Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science - Fermentation

As I posted way back when, I enrolled in an on-line course about the relationship between science and cooking. Here's what went on during Week 10.

• The star power is upped this week with guest lecturers Wylie Dufresne of wd~50 and David Chang of Momofuku making appearances. Ted Russin of The Culinary Institute of America also makes an appearance. 
• Harold McGee informs us that food fermentations are the work of living microbes; they're essentially invisibly small cooks that change foods for the better.
• Foods that owe their popularity to fermentation include dry cured sausages, pickles, breads, the vinegar in vinaigrette, cheeses, chocolates, wine and beer and ciders and the distilled beverages made from them. These are all thanks to bacteria and fungi like Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Leuconostoc mesenteroides.
• The most common food fermentations develop spontaneously. They're spontaneous because the microbes that are responsible are all over the place, in the air and in the soil and on surfaces of everything. And they thrive on the sugars in nutrient-rich materials like plant tissues and animal secretions like milk. 
• The second big group of food fermentations is produced by yeasts, usually Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but also others. They produce alcohols and carbon dioxide from fruit juices and other liquids that are rich in sugars. 
• There's a third group of fermentations is based on an Asian method for fermenting starchy foods, like the seeds of grains and legumes. Yeasts and lactic acid bacteria can't deal with starch directly. Sometime before the second century BC, Chinese brewers domesticated a species of mold, a kind of Aspergillus, which prepares starchy foods for the yeasts and the lactic acid bacteria by converting the starch into fermentable sugars. At the same time that it does that, the mold generates its own distinctive aromas. With the help of this Aspergillus, called koji in Japan, sake and other alcohols are made from rice in Asia. It's also how soy and tamari sauces and miso pastes are made. 
• We are told that the fermentation reactions in yeast, or in bacteria, are due to enzymes. An enzyme is a protein that is a type of catalyst; a catalyst is a molecule that increases the speed of a favourable reaction either by helping to break bonds, or by helping to make bonds form, without being used up.
• An example of a catalyst is baking soda or lye, which speeds up Maillard reactions that contribute to browning and flavour. 
• As magical as catalysts appear, they cannot make unfavorable reactions become favorable. 
• For more on fermentation, here's David Chang and one of his minions:
• In terms of the bond breaking, enzymes do this by either rearranging the molecule, or by affecting the atoms in the molecules in some way. In terms of making bonds form, enzymes do this by bonding to two molecules, or bringing them closer in proximity. The bond can then form more easily, because the molecules are positioned in a way that makes the bond happen more easily. Enzymes need to be very specially designed to fit the particular molecules they work on, so for each type of chemical reaction that an enzyme catalyzes, it is designed to help that reaction.
• The enzymes bromelain and papain are enzymes from pineapple and papaya. Because these are often found in meat tenderizers, they are used a lot in recipes because they break down the proteins in meats, making it tenderer.
• The browning of fruit or vegetables is also due to enzymes. Biting or cutting releases enzymes in special compartments of the cell, and they react with other compounds in the fruit or vegetable. 
• Thanks to one of Dufresne and Russin's collaborations, we can now glue one piece of meat or one protein to another, thanks to meat glue, an enzyme also known as transglutaminase.

In honour of the Hamburglar

At the beginning of February of this year, the chances of the Ottawa Senators making the playoffs were dead in the water. With their starting and backup goalies out with injuries, the team was forced to rely on an unknown call-up from the farm team. Fast forward to today - the Senators are playing their best hockey in months, and are playing the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs. This is in part due to the play of Ottawa's newest hockey hero, Andrew "Hamburglar" Hammond. In honour of his success, I thought it would be as good a time as any to celebrate the food he got his nickname from, the hamburger.

There are almost as many claims to the origin of the hamburger as they are toppings for a burger, and meats used to make the patty. As it turns out, people have been enjoying ground meat placed inside a sliced bun since the late 1800s. Whether the patty is thin or thick, square or round, you can get a hamburger pretty much anywhere. Burger purists will insist that a hamburger should only be ground beef and seasoned with salt and pepper. These people should be ignored, as a tasty burger can contain binders like eggs or breadcrumbs; be seasoned with onions, soy sauce, Thousand Island dressing, or Worcestershire sauce; and be made with ingredients such as ground lamb, bison, and salmon; or meat substitutes like tofu, or textured vegetable protein. Below is the recipe I use when I'm in the mood for some hamburgers - try and resist throwing your burger on the ice as part of a victory celebration. Go Sens Go!

Ingredients

570g ground beef (don't use lean ground beef, burgers need fat for flavour and moistness)
1 egg
breadcrumbs
onion soup mix
Worcestershire sauce
ketchup
salt and pepper

1. Combine in a bowl the ground beef with the egg, the contents of the onion soup package, a dusting of breadcrumbs, a few shakes from the Worcestershire bottle, and a few shakes/squirts from the ketchup bottle. Mix everything together with your hands. Add more breadcrumbs if you think your mixture needs it.
2. Form the meat into patties, and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.
3. Whether you're cooking the burger using a grill, or pan-frying them, flip it only once. You're looking at about 3 minutes per side for rare, 4 minutes for medium, or 5 minutes for well-done.
4. Put the burger in either a bun (or in between some toast for a patty melt), and top with your choice of condiments, vegetables, and toppings.