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What Would French Fries Taste Like If You Made Them On Jupiter?
sciencehabit writes "Hoping that studying deep frying in different gravitational conditions will help them improve space food for future astronauts, scientists with the European Space Agency chopped potatoes into thin sticks and deep fried them in extra-virgin olive oil, one side at a time, in a spinning centrifuge that created conditions of up to nine times Earth's gravity, akin to that seen on Jupiter. Higher gravity levels significantly increased the heat transfer between the hot oil and the potato, shortening frying time and resulting in thick, crispy crusts, the team reports. In fact, the scientists may have discovered the ideal gravitational condition for creating crunchy fries: The crust reached its maximum thickness when the potato was fried at three times Earth's gravity; any further increase in gravity levels did not improve the fries' crispiness."
French fries did not originate on Earth, but were brought here by benevolent Aliens in the past.
I, for one, would welcome the return of out benefactors!
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Whirling hot oil around at high speed, in a kitchen.
What could go wrong?
Surely this research is a leading candidate!
Am I the only Slashdotter thinking of trying this? The clothes washer on spin would be too big. Maybe put a faster motor on my ice cream maker and pour in some hot oil...
So at work, they've got a food stand outside that does made-to-order liquid nitrogen ice cream. I think that a "Jupiter Fries" truck would fit in quite nicely.
What could go wrong?
I suspect that we'll read about more than one actualized possibility over the next few weeks.
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Whirling hot oil around at high speed, in a kitchen.
What could go wrong?
But you know, the same people who deep fry turkeys would try this.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Every source I've found says it's 2.53, where did these people come up with 9? Nonetheless, I am looking forward to trying some high-gravity fries. Sounds delicious.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Deep frying, of course, is quite literally boiling in oil. As the boiling point is dependent on the pressure, they might want to consider putting the fryer in a pressure vessel that can handle several atmospheres. (No, I don't think a broaster is built for that.) Of course, that may well take the boiling point above the smoke point, so you may want to fill the container with nitrogen or possibly carbon dioxide.
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Fat lot of good it does if you can't *grow* potatoes in 9x Earth gravity.
If they can grow potatoes in their centrifuge... then we have a useful study. :)
That I'm right, and you don't like it, doesn't mean I'm a troll.
I would think olive oil a poor choice for making french fries. In general, olive oil has too low of a smoke point; it just doesn't get hot enough to fry things well. Maybe the increased pressure made a lower oil temp better? I was always taught to use olive oil as a flavoring on pastas, salads, bread, etc. but never for actual hot-oil-cooking.
If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
That's a good idea. So good that you could make millions of dollars from it, like Colonel Sanders did.
If ever there was an article begging for a "hot oil on Uranus" comment, this is it.
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Eat that Heston Blumenthal!
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Whirling hot oil around at high speed, in a kitchen. What could go wrong?
Can't wait to see how someone's frozen turkey will turn out in one of these next Thanksgiving. It'll be like an angry birds reality show.
Gravity so strong that it collapses into a singularity, the sweet-potato fries get sucked in, and ordinary non-sweet potato fries are ejected from the fryer, fully done.