Have you ever wondered how making pasta actually works? I am here to answer your questions!
Lets start with a mini history lesson
History shows that pasta has been around for a long period of time. Though the original origin is unknown, some say it stems from Italy and some even speculate that pasta can be traced back over thousands of years to Native cultures. Pasta is now a very popular household food. You can find it in grocery stores, farmer markets, or even better, make it yourself.
The beauty of creating your own food is that you can make it unique and to your liking! There are not too many ingredients that go into homemade pasta, but each one can change the result of your delicious meal. Pasta can be made in so many different ways, and today I will be performing some experiments! |
What question will I be exploring?
I have made pasta a few times in my life, but I have never truly thought about what makes pasta, pasta! One of the most important materials needed to make pasta is egg. So, I want to explore how much eggs really affect the consistency, taste, and color of pasta.
In short, “How will the amount of eggs mixed into pasta dough affect the final result of pasta?”
In short, “How will the amount of eggs mixed into pasta dough affect the final result of pasta?”
All the facts:
Before we begin, let me explain what is really going on! Pasta, like any other form of cooking, is a reaction. When flour is mixed with water, two proteins (glutenin and Gliadin)absorb the water and combine to become gluten. Gluten is a substance that is rubbery, and tough, so when gluten is in a reaction, it will toughen the result. Gluten has the ability to become puffy if mixed with baking soda or powder. This is why you will not add any of the two to pasta; so you can have a rubbery and smooth texture. Now, the more water present (water is the main component of egg) in this reaction will cause a larger water to gluten ratio, meaning it will be less rubbery. If there is too much water present in this mixture, the structure of the gluten will fall apart; it will be mushy and likely have a slimy film.
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Now, it is important to understand the difference between independent and dependent variables in an experiment. An independent variable is the variable you change in the experiment, the independent variable will affect the dependent variable. The dependent variable is the variable that is affected by the independent variable. For this experiment, the independent variable is the egg and the dependent variable is the cooked pasta.
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The way I will measure the outcomes, will be using qualitative data, this means I will be tasting and observing the pastas, I will not be practicing methods that deal with quantitative data. Quantitative, simply put, deals with numbers and actually measuring, qualitative is general data and uses more sense-based methods. Also, since I am measuring the difference in taste, I want to do an open taste test, this means that I can see and smell the food before consuming! |
The recipe!
The original recipe, created by “Love and Lemons” calls for:
1 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ large eggs
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
extra flour for rolling surface
I will be making four different batches of pasta, each will contain the same amount of each ingredient except for the eggs. For the first trial, I will be making the regular recipe. For the second, I will remove ½ of an egg. For the third, I will add ½ and egg to the original recipe. Finally, for the last trial, I will be adding a whole egg to the original recipe.
For materials, you will need:
(Disclaimer: I only used the recipe from their website, not their instructions)
Pasta roller, or rolling pin
A mixing bowl
A utensil that can mix the ingredients
One small or medium pot (the amount of water I used for each experiment was 5 cups)
Pizza cutter
Strainer
The Process
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Trial One:
Trial Two:
Trial Three:
Trial Four:
The added egg in trial four messed up the gluten to water ratio. The dough was too sticky and did not hold its shape. Once cooked, the noodles actually bubbled up and produced a slimy film. The actual texture was mushy.
Analysis and Conclusions:
(All information referenced can be seen in the photo above)
Now that I am finished with all my trials, let's dig deep into some good old fashioned qualitative data! I will be basing my experiments' effects on color, taste, and texture. Let's talk about the dough first. Like I mentioned above, each trial had a different texture. As expected, the more eggs that were added, the stickier and softer the dough. When eggs are taken away, its causes the dough to be tougher or even crumbly. Surprisingly, the color of the dough was not really affected, except for the second trial, in which the dough was much more pail. When cooked, the first three trials held their shape the best. Trial four showed that the shape fell apart with too much water (egg) in the mix. Through each experiment, the color actually stayed the same throughout each trial. Perhaps the biggest question is, "how did it affect the taste?" In short, the taste stayed consistent throughout each trial. The biggest difference in each experiment was the consistency of the noodles. After tasting each one, I found that trial one's was very hard, trials two and three showed similar results. The texture was a little tougher than your average noodle. Trial four's texture was the biggest change in all the experiment. Like I said, I slimy film developed after cooking on the outside of the noodle. When looked at somewhat closely, you could see bubbles on the surface of the noodle. When bitten, the noodle felt slimy and mushy.
I conclude that the trials performed are not representative of most recipes because they were done in smaller portions. If one were to do this experiment again, I suggest that you double or triple the recipe given. Because the proportions were so small, it was hard to gauge differences. I still stand by my original hypothesis, that the more egg added, the mushier the noodle, the less egg added, the tougher the noodle will be. My experiment now supports this hypothesis on a less significant scale.