The Hungry Scientist Handbook

Electric Birthday Cakes, Edible Origami, and Other DIY Projects for Techies, Tinkerers, and Foodies

Patrick Buckley, Lily Binns

• Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780061982293
• Topic: Sciences biologiques
• Subtopic: Science générale

Inventive, (mostly) edible DIY gadgets and projects guaranteed to captivate

The Hungry Scientist Handbook brings DIY technology into the kitchen and onto the plate. It compiles the most mouthwatering projects created by mechanical engineer Patrick Buckley and his band of intrepid techie friends, whose collaboration on contraptions started at a memorable 2005 Bay Area dinner party and resulted in the formation of the Hungry Scientist Society—a loose confederation of creative minds dedicated to the pursuit of projects possessing varying degrees of whimsy and utility.

Featuring twenty projects ranging from edible origami to glowing lollipops, cryogenic martinis to Tupperware boom boxes, the book draws from the expertise of programmers, professors, and garden-variety geeks and offers something to delight DIYers of all skill levels.

chapter 1

Edible Undies

^* Lace-Up caramel lingerie

We had purely scientific intentions when we went into development for an edible lingerie prototype. Seriously—haven’t you ever wondered how a chocolate thong works? We asked our fashionista-inventor friend Jenna Phillips if she knew how to go about designing undergarments suitable for salivation and mastication. Needless to say, we were very pleased by her invention.

 

Caramel candy is formed by caramelizing sugar, or heating it until the sucrose molecules break down into different compounds, which become darker in color and toastier in flavor the longer they’re cooked. The more you heat, let cool, and reheat the caramel, the stronger it will become—though you probably shouldn’t count on this lace holding up all night. Then again, it’s not really meant to last.

Equipment

10-inch plastic-coated icing bag

A variety of small-opening decorating tips for icing

Wax paper or silicone mats

Lingerie, to use as template

Felt-tip pen

Ingredients

1 stick butter

1 ¹/₈ cups light brown sugar

½ cup dark Karo syrup

½ cup condensed milk

¾ tsp vanilla extract

[MONSIEUR MAILLARD]

Photograph by Louis Camille Maillard Organization (public domain)

Caramel’s flavor is deepened by adding milk to the mix. When carbohydrates (sugar) are heated with the amino acids in protein molecules (milk), they undergo what’s known as the Maillard (my-ARE) reaction. It is typically responsible for the browning that occurs in savory foods such as roasted meat, bread crusts, dark beer, coffee beans, and chocolate, giving them their toasted flavors and aromas. We wager that it contributes to the complex, deeply sensual character of this confection.

So, we dedicate this project to the French physician and biochemist Louis-Camille Maillard, discoverer of the browning reactions that bear his name. Among other topics, he researched the chemical origins of the different ways foods taste when they’re cooked. Were Maillard still around today, we’d love to engage him in our edible lingerie research.

[TIPS FOR MAKING CARAMEL]

Caramel is best made in a cool, dry atmosphere. Sugar is hygroscopic, which means it pulls moisture from the air, causing the caramel cooking time to increase and take longer to set up. If it’s made on a rainy or humid day, the concoction will absorb so much water that it’ll turn to syrup rather than viscous caramel.

1 To create a template, stretch a piece of lingerie out over a sheet of wax paper and trace its outline with the felt-tip pen. Fold the paper in half to check that its shape is symmetrical. Attach the smallest tip to the nonstick icing bag and set aside.

Illustration by U.S. Patent Office (public domain)

 

2 To concoct the caramel, combine the butter and sugar in a double boiler or a heavy-bottomed pan. Add the Karo syrup and evaporated milk. Stirring constantly, cook over low heat until the mixture starts to thicken. Test the thickness by spooning threads of it onto a piece of wax paper. After it cools for 5 minutes, the caramel should be pliable, but not too liquid; runny enough to pass through the small tip of the icing bag but thick enough to hold its shape.

 

3 Holding the icing bag in a dish towel to prevent it from burning your hands, spoon about ½ cup of hot caramel into the bag. Fold down the top of the bag to close it, and, squeezing from the top down, drizzle the caramel in a lacy pattern within your template.

 

4 The caramel will quickly start to cool in the bag. When it becomes too viscous to pass through the tip, scrape it back out with a spoon into the pot on the stove, and reheat it until it’s runny again. You will need to reheat the caramel several times. This may seem like a pain, but the reheating becomes important later in the process of creating the lingerie.

 

5 To attach the different pieces of lacework once the templates have been sufficiently filled out, you will need stronger pieces of caramel to act as connectors. Scrape the caramel that has been reheated several times into the icing bag. Attach a larger decorating tip and squeeze out three long ropes of caramel. Lay them next to one another on the wax paper and braid them.

 

6 As the braids cool and stiffen, attach them to the top of the lace with dabs of hot caramel. Keep a few longer strips to go around the back. (You will attach these pieces to one another when putting the lingerie on a person.)

 

7 Now that the lingerie is close to completion, set it in your freezer for 5 to 10 minutes to let it cool and harden. When you remove it from the freezer, it should not feel sticky, and will easily peel off the wax paper.

 

8 Place the entire piece of lingerie on a mannequin or willing human subject.^* With small dabs of hot caramel, attach the final connectors. As the lingerie warms to body temperature, it will become pliable, and very sticky. If sticky isn’t your style, cook the caramel longer at the beginning. The more it has been cooked, the harder it is, and the slower it melts. Either way, the result is delicious.

 

See the Appendix for a source for more information on candy making and supplies.

Photograph by David Picard

Photograph by Dan Goldwater

chapter 2

Delectable Diodes

^* Brighten lollipops with LEDs

Our man Dan Goldwater, aka Señor LED, told us he wanted to make an edge-lit cake, by borrowing the principle...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• A Safety Note
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Our Hungry Scientist Contributors
• Appendix and Notes
• Searchable Terms
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Credits
• Copyright
• About the Publisher