The Scientist and the Cook: Mind-Opening Recipes - Cooking Responsibly recipe cookbook

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The Scientist and the Cook: Mind-Opening Recipes - Cooking Responsibly

Written by Editorial Team

Thursday, 30 April 2009 20:01

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I am going to step aside for a minute and think about canning in a different way, which is about sustainability and using the least amount of resources possible to accomplish a goal. We tried canning on one burner a few times using a gas stove and it took forever to reach boiling in the massive canner we have. So one time, I thought about using the oven to supply more heat from below to minimize heat losses. This was a chemical engineering inspired trick, since I know heat rises and that turning on the oven would add a new source of heat that would naturally lead to improved heat transfer to the canner and liquid inside. However, if you do that without a purpose, it is a waste. I made a casserole for dinner and made homemade bread to match with another recipe for the week at the same time, also roasting garlic to make garlic bread. The water in the canner boiled earlier and I saved time, even if I used some natural gas in the oven.

The next optimization (again engineers do things stepwise and always try to improve) was to use two burners while using the oven to roast a ton of peppers and tomatoes for a salsa intended for a campus competition (I came in third place!). The water in the canner boiled so fast that I was actually behind using the dishwasher this time. Covering the lid to eliminate water evaporation losses also aided in reducing energy and time needs; this essentially created a system where energy transfer heat losses were reduced and simulated an adiabatic system with heat input only.

On the ingredient side, it's easier to reformulate recipes when you can estimate some of the properties of the foods. I just made a recipe from an older 1950s cookbook for something called Sicilian Meat Roll. The problem is that my family and I are vegetarians. So, knowing that the beef flavored TVP I was using had a certain moisture content and I needed to prevent the beef from falling apart, I reduced the water suggested, upped the egg content, and adjusted the recipe by adding some fat that would improve flavor. Unfortunately, I did not get it quite right and the roll of meat fell apart as I transferred it. Next time, I'll up the solid contents with the addition of whole wheat flour or more breadcrumbs. I might also replace the egg with flax seed oil if we have someone vegan over, as flax seed oil seems to bind foods like eggs do. All of these modifications are possible because I'm thinking about the chemistry and physical properties.

What is cooking like in your own home? Has your awareness of scientific concepts simplified your home cooking?

I'm about efficiency, taste, and minimization of waste. Every Wednesday, I sit down with several cookbooks and rummage through many to find all the recipes we're going to make for the week. It is rare that we ever throw anything away (minimization of waste). If we have a soup that calls for half a cabbage, we make cole slaw to transform the left over cabbage into a well seasoned salad that matches with vegetarian hot dogs on a different day (minimization of wasted food). If we're having cauliflower in an Indian stew one day, it is simply steamed for a side dish on another day or broken up for additions to salads on many days.

I guess simplifying, now that I think about it more, is also about simplifying your life. In graduate school, I was walking about 9 miles a day, while working 8 hours a day and trying to get in all the social things I wanted to do. I would cook most of my meals on Sunday morning before lunch for the entire week. There are four burners on a stove and two racks in an oven. I could do six recipes simultaneously if they were all hot and more if they weren't. I would then fill all sorts of empty cottage cheese containers with all the food I'd made and then store all the food in the refrigerator and take out what I wanted to eat for lunch and dinner each day throughout the week, sometimes making something fresh that couldn't be stored easily to match with a combination of my "leftovers". By doing this, I invested about 2 hours in cooking and didn't have to plan around a busy life for the rest of the week. This also minimized waste through recycling, because I was making full use of all the empty cottage cheese containers I always seemed to accumulate... also saving me money on buying more Tupperware! If you have a busy life, do all your cooking in one day and store casseroles, salads, etc. in the refrigerator until needed.

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