Lambert’s Cafe is an interesting cultural icon. Seriously small-town and farm-country, the staff all wear red suspenders and bow ties. Seating in long wooden benches, and the drinks in enormous, reusable plastic cups. The cups really captures the ethos. Red, black and blue, they are cheap, thick walled and have see a lot of use, so much so that the logos and markings on many of them are coming off.
They also throw rolls to you from across the room. It’s their thing. It’s a lot of fun, although under and over throws can come as a bit of a surprise to the unsuspecting. Someone is always walking around with tins of sorghum mollasses and apple butter which are quite good.
At any rate, Lambert’s is located at a convenient half-way point between Memphis and St. Louis, so it makes for a reasonable break on the long drive.
Osmosis is the movement of liquids through a membrane, from areas of high to regions of low concentration. So, if you sprinkle sugar onto ripe strawberries, the concentration of sugar on the outside of the berries becomes very high. The juices will seep out of the strawberries’ cells, through the cell walls (the membrane), and create quite the delectable syrup. Add a few shortcakes and some whipped cream and ….
Strawberry shortcake (gluten free).
Note to self: try strawberries in the greenhouse this winter. Life sciences are next year and osmosis is a key concept.
Note #2: This is also a large part of the answer to the question of, “Why do we get thirsty when we eat salty foods?”
Spices in a Moroccan market. Image by Donar Reiskoffer, found on Wikipedia Commons.
Montessori elementary programs approach history from the perspective of the basic needs of human beings. They look at how humans have satisfied the needs for food, shelter, spirituality and so on over time.
A new book by Tom Standage called, “An Edible History of Humanity” looks at human history through food, from how agriculture lead to the beginning of civilization, to the role of spices in the European discovery of the Americas, to how food production shaped the rise and fall of Napoleon, to the effects of the Green Revolution on the world today.
it concentrates specifically on the intersections between food history and world history, to ask a simple question: which foods have done most to shape the modern world, and how?
Spiked Online has a nice review of the book that touches on many of the key points. This book certainly open up a wider discussion of world history. A simplified version would likely be a great addition to the middle school curriculum.
The vivid colors, heart-rending smells and sheer mass of the pyramids of spices in Moroccan markets are a vivid reminder of the importance of the Arab spice trade. The spice mixes I remember in particular, they can consist of over twenty different spices coming from all around the world.
Cooking is chemistry writ large. You start by learning how to measure volumes, mass and ratios, but end up talking about polymers and stoichiometry. It can get very complicated, but it’s easy enough that anyone can do it, going into different depths.
I’m planning on jam making this fall and in testing a recipe I became curious about if I could do it without adding store-bought pectin. Red currants should have enough pectin but the question of extracting it came up.
I was curious to see if I actually get more pectin from the liquid squeezed last through the handkerchief (with much wringing) than I get from the pulp and juice of the red currants I initially squeezed through a coarse strainer. So, I tested the two batches of liquid for pectin. A simple application of science in cooking.
Date: 12/29/09.
Hypothesis: The juice (the filtrate) squeezed out of the currants through the strainer will have less pectin than the juice strained out of the seed and skin leftover of the straining (the retentate) because I think I remember reading somewhere (always dangerous) that pectin can be found in or just beneath the surface of the skin of fruits.
Procedure: Using the test from the University of Minnesota extension service: Add 1 teaspoon of juice to 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and observe how well it coagulates after 2 minutes. This test is performed in two small shot glasses.
Observations: It is difficult to quantify how firm are the gels that forms at the bottom of the shot glasses. Although I could construct a simple device to test gels resistance for force, I opt to assess the gels by swirling the glasses and observing how they move. Eyeballing the results, it seems that the first extraction of pulp and juice has more pectin. An independent observer agrees with this observation.
Conclusion: My initial hypothesis is wrong. Based on this experiment I now hypothesize that the pulp of the currants has more pectin. Five minutes of internet searching seems to confirm this new hypothesis, and suggests that my initial belief that pectin can be found under the skin of fruits comes from the fact that this is true for citrus fruits.
Although we eschew warfare as a means resolving differences, this video, which “is an abridged history of American-centric war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict”, provides a fascinating perspective on the world. It comes from the Food Fight website.
The key to the different food characters will probably be useful for those less familiar with American history. Watching it without the key might also be useful if you’re interested in discussing metaphors, which should become extremely obvious when you get to the World Trade Centers.
I’m really curious too see how the mini-demographic groups respond to this video. I can predict that some of the more video game (FPS) infatuated students will love this. But how will my more food oriented students react?
