SC - big spice question

[Paul Shore]

<italic><color><param>7F00,7F00,7F00</param>> But, you see, that's the point. It doesn't, really, or I don't think it

> would under controlled circumstances. You know the expression, "all other

> things being equal" ? If you're saying this is a consistently observable

> phenomena, then there is an equally consistent reason for it. Nobody has

> been able even to guess as to why, because the phenomenon doesn't seem to

> be consistent, except in my case where it is consistently absent. You may

> have noticed isolated incidents where spice addition produces more spice

> flavor than you expected, but it doesn't seem to happen universally, even

> to those people who report the phenomenon. It doesn't always happen to

> Margali, or at least based on what she's said, doesn't seem to be any kind

> of observable constant, it's just something that she's observed now and

> then, and can provide examples of those incidents. If it's not a

> consistently observable phenomenon, then we could have a series of

> isolated incidents, each with a different cause, and this does not a rule

> make.  How can you base what amounts to a culinary rule ~"You always end

> up with too much spice when you multiply a recipe; the math doesn't work"

> on an unknown number of incidents versus an unknown number of incidents

> when the phenomenon doesn't occur?

</italic></color>Actually I had heard that this <color><param>7F00,7F00,7F00</param>phenomenon</color> had been studied at MIT and 
there was even a set of scaling tables devised by them.


When we cook in large quantities, all other things are not equal.  Different 
masses of food heat at different rates given the same BTU input.  Extraction 
of essential oils occurs at different rates.  Oxidation and browning reactions 
(can you say scorching?) proceed differently.  Different relative surface areas 
are involved. Liquids and especially alcohols and other volitiles evaporate at 
different rates.


This in nowhere more obvious than in baking.  For baking you can not simply 
scale up a home recipe for industrial use.  It doesn't work.  You might be 
able to scale down an industrial formula, but you will get some notably weird 
measurements.


<nofill>
Best Regards,

Paul Shore                       | Email: shore at dcainc.com
Sr. Research Engineer            | Phone: (918) 225-0346 X1021
Doug Carson and Associates, Inc. |   Fax: (918) 225-1113
1515 East Pine, Cushing OK 74023 |   Web: http://www.dcainc.com
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