Read Online Uncle John’s Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader by Bathroom Readers’ Institute - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
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F REEZER BURN
If you’ve ever had a freezer, you’ve probably seen “freezer burn”—the discolored, dried-out crust that forms on food when it’s been in the freezer too long or isn’t wrapped correctly.
What causes it?
Evaporation. Even when something is frozen solid, the water molecules are still moving. And some of them move fast enough to fly right off the surface of the food. Then one of three things happens:
1. They get pulled back by the food’s gravitational field.
2. They slam into air molecules and bounce back onto the food.
3. They fly off into space.
Over time, so many water molecules will fly off into space that the surface of the food actually becomes dehydrated. That’s freezer burn. It’s also known as sublimation , the process by which ice evaporates without first turning into water.
That’s what freeze-drying is—drying something out while it’s still frozen.
FREEZER SCIENCE
In the 19th century, scientists studying sublimation discovered that the process happened faster in a jar when the air was pumped out. (The jars are called vacuum chambers .) This is because when you remove air, you’re removing the air molecules. The fewer air molecules there are to bump into, the greater the chance that the water molecules will escape into space—which speeds the drying.
But the freeze-drying process still took too long. So over the next half-century, scientists tried to find ways to speed it up. They succeeded…and then began freeze-drying anything and everything to see what would happen. The first practical applications they found were in the medical field: many microscopic organisms—including bacteria, viruses, vaccines, yeasts, and algae—could actually survive the process; so could blood plasma.
----
The most popular Easter egg color is blue. Next are purple and pink.
----
By World War II, freeze-dried blood plasma and penicillin (which could be reconstituted with sterile water) accompanied soldiers onto the battlefield. And by the end of the war, freeze-dried instant coffee tablets were included in U.S. troops’ K rations.
FREEZE-DRIED FOODS
After the war, food companies poured money into making freeze-dried food palatable. It took 10 years, but they finally figured out that when food is “flash frozen” (i.e., frozen as quickly as possible), followed by freeze-drying, much of the flavor is preserved.
The prospects for freeze-dried food seemed limitless: In 1962 The Reader’s Digest hailed it as “the greatest breakthrough in food preservation since the tin can,” and food technologists predicted that sales of freeze-dried food products would rival sales of frozen foods by 1970. Hundreds of food companies rushed new products to the markets. A few, like freeze-dried coffee, were successes. But most wound up in the “fabulous flop” category. For example:
• Corn flakes with freeze-dried fruit. As we told you in the first Bathroom Reader , in 1964 Post introduced Cornflakes with Strawberries and Kellogg’s introduced Cornflakes with Instant Bananas. Both predicted that sales would hit $600 million in a few years. Both were wrong. It turned out that freeze-dried fruit gets soft on the outside when soaked in milk, but stays crunchy on the inside. And by the time the fruit is soft enough to eat, the cereal is soggy. Millions of families bought the cereals once, but never came back for a second helping.
• Kellogg’s Kream Krunch. Cereal with chunks of freeze-dried ice cream. Different product, same problem: the cereal turned soggy before the ice cream reconstituted.
• Freeze-dried steak. “It looks like a brownish sponge,” Business Week wrote in 1963, “but plop it into hot water and in a few minutes the ‘sponge’ blossoms into a sirloin steak that tastes almost as good as one from the butcher’s.” Wishful thinking. It cost as much
F REEZER BURN
If you’ve ever had a freezer, you’ve probably seen “freezer burn”—the discolored, dried-out crust that forms on food when it’s been in the freezer too long or isn’t wrapped correctly.
What causes it?
Evaporation. Even when something is frozen solid, the water molecules are still moving. And some of them move fast enough to fly right off the surface of the food. Then one of three things happens:
1. They get pulled back by the food’s gravitational field.
2. They slam into air molecules and bounce back onto the food.
3. They fly off into space.
Over time, so many water molecules will fly off into space that the surface of the food actually becomes dehydrated. That’s freezer burn. It’s also known as sublimation , the process by which ice evaporates without first turning into water.
That’s what freeze-drying is—drying something out while it’s still frozen.
FREEZER SCIENCE
In the 19th century, scientists studying sublimation discovered that the process happened faster in a jar when the air was pumped out. (The jars are called vacuum chambers .) This is because when you remove air, you’re removing the air molecules. The fewer air molecules there are to bump into, the greater the chance that the water molecules will escape into space—which speeds the drying.
But the freeze-drying process still took too long. So over the next half-century, scientists tried to find ways to speed it up. They succeeded…and then began freeze-drying anything and everything to see what would happen. The first practical applications they found were in the medical field: many microscopic organisms—including bacteria, viruses, vaccines, yeasts, and algae—could actually survive the process; so could blood plasma.
----
The most popular Easter egg color is blue. Next are purple and pink.
----
By World War II, freeze-dried blood plasma and penicillin (which could be reconstituted with sterile water) accompanied soldiers onto the battlefield. And by the end of the war, freeze-dried instant coffee tablets were included in U.S. troops’ K rations.
FREEZE-DRIED FOODS
After the war, food companies poured money into making freeze-dried food palatable. It took 10 years, but they finally figured out that when food is “flash frozen” (i.e., frozen as quickly as possible), followed by freeze-drying, much of the flavor is preserved.
The prospects for freeze-dried food seemed limitless: In 1962 The Reader’s Digest hailed it as “the greatest breakthrough in food preservation since the tin can,” and food technologists predicted that sales of freeze-dried food products would rival sales of frozen foods by 1970. Hundreds of food companies rushed new products to the markets. A few, like freeze-dried coffee, were successes. But most wound up in the “fabulous flop” category. For example:
• Corn flakes with freeze-dried fruit. As we told you in the first Bathroom Reader , in 1964 Post introduced Cornflakes with Strawberries and Kellogg’s introduced Cornflakes with Instant Bananas. Both predicted that sales would hit $600 million in a few years. Both were wrong. It turned out that freeze-dried fruit gets soft on the outside when soaked in milk, but stays crunchy on the inside. And by the time the fruit is soft enough to eat, the cereal is soggy. Millions of families bought the cereals once, but never came back for a second helping.
• Kellogg’s Kream Krunch. Cereal with chunks of freeze-dried ice cream. Different product, same problem: the cereal turned soggy before the ice cream reconstituted.
• Freeze-dried steak. “It looks like a brownish sponge,” Business Week wrote in 1963, “but plop it into hot water and in a few minutes the ‘sponge’ blossoms into a sirloin steak that tastes almost as good as one from the butcher’s.” Wishful thinking. It cost as much
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