Wadup peeps! It's my final semester! but I dunwanna graduate *whines This semester started a bit late because of the RCA conference. We got back on a Tuesday in week 2, and went right back into campus the next day. Since FPD 2 falls on a Tuesday this semester, we only started class in week 3. That's why we are all in rocket mode now. We've got quite some progress to catch up!
Quick recap: our final year project is a School Health Meal Programme whereby we need to develop healthy kids meal through the usage of innovative and functional ingredients. During the last stage in FPD 1, we've came out with 2 beta concepts: Beetroot and Pumpkin burger, and spiral spring roll. We decided to go with Beetroot and pumpkin burger as the idea was more developed.
Lesson 7: Opportunity is for those who are prepared
Yes? No? Maybe? Argh, I don't think I'm ready yet! Not even a second for us to take a deep breath, we're expected to carry out our first trial of gold standard on our first official class. Great We had an introductory class on Monday whereby Dr. Chong briefed us of the structure of the module.
So this semester, we will be going through 4 phases before we finally launch our product. The first three weeks are to develop a gold standard (GS), followed by 4 weeks of commercial prototype (CP) studies, before moving on to product packaging and marketing study. Along the development, physiochemical properties and storage studies will be carried out. It does look like we had little to do, but there's tonnes of hidden circumstances we have to take into account. So yeah, I better brace myself as it will be my last and toughest semester to go through.
On Tuesday, we went straight into our first GS trial. Oh, and before I forget, each of us in the team plays a different role to keep our 'company' running. Ernie is the director, responsible for HR management and related stuff. We all agreed for Kenley to be the HACCP manager because he needs some responsibility to correct his messiness. =X I am the product manager whereby I need to plan for the production of both GS and CP, as well as monitoring the quality of our product. That left us with the marketing manager, which is also assigned to Kenley, cause we all know how 'outspoken' he could be.
Anyway, back to the production on Tuesday, we had tonnes of things to decide. We had three components, the bun, the patty, and the sauce. For bun, we tried the one and only carrot bun (Bc) recipe found on the internet and compared with one without carrots (Bo) as control. Meanwhile, we made 4 versions of patty as we played around with the texture of the patty filling. We had an empty one as control (Po), one with chunk vegetables (Pc), one with pureed vegetables (Pp) and one in jelly (Pj) form. Finally, we also tried two different method to make the spicy honey lemon sauce, one by using thickening agent (corn starch) as the control (So), and the other by emulsification using butter (Se).
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| Our production plan |
Carrot bun
The carrot bun recipe we found turned out to be too lumpy for a bun, so we added more flour to it. To double check the new formulation works, we made another trial, thus leaving us with three batches of buns.
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| Left to right: Bo, Bc50 trial 1, Bc50 trial 2 |
Sensory result
- Bo: Dense and chewy because of lesser moisture. Irregular shape because did not rest well after reshaping.
- Bc50 (1st): Texture was quite compact but soft. Better shape because the dough rested well. Flour was added at the end when the dough was formed to adjust the consistency, hence another trial was conducted to check the texture when all flour were added at the same time.
- Bc50 (2nd): Texture was fluffier than the 1st Bc50 because a gluten network was formed more properly. Tasted a bit bland.
Next trial
- To push the carrot content to the limit and determine the possible maximum level of carrot used while maintaining the palatability.
- To add some fried shallot to provide more aroma.
Patty
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| Top to bottom: Pc, Pp, Pj. |
Sensory result:
- Po: Patty was a bit dry. Overwhelming taste of maggie seasoning, oregano and blackpepper.
- Pc: Vegetables balanced the taste by a small degree. Beetroot chunk needed too much effort to chew.
- Pp: Consistent and easy to form patty. Layer was too thin, could not taste the vegetables. Red colour in the middle looked like uncooked meat.
- Pj: Flows out while hot. Best sensory attribute among all variations. Red colour in the middle looked like uncooked meat.
Next trial
- To improve on the taste of meat.
- To increase the thickness of vegetable filling.
- To increase amount of gelatin for Pj and compare the sensory profile with the current Pj.
Spicy Honey Lemon Sauce
Sensory result:
- So: Cayene was too overpowering
- Se: Reduced cayenne and added butter. Tasted more balanced and creamy but slightly too buttery.
Next trial
To reduce amount of butter for Se by 33% and check on the flavour
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| Appearance of the assembled burger |
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| Cross section of burgers. Top to bottom: Pc, Pp, Pj. |
Conclusion
The trials took longer time than expected as we over estimated our capability. However, the outcome showed that we were on the right track as the product came out to be quite appealing. Still a lot of work to be done but so far I'm enjoying the process!.
Looking forward to the coming trial.
Peace out,
Dong
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