Day: September 8, 2014

Nestlé made a functional chocolate teapot

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A chocolate teapot is not as useless as the old saying suggests as scientists have shown it is possible to use one to brew tea – provided you do not stir it.

Master chocolatier John Costello and his team from the Nestle Product Technology Centre (PTC), in York, were given the challenge of turning the familiar idiom on its head.

Mr Costello enlisted some of the PTC’s top scientists and engineers to help in its development and solved the problem after a range of experiments.

He said they found that the secret was to use dark chocolate with 65% chocolate solids, due to its fat content, and build up a series of layers using a silicon mould.  Doing so, they could create a teapot that was able to withstand boiling water to let the tea brew for two minutes before pouring.

“Interestingly, if you pour the water in a certain way and you don’t stir inside, and you just let it settle, and let it brew like you would normally brew a cup of tea, and just let it stand for a little while – when you pour it, what happens is that the chocolate on the inside of the shell melts but doesn’t move anywhere.

“It stays where it is. So you get a very, very small amount of residue coming up to the top.”

Tasting the final brew, the team concluded it was a lovely cup of tea with a slight hint of chocolate.

The PTC in York is Nestle’s global centre for confectionery research and development and has 185 staff.

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Just another random moment in Switzerland

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A photo showing Swiss President Didier Burkhalter waiting for a train at Neuchâtel station, alone and without bodyguards, made waves on Twitter on Thursday, receiving 800 retweets around the world.

The photograph was taken by a journalist from newspaper Le Temps, Serge Jubin, and posted on Facebook with an accompanying comment that suggested an innate Swissness in Burkhalter’s ability to act like any other member of the public when out and about.

“Switzerland: marvellous country where the president of the Confederation can cheerfully tap away on his smartphone on the platform at Neuchâtel station amongst other train users…”

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[Recipe] The perfect scotch egg(*)

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Makes 4

6 eggs
200g plain sausagemeat
200g pork mince
3 tbsp chopped mixed herbs (I like chives, sage, parsley and thyme)
A pinch of ground mace
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Splash of milk
50g flour
100g panko breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil, to cook

1. Put four of the eggs into a pan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for five minutes, then put straight into a large bowl of iced water for at least 10 minutes.

2. Put the meat, herbs, mace and mustard into a bowl, season and mix well with your hands. Divide into four.

3. Carefully peel the eggs. Beat the two raw eggs together in a bowl with a splash of milk. Put the flour in a second bowl and season, then tip the breadcrumbs into a third bowl. Arrange in an assembly line.

4. Put a square of clingfilm on the worksurface, and flour lightly. Put one of the meatballs in the centre, and flour lightly, then put another square of cling film on top. Roll out the meat until large enough to encase an egg and remove the top sheet of clingfilm.

5. To assemble the egg, roll one peeled egg in flour, then put in the centre of the meat. Bring up the sides of the film to encase it, and smooth it into an egg shape with your hands. Dip each egg in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, then egg and then breadcrumbs.

6. Fill a large pan a third full of vegetable oil, and heat to 170C (or when a crumb of bread sizzles and turns golden, but does not burn, when dropped in it). Cook the eggs a couple at a time, for seven minutes, until crisp and golden, then drain on kitchen paper before serving.

(*) According to the Guardian

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NIH Finds Old Ricin, Other Forgotten Germs in Labs

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The National Institutes of Health said it has uncovered a nearly century-old container of ricin and a handful of other forgotten samples of dangerous pathogens as it combs its laboratories for improperly stored hazardous materials. The agency began an intensive investigation of all its facilities after a scientist in July found vials of smallpox dating from the 1950s, along with other contagious viruses and bacteria that had been stored and forgotten in one lab on the NIH’s campus.

Friday, the NIH said in different facilities, it found small amounts of five improperly stored “select agents,” pathogens that must be registered and kept only in certain highly regulated laboratories. All were found in sealed and intact containers, with no evidence that they posed a safety risk to anyone in the labs or surrounding areas, the agency said in a memo to employees. All have been destroyed.

They included a bottle of ricin, a highly poisonous toxin, found in a box with microbes dating from 1914 and thought to be 85 to 100 years old, the memo said. The bottle was labeled as originally containing 5 grams, although NIH doesn’t know how much was left. Also discovered were samples listing pathogens that cause botulism, plague, tularemia and a rare tropical infection called melioidosis. These samples were in different labs, mostly in historical collections that scientists once routinely kept in the backs of freezers or on dusty shelves but that today require special handling.

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