Month: September 2015

Researcher: Alec BorsookStart: July 2014End: August 2014 OverviewSunflower seeds, among some other foods like burdock, contain chlorogenic acid, which, under alkaline conditions, transforms into a blue-green pigment. We experimented with these green sunflower seeds and their savoury, nutty, almost shrimpy flavour. In conducting our survey of alkaline cooking methods, we noted that for certain foods, cooking at elevated pH can give rise to some dramatic changes in colour, well beyond the spectrum of browns associated with enhanced Maillard reactions. Peanut butter cookies are an American classic, but peanuts are also among the most common food allergens in the United States, affecting around 3 million Americans—including two of my college roommates. Instead of peanut butter cookies, then, a tray of sunflower seed cookies would occasionally materialize in our kitchen. They would be just as crisp and golden-brown, their interiors chewy and moist, and yet, as often as not, we would break … Read more

Project: Agar extraction from Gracilariaceae spp.Start date: Summer 2013Researcher: Justine de ValicourtGoal: To extract agar from Gracilariaceae spp. and compare the results of two techniques by clarity, yield, strength and ease of method. Working with algae was one of the lab’s first projects, and it gave a lot of results: from developing further applications for Nordic species of kelp and dulse to a scientific paper published in Flavour Journal on seaweeds for umami taste. In addition to aroma and umami, some species also exhibit interesting textural properties – indeed many commercially available hydrocolloids are derived from algae species.In the summer of 2013 I wondered if we could take our seaweed research further and develop our own agar at the lab. Agar is found naturally in species of Gracilariaceae – a family some species of which grow in some of Denmark’s fjords. We obtained some of ours, Gracilaria vermiculosa, from Holckenhavn Fjord on the … Read more