Kitchen Science Focus on Flour and Gluten a hit in Modiin!

On Wednesday night, Aug. 27th, 2014 The Walder Center presented another great Kitchen Science program focusing on the properties of flour. Sarelle Weiner, pastry artist, engaged a group of in Modiin, Israel, in various activities relating to flour.

How to measure consistently so that the product can be relied upon to have the right texture and body. What are the different types of flour that are on the market and what are the uses for each type?

Then we learned about Gluten. Gluten is a complex protein formed when water is mixed with flour. The proteins Glutenin and Gliadin in the flour combine to form Glutenin when water or other liquids are introduced to the flour when making dough. Glutenin provides extensibility into the dough - the ability to stretch without breaking. A property of glutenin is to make the product chewy. Gliadin provides the elasticity into the dough - the property that causes the ends of the dough to snap back when rolling it out. Elasticity makes the dough keep it form as it breaks, as opposed to running over the pan.

When you are baking a cake- do you want it to be easy to cut with the edge of the fork, or difficult? More Gluten or less?
When you are baking cookies - do you want them to be crisp or chewy? More Gluten or less?
When baking muffins, do you need a batter that you can pour into a baking cup or a dough that you can roll out? More Gluten or less?
When baking bread, do you want a dough that's paper thin and can cover a table top withuot breaking, like a strudel dough? Or do we want it to rise as a thick tall loaf? More Gluten or less?

The evening developed as Sarelle challenged us to make strudel doughs and filling some with sweet and savory fillings. YUM YUM!
And we also learned a great bonus product that can be made with the strudel dough ends!

Buy the end of the session, all the participants felt that, with their new knowledge of flours, measuring techniques and gluten, they can now prepare winning holiday treats with confidence.

Science in cooking and baking equals spectacular products.
Once the word is out, the Walder Kitchen Science Focus on Flour with Sarelle has been requested in Chicago, and other locations.

Stay tuned!

Another Walder Kitchen Science Slam Dunk on Sunday May 11th

So what can you learn from cooking vegetable soup?

Just ask the kids from the Walder Kitchen Science Vegetable Soup exploration today, Sunday May 11th!

Biology, Chemistry and Physics!

We started off by viewing the streaming videos from the International Space Station and learning about the Earth's atmosphere. When not directly involved with learning about vegetables and cooking our soup, we tracked the ISS using the global tracker over both hemispheres and witnessed both Sunday's sunset and Monday morning's sunrise.

Ah! But what does atmosphere have to do with cooking vegetable soup? Plenty! Atmospheric pressure relates to boiling point which was demonstrated by shaking a soda bottle and slowly opening the cover. The Earth's atmosphere as seen by the ISS boils water at 100C at sea level. But what about on the top of Mount Everest? And what about on the shore of the Dead Sea? The same veggie soup is cooked more quickly at the Dead Sea than at sea level and more quickly at sea level than at the top of Mount Everest.

Enter, the pressure cooker! We compared a pressure cooker to a standard pot, described its features needed to cooked the veggie soup under pressure. So instead of allowing all that wonderful heat laden steam when boiling is achieved, the cooker's lid locks the evaporate in; causing the boiling to rise, causing the water to absorb more heat from the stove and forcing that heat into the food because it cannot escape!

And that is not all! Oh no, that is not all!

We also learned that heat cooking (heat transfer) takes place on the surface of the food. So the more surface the food has, the faster the food cooks. And how, pray tell, does one increase the surface area of veggies for soup? Chop, chop, chop!

We had a great time peeling and chopping our carrots and potatoes and onions and celery and mushrooms to increase their surface area to speed up the cooking process which was further sped up by increasing the atmospheric pressure in the pot!

When Rabbi Weiner announced that it was time to increase the veggies surface area, our 5th and 6th grade participants knew exactly what to do! Cut and chop away!

We also learned that the incense spices in the Beit Hamikdash (Ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem) were chopped and crushed to burn well and smell really good! All the while the Kohanim (Priests) chopped, they chanted "We chop it well, very well we chop!" (היטב הדק, הדק היטב). 

