we soon realised that they were all different and it was impossible to get fair samples that only differed in age. We therefore, resorted to Pringles as they all have the same shape, texture and thickness.
We did measurements of singe Pringles to get a clear profile of the breaking but also did measurements with three Pringles stacked on top of each other to simulate a more realistic texture.
Xiao-Liu Chu, Peter Török, Carl Paterson and Tom Aikens
Imperial College London
Abstract
We investigated the effect of a 3% concentration solution of sodium bicarbonate (treatment A) and pure sodium bicarbonate (treatment B) on pork loin samples. These were compared to a 5% salt brine (treatment C), controls consisting of tap water (treatment D) and untreated samples (treatment E).
Pork loin samples under treatment A experienced a (50 ± 14)% higher increase in weight after 390 minutes of marinating as compared to treatment D. This suggests an increase in water holding capacity. The result of heating pork samples subjected to treatments A and B lost, in comparison to control, (39 ± 7)% and (33 ± 10)% less in weight respectively.
Our measuring instrument is a guillotine like device that we can use to break chips. For now we practiced with dry spaghetti as they are less messy and easily accessible. The two sensors we use are a load cell at the tooth of our guillotine to measure the force and a potentiometer to measure the displacement change as we move down. We filter the signal from the load cell using a self-made instrumentational amplifier and measure the voltages with an oscilloscope.
The photo of the oscilloscope output below shows a typical measurement outcome when breaking the spaghetti. The blue channel is proportional to the displacement while the yellow channel represents the force on the spaghetti.
Hi, my name is Léon and I am one of the students working on the physics of cooking project this year. We have had some problems with ICT and I have been meaning to post for a while since we have made a lot of progress. I think the best introduction to our work would probably be a quick summary of my literature review to give you an idea of the field in general.
I was quite surprised about the amount of literature on frying potatoes and about food in general. Scientists from all kinds of backgrounds have successfully applied objective methods and carefully thought through theories to cooking.
Michelle Tan || 7th October 2014
Abstract The analysis was carried out using X-Ray diffraction1–3 (XPertPro Panalytical) of polymorphic forms of Milk chocolate, Dark Chocolate and pure Cocoa Butter samples. Sugar was removed from the samples as sucrose signals interfere with those of cocoa butter. The XRD patterns obtained for the Milk Chocolate and Dark chocolate were compared to that of the pure cocoa butter. Strong peaks were observed at 4.16Å (Form I), 4.24Å (Form II), 4.24Å (Form III), 4.38Å (Form IV) and 4.56Å (Form V), which can be used to infer the various crystal structures of the polymorphs of cocoa butter.
Leon van Riesen-Haupt and I are working on an MSci Project with Prof. Peter Török and Dr. Carl Paterson on the physics of cooking and will be sharing our progress through this blog for the rest of the academic year.
There are many interesting research topics when it comes to the physics of cooking and is demonstrated well by the breadth of the research already conducted by previous MSci students. Echoing previous research, the initial aim of our work was to define experimentally and/or theoretically what constitutes the perfect French fry. Now many a chef will tell you that it has to be a perfect balance of a crispy, glassy exterior with a fluffy, light interior, but what is the underlying physics from which this sensory perception emerges?
Thoughts and Analysis
This blog post is intended to be more of a collection of my personal thoughts, opinions and questions on the research area I am currently working on rather than a microbiologically correct treatise on the subject.
As a theoretical physicist, my microbiological insight will be rather limited and sparing at best; hence the conjectural and interrogative tone of this account.
Please note that this account is chronological and is being continuously updated. (Posts at the end of the account will be most up-to-date with findings compared to earlier ones.)
As you will eventually gather by reading my posts, I am working on building an Individual-based Model to try and predict bacterial growth and inactivation.
