The Experimental Cuisine Collective (or ECC for short) is a group that holds meetings each month about a topic in food science for food enthusiasts, chefs, scientists, writers, and anyone else who wants to attend. I read about it in the New York Times a few weeks ago, and thought it would be fun to see what it was all about.
I'll start off by introducing you to the people I was sitting next to, just to give you an idea of the kind of people that show up to these things: To my right, a Harvard graduate student who travelled all the way here from Boston for this meeting (he's looking to do his Ph.D on the best way to make a glossy chocolate--sweet!), a man who wrote the book Cooking for Geeks (due out in a month or so... I hope I'm not giving anything away--it's good press, man!), and a woman who wrote the book called Cook and Freeze (or something like that... Also due out in a month or so). To my left, a retired Ph.D chemist. Wow.
As you can see, there were some pretty intense people here. We all went around and introduced ourselves and what why we were here (you know, if our profession had anything to do with food science... My favorite answer of the night was a man all the way in the back corner who told us his name, then said, "because I cook, eat, and drink". Gotta love it.)
Anyway, the topic for tonight's meeting was this: Plant Saponin Amphiphiles: Dessert Topping or Floor Wax? Basically, can we create a substance that tastes delicious as a dessert and can also function as a floor wax?
The answer, is...maybe. Depends on how much you like bitter-tasting desserts.
Kent Kirshenbaum, of NYU's chemistry department (and co-founder of the ECC), started the evening off with a clip of an SNL skit from the '70s that depicted an ad featuring a husband and wife fighting over whether a can of foam was a a floor wax or a dessert topping--and it ended up being both! Kirshenbaum talked to us about the reality of making a product like this, and gave us a sample of his solution.
So, let's backtrack here--what makes a soap able to clean? Basically, the main requirement of a soap is that it is amphiphilic--that is, it has a hydrophilic (water-loving) end and a hydrophobic (water-fearing) end. Soaps are made from a chemical process called saponification. When a soap is used to clean away dirt and oil, the micelles rearrange so that oil is trapped inside the micelles. Then, the dirt can be rinsed away.
There are many saponins that occur in nature. So which ones can we use in food that will be palatable? Good question.
Saponins tend to be very bitter, and are found in plants like quinoa (which is why you have to rinse it before cooking), many legumes, licorice root, horse chesnuts, and ginseng (there are many more, as well). Kirshenbaum decided to use extract from the quillaja (soap bark tree), found in Chile.
He modified a recipe written for Campari meringues, and added the quillaja extract. He wanted a recipe for a meringue in which a bitter taste would not be shocking, hence the Campari meringues. The result was a bitter, but not horrible tasting dessert. It was definitely...interesting. Here's some pictures:
The outside of the meringue.
You can see the inside texture in the second picture. This had been sitting on my desk for a day though, so the inside had gotten a little moisture and had a gooey texture when I broke it in half. The inner texture was a lot nicer the first day. It didn't compare to regular meringues, but still had a texture that was reminiscent of of them. They could make a nice vegan dessert.
After tasting the dessert, we discussed the effects of saponins in the diet. One of the most interesting and well-studied of the effects is it's cholesterol-lowering powers. The Masai of East Africa eat a diet composed mostly of meat and dairy--both high cholesterol items. Yet, they have very low cholesterol. It is thought that the addition of saponin-rich herbs to the foods they make may increase the excretion of cholesterol from the body. Saponins bind cholesterol with bile, and prevent cholesterol reabsorption.
Using more saponin-rich plants in the diet could have a beneficial effect on those who have high cholesterol--a very large problem in the U.S. Maybe Kirshenbaum will start marketing a variety of meringues aimed at high-cholesterol patients! There's a large market out there...
These naturally-derived saponins might be an option for those with high cholesterol that want to use a more natural product than synthetic cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Overall, it was a very interesting seminar with some very interesting people. If you're in NYC, I suggest you check it out!
Happy Eating,
KS
No comments:
Post a Comment