But, of course, all this chopping took place after we examined our variety of vegetables and learned about leves, root systems, transpiration, respiration, and nutrient storage and photosynthesis.

And after stirring our biology together with the physics we added a dash of chemistry and talk about the chemicals released by onions when applying a mechanical force with a knife and cutting into its cells.

All is a day's soup.

We finished our session 2 hours later enjoying a healthy bowl of soup watching Monday morning's sunrise over the Sea of Japan from the International Space Station.

Everybody wants to know what's cooking next time in the Walder Kitchen of Science. 

Kitchen Science and Vegetables this Sunday, May 11th!

The Walder Science Center at 3050 W. Touhy is conducting another great series of Kitchen Science Programs! Learn about vegetables and how to cook in a pressure cooker!

Science concepts:

Biology - study of plant parts by studying the various vegetables that will go into our vegetable soup.

The effects of increasing surface area - what do we accomplish when we finely chop up the vegetables and grind the spices?

Physics and Biology - what is released by the onion when you apply a mechanical cutting force to it that makes your eyes tear?

Physics - Why does cooking in a pressure cooker speed up cooking. How do atmospheric pressure and boiling point relate to each other?

Which leads us to... why is there no liquid water on the Moon or Mars?

Why was the Ketoret (incense in the Beit Hamikdash) ground up. Why was it doubly ground up before Yom Kippur?

Why do we grind up the maror (horseraddish) as close to the seder as we can?

Brings your heads and taste buds this Sunday and find out.

And take the tasty veggie soup that you cook yourself!

School age children, 5th through 8th grades: May 11, 2014

Girls, 10am until 12 noon.

Boys, 2 to 4pm 

Kitchen Science Strikes Again with Sarelle and her Meringues, but this time in Modiin, Israel on Sunday, March 30, 2014!

WOW!
Another great session with Sarelle in our Israel Branch last Sunday night in Modiin! We Nine participants shared in our acclaimed "Eggs and Meringues, Artistically and Scientifically!

From all accounts, we all had a grand time learning from and working with Sarelle as she helped prepare us for the upcoming Pesach Holiday with an information and technique packed two and half hours all about tasty and beautiful kosher for Passover pastries.

In addition, we learned how to destroy the potential for salmonella without scrambling our yolks; temperature, structure, emulsifers, proteins, starches, ph and more. All the while, Sarelle shared her amazing professional techniques with us making the complex look easy! We learned piping, whipping egg whites, different types of meringues, how to make delicate French Macarons and fill cookies, use of a double boiler, how custards congeal, starch based and non-starch based custards!

Stay tuned for upcoming programs!

Great Egg and Meringue Program on March 11th and 12th!

Over 20 participated in our adult kitchen science unit on the science of eggs (March 11 and 12, 2014). We created a buffet of magnificent desserts that wowed everyone and we all got a chance to eat!
Can't wait for the next program!
Sarelle Weiner
See entire album at www.facebook.com/walderks

Pesach Egg and Meringue Pastries, Artistically and Scientifically

Pesach Egg and Meringue Pastries, Artistically and Scientifically

“Pesach Egg and Meringue Pastries, Artistically and Scientifically” with Israeli pastry artist Sarelle Weiner, formerly of Chicago.  Walder Kitchen Science for Adults, Tues/Wed. Mar. 11/12, 7-9pm. at Adas Yeshurun, 3050 W. Touhy. Attend either session or both. Don't miss out on this rare opportunity! Suggested Donation. RSVP toinfo@walderlab.org  

Learn about the Incredible Edible Egg at our next Kitchen Science program in Feb/Mar!

The Walder Science Center at 3050 W. Touhy is conducting another great series of Kitchen Science Programs! Learn about eggs and how eggs are used in baking! Very useful for Pesach baking, indeed!

School age children, 5th through 8th grades: Feb.23 and March 2, 2014

Girls, 10am until 12 noon.

Boys, 2 to 4pm 

Adults on Tues. and Wed, March 11th and 12th, 2014 from 7 to 9pm

with Guest Pastry Artist from Israel, Sarelle Weiner of Gems by Sarelle

Pass the word, get friends and sign up at info@walderlab.org or just respond to this email.

