Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Sweet Science


Pecan Pralines


You will find science everywhere. Particularly in the Kitchen .

The skills and knowledge needed to do science well are required in the kitchen too; develop questions, predict, experiment, measure, record, analyze, identify varibles IV, DV, "controls", and particularly develop and reach conclusions ( I really like the Kitchen Science conclusions...yummy).




Dr Barbara Heine Hagerman, famous scientist and "foodie" in her own right, elegantly stated,

‎"... and I loved seeing the SCIENCE part of cooking - reading thermometers...change in physical properties of the candy, etc"


Growing up in New Orleans, THESE WERE MY FAVORITE..

Pecan Pralines

Pecan Pralines:

1 cup granulated sugar (sifted)

1 cup light brown sugar (packed)

¾ cup heavy whipping cream

2 ½ tbl unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cup pecans toasted

Butter or pan spray a metal sheet pan (do not use parchment)

Place sugar in middle of a heavy sauce pan (Make sure it is very clean)

Add cream and butter and salt

Cook over VERY low heat stirring continuously with a CLEAN wooden spoon until all the sugar has dissolved, be careful not to simmer

Place candy thermometer in syrup and increase heat to medium high and allow it to boil until it reaches 236 degrees F (3-5 minutes)

If you don't have a candy thermometer a small teaspoon of syrup dropped into a bowl of cold water should form a soft ball.

Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit until it cools to 220 degrees F (about 2 minutes)

Stir syrup until it thickens up and add the pecans

IMMEDIATELY begin spooning the mixture into dollops on the cookie sheet a tablespoon at a time

Let cool then store or serve with ice cream

(Or for easier method pour out the syrup and flatten it in the pan – let it cool then break up into pieces)

15 comments:

  1. Mr. V, on the experiencing gravity worksheet, the section that says a rock falling off a cliff confuses me, although I think I am overthinking it. How does a rock "fall" off of a cliff? It must have been dropped off the cliff or kicked or thrown because a rock is an inanimate object that must be acted upon by another force to move. It could have been blown off of the cliff by the wind, slidd off of it while it was raining!

    - Savanah Yellow

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  2. Mr. V, what does an Astronaut in orbit in the space Space Shuttle mean? I understand that they are in the space shuttle, but what does the word orbit imply?

    - Savanah Yellow

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  3. Hi Savannah, I trust you are enjoying your break.

    You are quite correct about the rock. There has to be some change (in net force) for the rock to fall. Even the tiniest bit of erosion, or shift in topography, or the rumble of thunder are all forces that could change the net force acting on the rock. Or ... Wiley Coyote trying to catch the Roadrunner with the old "roll the rock off the cliff" trick.

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  4. The orbit is reference to the path of the space shuttle traveling around the Earth at a specified and relatively consistant distance away from the planet.

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  5. Thank you mr. V for those clarifications. I hope you had a lovely holiday as well as I.

    Savanah yellow

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  6. Mr. V, So far I have Researched the Story of Merlin, Listened to a whole Mozart CD eight times, defined Alchemy, and started my element for life report. I would have also written a five paragraph report on each of the Primary Questions written on the board, but I left the Sheet of paper I had them written down on at my grandmothers house, and she threw it away. I was wondering if you could post them in a comment answer to this so I could do what I planned on doing?

    Savanah Yellow

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  7. I would but, I left the Sheet of paper I had them written down on at my grandmothers house, and she threw it away.,,Sorry.

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  8. Your right I should have had a second copy at hand. I appreciate your reply. I will just copy them down again on Monday.
    Thanks.

    Savanah Yellow

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  9. Ir sounds as though you have been quite busy over the break...good for you.

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  10. Hey Mr.V can you tell me all the terms we had from the begin of the school year to now.
    Thank You!
    -Janki, Blue

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  11. Uh ...no. But you can go through the Glossaries on the main website page... you will find many of them in there

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  12. Mr v.
    I am creating a power point for my Element project an i am having trouble with the sound. It seems to only play on the computer it was created on, it will play on mine but no yours. Do you know anything i could do to fix this.

    Kevin,Blue

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  13. Im using Microsoft poweroint 07

    Kevin Blue

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  14. Hmmmm, I'm not sure what the problem is... what is your sound source are you embedding or what?

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