RL 150413 & 14: Gold Standard II and Finalising Gold Standard

What a week! Entering week 4 means we're only left three quarters of the semester, and I felt that I just warmed up!

Lesson 8: Whatever does not kill me, makes me stronger

Bad Monday, our group was assigned to collect ingredients. So we're the earliest to reach while the rest arrived later when we're off to collect ingredients. The moment when we re-enter the R&D kitchen, everyone was looking gloomy. I was totally dumbfounded when we're suddenly "blamed" for not 'taking care' of the R&D kitchen. That instance, I really do feel the need to vent all my dissatisfaction, but I suppressed the anger. Now that a week has almost passed, I had done enough reflection to admit that we were at the wrong but still, I don't think we should be treated this way.

Okay, so the incident actually started two weeks ago when Eugene (yes, he's the class rep for FYP) received pictures showing how unorganised the R&D kitchen was, the ingredients were said to not labelled properly and were stored anyhow, and the pots and pans were scattered all over the place. Later on Monday I found out those ingredients have been confiscated. To be frank, I was really unhappy because we were the first group to transfer our ingredients nicely into containers and labelled and kept under our cabinet, more so, I was the one who took the initiative to sort out onions and garlic from the rotten ones and transferred them into clean plastic bags. It just felt like all the work I've done have been put into waste. All the while, we've been carefully following rules, but somehow, the rules were never clearly instructed, how are we supposed to know what to do? Case in point, the flour that is still in the original package. I agree it's our fault not labelling it, but no one has ever told us to transfer it into a new container, even so, there's also no enough containers to keep that much flour. In the end, flour was confiscated. I could ramble on and on but no point crying over spilt milk now. I just sincerely hope for a black and white from the management, clearly stating the SOP of everything in the kitchen, from stock management to equipment usage to code of ethics, etc. Better still conduct a briefing on the do's and don'ts in the kitchen like what they are doing with the science labs. This is to protect both parties, keep us students informed and so we could not argue when the management is performing their authority. 

Fine, enough of complaints. Let's move on to what we did on Monday. We had a sensory test on our patty, bun and sauce to figure out which version had the best sensory acceptance so we could move on assembling and do another sensory test on Tuesday. 

Carrot buns

We did three versions of carrot buns: Bc45 with 45% carrot; Bc70 with 70% carrot; and Bc90 with 90% carrot. As the amount of carrots increased, the texture of the dough became lumpier and thus the buns became softer. Result of sensory test suggested that Bc90 was the spongiest of all, but some found it too soft and could hardly hold its shape. Bc70 was the best among the three buns, as it held its shape while the texture was balanced between sponginess and chewiness. On an extra note was that the buns, despite having high content of carrot, did not taste carrot at all. It was a very welcoming result for us we do not need to find other means to mask the carrot taste. 

Left to right: Bc45; Bc70, Bc90

Patty  no, pictures.. oops

Patty was a tricky one. We did pureed patty, Pp, two kinds of jellied patties, Pj6.5 and Pj13 (with double gelatine), and a control. As we did not managed the time well, the patties were ready right before the sensory test. We didn't have time to properly cool it down, so by the time we cut, it left a hollow space in the patty as some of the filling leaked. As a result, the most accepted patty was Pp, whereby the beetroot and pumpkin puree provided moisture and flavour to the patty, at the same time, gave a variety in texture. We expected Pj13 to have a better acceptance than Pj6.5 but it turned out to be the worst as it was too watery and nothing was left in the patty. 

Sauce

As what we planned previous week, we reduced butter in our sauce (Se100) and compared with the one we got previous week (Se150). Turned out that Se100 is more acceptable as it is less buttery and more balanced. 

Monday ended up to be an exhausting day. We had to immediately analyse the sensory test result so that we could plan for the next day. As we prepared too many samples for the sensory test, it could be a burden for our sensory panels to taste so many different food. Hence, after finalising the sensory results, we decided to pick the best and compare with a control set for the sensory test on Tuesday. 

Top: Control (Sample B) - Bo, Po, So; bottom: Gold standard (Sample A)- Bc70, Pp, Se100 

The preparation on Tuesday went on pretty smoothly as we had already gone through once on Monday. We prepared everything on time, and this time, there were only two samples so the sensory test was done pretty quickly too. 

Gold standard vs control: size is almost similar

Gold standard vs control: bun was thinner in gold standard but patty was thicker.

The results came out as expected, most of the people preferred the gold standard with carrot bun and pureed vegetables filled patty, as it was more moist and flavourful. However, one thing that attracted our attention was that a few of them mentioned the patty looks scary and bloody. Kenley actually named it 'bloody red burger' LOL! what a spot on representation of BRB.. 

More people preferred (18/22) sample A (gold standard)

Sample A (gold standard) had better sensory quality than sample B (control), however it is quite comparable.

The overall comment on our second sensory test was much more welcoming than that on the first day, mainly because the flavours from the sauce, patty, and bun complemented each other and it was too monotonous when consumed separately. However, the patties were still a bit dry, so we are going to improve that on coming Monday. Surprisingly, no one commented on the vibrant colours on the buns and patty except it looked bloody. We treated it as a positive feedback as the colours were meant to attract children's attention. To solve the 'bloody' problem, we were planning to make the filling so solid so it wouldn't smear as much when it is cut. 

Tuesday was a much better day, and we managed to go back early. Yay! What I learnt was practice really does make perfect, and planning helps to keep us on track. Yeah, we're progressing steadily on track so hopefully we could continue doing so.

Looking forward to the next session!

Dong