Check us out on Facebook and our Walder Kitchen Science Blog

Sign up for Kitchen Science classes this Sunday, January 19th!

Our Kitchen Science classes are coming up this Sunday, January 19th! Sign up now at info@walderlab.org! 
Girls, 5th through 8th grades - 10am to noon
Boys, 5th through 8th grades - 2pm to 4pm
Grownups - 7pm to 9pm
Kitchen at :CONGREGATION ADAS YESHURUN, 3050 Touhy, Chicago

January Kitchen Science Classes for kids and adults!

Hone your baking and cooking skills scientifically! Kitchen science classes by the Walder Science Center for children and adults.  Sundays, Jan. 12th  & 19th  at Cong. Adas Yeshurun, 3050 W. Touhy. 5th thru 8th grade: Girls, 10am -12. Boys, 2pm - 4pm, and new classes for Adults, 7pm - 9pm. For more information email info@walderlab.org

Stay Tuned for Kitchen Science Program Schedule, both children and adults

We are hoping to schedule January 2014 Kitchen Science sessions for adults and sessions for school age children grades 5 through 8. Stay tuned!

Program Schedule Survey

The Walder Science Learning Center has initiated a new program called Kitchen Science.

Participants in the program learn science and math from cooking and baking and in the process learn techniques by which they can produce better culinary and baked products. 

For example, what is the process of leavening? Creating structure in a dough by filling it with bubbles. Bubbles of what? Generally carbon dioxide. How do you produce the bubbles? Either biologically with little live creatures called yeast who eat the grain sugars and excrete gas. Or chemically with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) that reacts with acids in the food. Or water moisture that evaporates into gas with the heat introduced by the oven. By the way, it’s the little critters in the 5 grains that the Torah forbids on Pesach. And if it’s baking soda, it makes a difference whether you’re baking the cake in Chicago or in Denver, the mile high city. Because in Denver, there is less atmospheric pressure than in Chicago which means that you need less soda in Denver than in Chicago to produce the same bubbles. Also Volume vs. Weight (Mass); Centrigrade vs. Farenheit; Dry vs. Liquid measures. And all types of interesting stuff like that.

Adults have also expressed an interest in Kitchen Science. With the school age participants, we plan to go heavy on the science and light on cooking/baking skills. That’s because they are in school and are supposed to be learning science and math. It will be the reverse for adults. Light on the science and math with a greater focus on using the math/science knowledge to whip up a better cake or roast.

The school age program will span 5th through 8th grades and will have separate girls and boys sessions. All adults will meet together in the adult program.

I will supervise all sessions. Accordingly, sessions will be offered during the weeks that I’m in Chicago. My current schedule is: 3 weeks in Chicago followed by 3 weeks in Israel (where I now live). The next time I’m in Chicago will be from Dec. 30th until Jan. 20th so I’d like to find out what interest exists as soon as possible to that I can schedule and prepare sessions with my staff. We already had 3 pilot sessions with school children during November and the program was very well received. We’d like to build on that. And we hope to start the same type of program in Israel. Assisting me in the program are professional cooks and bakers.

In order to formulate a schedule that will serve the majority of interested participants, please answer the following questions if you, your spouse/significant other, or your child are interested in trying this program out. Whatever price will be minimal and will go to pay for supplies.

Thanks for all your help.
Question #1 – Which day(s) of the week would you prefer the adult program? Please answer with more than one.

Question #2 – What time of day would you prefer the adult program, Morning, Afternoon, or Night? Please rank the three.

Question #3 – Which day(s) of the week would you prefer the girls program? Please answer with more than one.

Question #4 – What time of day would you prefer the girls program, Morning, Afternoon, or Night? Please rank the three.

Question #5 – Which day(s) of the week would you prefer the boys program? Please answer with more than one.

Question #6 – What time of day would you prefer the boys program, Morning, Afternoon, or Night? Please rank the three.

# of Adults interested:

# of Children interested:

Grades of interested children:

Contact Info
Name:
Email:
Phone:

Thank you for all your help. PLEASE send this email to anyone who you believe would desire to hear about this program.

Sincerely,
Rabbi Heschel Weiner