While investigating the differences in kosher salt brands, it was observed that two boxes of the same brand had surprisingly different densities. But were those differences statistically significant?
Taking Salt with a Grain of Statistics
Tag Archives: mass
Taking recipes with a grain of salt
When recipe calls for a tablespoon of “kosher salt” that seems like a simple instruction, right?
Counting on Cookies
Cookie recipes never seem to make as many cookies the recipe claims, so how big (or small, rather) must a cookie be in order to get the recipe-expected number of cookies?
Happy New Year!
Just a quick post to wish people a Happy New Year and to report on a mini measurement!
Cost of Packaging
Great bags of corned meat, but how much did I pay for the individual components within that bag?
Proof in the Pączki
Pączki: a pre-lenten cultural component of much of the midwest. Today, we are testing a common claim about an ingredient that makes its way into some of the more traditional recipes.
Sear-iously Delicious Steaks
The passing of labor day may mean the end of grilling season for some, but that doesn’t have to mean an end to delicious steaks. Cooking an excellent steak comes down to three simple things: 1) a high quality piece of meat, 2) getting the correct internal temperature, 3) getting a good sear on the outside. We find that a good rib-eye steak passes the quality test, and sous vide solves the correct internal temperature problem. But what is the best way to get a perfect sear?
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Bags of Hot Delicious Meat
Here at the primary testing facility we are always looking for ways to improve how we cook delicious meats. So, when vacuum sealable zip-top bags recently appeared on the market we wanted to see how well they work for sous vide cooking. In this post these bags are put up against the older style bag while cooking rib-eyes steaks.
Bacon Shrinkage (revisited!)
We previously examined bacon shrinkage caused by different stove-top techniques. However, it was uncertain how much of that length loss was simply due to differential doneness. Here, we wanted to try again with more control for “doneness”, as well as examine the impacts on different bacon thicknesses.
Bacon Shrinkage?
Bacon shrinks as it cooks, and one technique promised to produce perfect bacon with less shrinkage. That sounded like an excellent thing to test, the with added opportunity to eat bacon.
Doing Science To Stuff 