Order # 12

For this unit of humanities I have learned about industrial foods and how technology is used to create our foods today. For this action project I compared a restaurant meal and a homemade meal with a food review explaining which meal was better, healthier, and which one filled you up faster than the other meal. For the restaurant meal I went with my dad to Mcdonald’s and ordered a chicken sandwich. For the homemade meal I went to the grocery store and bought the items to make my sandwich. I bought white bread, turkey bacon, and chicken patties. I cooked my homemade meal by myself, but I had a hard time cooking the bacon because my oil was too hot. This course “Food for Thought” has impacted me to eat more healthy because the process in which meat was processed made me change my way of eating meat.

Food #1 Restaurant

At the Mcdonald’s on 4338 W. North Ave I ordered a #12 Chicken Ranch BLT Crispy. It was a pure salty meal with a side of salty fries and a cold drink. After awhile, I got used to the taste. While eating, it tasted very delicious had a wonderful smell and nice great texture while grabbing the burger. I could taste the salty and sweet sauce of ranch burst into my mouth, with bits of bacon so crunchy. I could hear myself crunching very loudly inside my head. I loved It. I was full after I ate everything I had ordered. All I smelled was ranch, the sauce that gave it the most flavor.

Photography. JR (2014).

Food #2 Homemade

For homemade food, specifically sandwiches, my favorite sandwich flavors are turkey and smoked ham. However for this homemade sandwich, I used white bread, chicken, bacon, pickles, ranch and  honey mustard. My sandwich turned out to be more greasy, salty and less crunchy than the McDonald's BLT version. The amount of ranch and mustard made the bread softer and less appealing to the eye. In addition, the chicken patty was really greasy and not as crunchy. My meal wasn't as tasteful as the McDonald's famous BLT. I personally did not feel full because I did not like the turnout, therefore I did not eat it all.

Photography. J.R. 2014.

The ranch had a lot of ingredients that I have never heard of before and one of them was disodium guanylate. This ingredient is safe to eat and enhances the flavor that ranch dressing has.

Michael Pollan’s 5 transformations described major ways that our diet has changed since the industrial revolution. One of the transformation is from whole foods to refined foods. I chose this transformation to relate to my meals because my Mcdonald’s sandwich was made with white bread which is a refined food. The ingredients that I put in my homemade sandwich were also refined. For example, the dressings were processed because I read the ingredient label on the back and didn’t know what any of the ingredients were.

I recommend the Mcdonald’s chicken sandwich because the bread was less soggy and way tastier. The homemade sandwich that I made was very soggy and just didn't taste the same as the Mcdonald’s chicken sandwich. They were both greasy and also salty. I will definitely have the Mcdonald’s chicken sandwich again.

The Rised Cupcakes

Cupcakes

 In “Food,” a math and science course, my classmates and I have been learning about the different chemical reaction behind cooking. We watched a movie called “Kings of Pastry”, which showed the steps of how to make delicious bake goods using the right measurements and how to mix the ingredients that the cupcakes need. I have also learned about the 5 essential ingredients used for baking which are eggs, butter, flour, sugar and baking powder. The most challenging thing was finding the right measurements that needed to be put into the cupcake as a substitute for baking powder.

My Cupcakes Lab Report
 For my lab report, I have chosen a base and acid to put into my cupcakes to see if the cupcakes will turn out just as if it had baking soda. After we put in molasses and egg white, it turned out that the cupcakes had rose a little bit. I thought it would not rise without baking powder. I wanted to know how my cupcakes will turnout to be if I would add egg whites and molasses to get the same reaction as if it was baking powder. I chose to put in molasses which has a pH of 6 and egg whites with a pH of 8.5 so that I can create an acid-base reaction. When they react, they create bubbles which make the cupcakes rise.

Research Question : Can I create the effects of a leavening using of an acid and base?

Hypothesis: If I put egg white and molasses together, then it will make my cupcakes moist and rise just as high as baking powder.

Materials: 
 1/12 cups of sugar
 1/24 cups of butter
 ⅙ of eggs
 ⅙ Tsp of Vanilla extract
 3/24 cups of all-purpose flour
 1/24 cups of milk

Procedure: 

For Control Group:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Grease a muffin pan.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
5. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
6. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth.
7. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
8. For cupcakes, bake 20 minutes.

For Experimental Group:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Greased a muffin pan.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
5. Added molasses, egg white, flour and mix well.
6. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth.
7. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
8. For cupcakes, bake them for 20 minutes

Data

Cupcakes	Amount of Molasses (TSP)	Amount of Egg Whites (TSP)	Height of Cupcakes
1	1/16	1/16	3.7 Cm
2	1/32	3/32	3.4 Cm
3	3/32	1/32	3.5 Cm
4	0	1/8	3.7 Cm
5	1/8	0	3.3 Cm
6	2/48	4/48	3.1 Cm
Control Group	-	-	4.25 Cm

Graph
This graph shows the height of the cupcakes that my friends and I baked.

Recipe in Metric

This is the winning cupcake recipe that I will submit to the magazine.

Ingredients	Amount in Cups/Tsp	Amount in mL
Sugar	1/12 Cups	20 mL
Butter	1/24 Cups	10 mL
Eggs	⅙	40 mL
Vanilla Extract	⅙ Tsp	0.83 mL
Molasses	0	0 mL
Flour	3/24 Cups	30 mL
Milk	1/24 Cups	10 mL
Egg Whites	⅛ Tsp	0.625

Conclusion In conclusion I disapprove my hypothesis because my cupcakes did not rise as high as the cupcakes in the control group. This is because an acid-base reaction did not occur since I didn't add any molasses in the 4th cupcake. This was my favorite cupcake because it was crunchy.

The Ingredient: Grape

For this course "Food For Thought" I was to choose a ingredient and research where it comes from and from how it gets to your plate at home. I learned that grapes are not only a fruit but are used for many things, like medicine, wine production and other foods products that have grapes in it also.The most challenging thing was to research a company and see the process in which, it is transported and taken to you local super market. I chose the "Delano Farms Corporation" company but didn't have any details about how they transport their grapes and how they are processed. What I am most proud of is that I researched a lot and from so much research I had lots of sources to find out how they get their grapes processed and transported to states and countries all around the world.