First experiment: How different utensils used affect the taste of the fresh mint dressing?

Relationship between the taste of dressing and the bowl you stirred. 

Hypothesis:

The dressing mix on the aluminum bowl will have the most bitterness.

Then will be the dressing on stainless steel and glass respectively.

Before cooking


What is needed?

• Ingredients

• extra-virgin olive oil

• vinegar

• mint leaves

• honey

• Dijon mustard

• garlic

• fine sea salt

• ground pepper

• Equipments

• electronic scale

• electronic mixer

• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon (use for adding the sea salt and Dijon mustard)

• Knife (for cutting garlic cloves)

• cutting board

• Utensils

• a glass bowl

• an aluminum bowl

• a stainless-steel bowl

Who do the shopping?

Me. 

Cheung Chin Pang (Mike)

Where to obtain the ingredients/equipments/tools? 

Where to cook?

Most of the ingredients were bought from the supermarket, ParknShop

Only the sea salt and garlic is taken from my home storage instead.

And all the utensils and tools are taken from my home. 

When start cooking?

The night of 22/3/2020

Why this investigation is important?

There is a saying that mixing dressing in aluminum bowl will be more "metallic" and bitter.

So I am going to find out that is it true or not.

Because in the current situation, everyone is affected by the coronavirus. We are not encouraged to go out a lot. 

Through this investigation, we can find out the best utensils for making the perfect taste dressings.

At the same time, learn a new recipe for dressings.

Dressings can be commonly used among dishes, salad or different meals.

Which works as a natural and healthy flavoring for our meal. 

Instead of eating unchanged dishes at home, dressings should give you an appetite.

Details for my first experiment

• Since some of the utensils are way too massive to put on the electronic scale.

I have decided to put all the ingredients in a non-reactive bowl (porcelain) for scaling. 

Then pour all of them in the designated utensil for stirring.

• Moreover,  since I have three utensils to test, I think is a waste of food by using 4 serving on each utensil test. 

So I decided to use only one serving in each time test on the different utensils. 

• Lastly, I can't buy the fresh mint in the supermarket, so I use dry mint instead. 

But is way too light compare to fresh mint leaves so I substitute the amount to about 6 shakes of dry mint

Recipe for one serving

• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

• ½ cup vinegar

• ¼ cup packed fresh mint (spearmint) leaves [substitute by 6 shakes of dry mint]

• 3 tablespoons honey or maple syrup

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

• 10 twists of freshly ground black pepper

Cooking measurement	Gram
1 cup	128g
1 tablespoon	15
1 teaspoon	5g

Convert to 

• 64g olive oil

• 64g vinegar

• 6 shakes of dry mint

• 45g honey

• 15g Dijon mustard

• 2 roughly cut garlic cloves

• about 1.25g sea salt

• 10 twists of ground black pepper

All ingredients

All utensils

All tools

First utensil: Aluminum bowl

First step

 

Open the garlic and pick two cloves. By pressing them under the knife, makes it easier to peel off the skin outside the clove. then cut them roughly.

Second step

Put all ingredients in a non-reactive bowl (porcelain) for scaling.

But after I pour in the extra-virgin olive oil, I put 5g more vinegar inside accidentally. 

Then after the scaling, I put all ingredients in the aluminum bowl and start stirring.

After the stirring, I put the dressing in another non-reactive bowl. Covered it by plastic wrap and start the next dressing of stirring in a stainless-steel utensil.





Since I only need to mix the dressing until it is smooth.

But we need the accurate and same mixing time for each dressing.

So my next two dressing will follow the first dressing mixing time which is 2:38 with same mixing speed.

Second utensil: stainless-steel bowl

Same step of the previous utensil





But this time I put 2g more olive oil and 17g more vinegar than expected accidentally.

After the scaling, I pour those ingredients in the stainless-steel bowl for mixing.

Lastly, put the dressing in the porcelain bowl for later tasting tests.


Third utensil: glass bowl

Like the previous time, I scaled the ingredients in the porcelain bowl.

But this time all ingredients are being added carefully.




Only 1g more of vinegar is added.

 Time for the stirring

Finish the preparing work


Now time to taste

All bowls are being marked by numbers.

No.1 is the dressing mix in the aluminum bowl

No.2 is the dressing mix in the stainless-steel bowl

No.3 is the dressing mix in the glass bowl






Details of test


Volunteers (my family, of course, I don't think people outside will like to taste things in the current situation) are being asked to rate the bitterness of dressing after each bowl tasted.

Moreover, after tasted each bowl, the teaspoon need to be cleaned to avoid the next dressing being mixed with the previous one.



They won't be told that which of them are being mixed in which utensil.

Bitterness (from 1 to 10)

1 is the least bitterness

10 is the most bitterness

One decimal place is allowed.

Finally, the test is finished.

The remaining dressings will be stored in the refrigerator for future usage.

Here are the results

After the first experiment

Results

	Aluminum bowl	Stainless-steel bowl	Glass bowl
Mom	0	0	1
Sister	4	2.5	1
Younger sister	4	2	1
Average	(0+4+4)/3 = 2.67	(0+2.5+2)/3 = 1.5	(1+1+1)/3 = 1

According to the result, we can see that the hypothesis is proved right.

Dressing mix in the aluminum bowl is the most bitterness. 

Then will be the dressings in stainless-steel bowl and glass bowl.

Analysis

What could possibly go wrong?

• The amount of each ingredient

Since the mint is not fresh mint leaves but dry mint, the whole bottle of mint is only 9g. But the expected weight of fresh mint leaves is 32g.

So is way too hard to get the same amount in each dressing (6 shakes)

Also, I just pour the ingredients directly in the porcelain bowl in scaling.

Didn't use a measuring cup.

End up sometimes the ingredients have been added excessively.

This should have affect the accuracy of the experiment result.

• Mixing time could not be exactly 2:38

Since I need my phone for taking photos and short clips

I don't have a timer for counting the exact time but look at how long have the video being recorded instead.

It could have a few seconds difference.

When changing the independent value, are the controllable variables really kept controlled?



No, the controllable variables actually are fluctuating than expected.

Each time I scale the ingredients for different utensils, the volume/amount differs.

And the mixing time for each dressing is not exactly the same.




How can errors be minimized?

• For the accurate amount of ingredients 

Use the measuring cup for accurate volume and amount of ingredients in each scaling

Buy the fresh mint instead of using dry mint

• For the same mixing time in each utensil

Use a timer for counting the mixing time for each dressing.













Reference

cooking measurement convert to gram
https://www.allrecipes.com/article/cup-to-gram-conversions/
https://www.convertunits.com/from/teaspoon/to/gram

non-reactive bowl, porcelain
https://www.cooksinfo.com/non-reactive-pans