RSC Blog

As reported already by the Sun and the Daily Mail, the RSC has once more stepped into the kitchen with a chemistry-based recipe for the perfect gravy.

This follows the success of last year’s ideal Yorkshire puddings (popovers to our American friends) – and the decree that they cannot be named so unless they rise to four inches or higher. Chemist, author and roast dinner expert John Emsley has issued a new recipe for nutrionally-balanced, chemically-perfect and extremely tasty gravy in the tradional fashion… sort of.

It combines some traditional elements with some chemistry magic – most controversial is the inclusion of soya sauce, normally associated with Eastern cuisine but here included in the quintessential Englishman’s Sunday roast.

Here’s John’s recipe:

Ingredients

The juices from a roast joint of meat, preferably beef
Flour
Vegetable water (cabbage)
Iodised salt
Teaspoon of dark soya sauce.
Pepper
Gravy browning if you prefer a darker gravy.

Method

The joint should be cooked on a bed of halved onions, carrots and celery on to which juices from the meat will slowly trickle. When the meat is cooked, remove it from the roasting tin along with the vegetables. Sprinkle a small amount of plain flour over the meat juices and fat. Stir to form a dough (roux) gradually adding the water in which vegetables have been cooked, preferably cabbage water. Ensure all the meat juices and Marmite-like deposits on the bottom of the roasting dish have dissolved. Then add iodised salt to taste and a teaspoon of dark soya sauce (rather than gravy browning) or a little red wine . Simmer to reduce the volume of liquid to the right consistency, stirring occasionally.

Chemical and nutritional composition of gravy

Protein from the collagen of the meat.
Vitamins, and especially B1, B6, folic acid, riboflavin and nicotinic acid.
Carbohydrate from the flour and gravy browning. Gravy browning is caramelised sugar and can be bought, or it can be made using the recipe in Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management published in 1859. This says to heat sugar until it caramelises but does not become too dark.
Minerals such as sodium and iodine.
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) from the soya sauce which brings out the meaty (umami) flavour.

What do you think? Share your own best gravy recipes in the comments…

Many famous brands are immediately recognisable symbols or colours: the Nike tick, Coca-Cola red, and so on. These aren’t necessarily evocative or appealing images – they’re just so well-known and consistent across the products that they’ve ascended to a whole new plane of brand awareness. The RSC’s theme for 2009 – food – has meant we’ve seen hundreds of brands and packaging for edible produce.

So let us look now to the most famous of sticky sauces, Lyle’s Golden Syrup. Everyone knows the century-old design: a round tin can with a lid you prise off with a knife; racing green bodywork with the golden words arching over a central picture of… of what is it again? A lion or something?

Look closely. It’s a lion alright, but a dead, rotting lion, and emanating from its stomach is a pestilential-looking swarm of bees. A more grotesque image for a foodstuff one can hardly imagine!

Under this disturbing logo are the words: “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”, a reference by its strongly-religious creator Abram Lyle to a scene in the Bible. Samson (of Delilah fame) saw in the desert a lion carcass which housed a honeycomb. For some reason Lyle thought this an appropriate way to sell his pancake topping.

Lyle's Golden Syrup - the most disturbing brand ever?

This marketing incongruity has puzzled us at the RSC. Clearly a household name and well-respected brand, Lyle’s Golden Syrup is as ubiquitous as Nike or Coca-Cola ever will be. EDIT: Our anonymous tipster below reports Lyle’s is “Britain’s oldest brand” according to the Guinness Book of Records. So the lion corpse definitely hasn’t done them any harm!

But have you ever even noticed that dead lion on the front? Now that you’ve seen it, does it put you off buying golden syrup? Is there a hidden champion of food producers with disgusting marketing that could tip Lyle’s to the title? Tell us below in the comments.

2009 marks the inexplicably overlooked 50th anniversary of the automatic electric kettle, the true patriarch of this noble dynasty being the Russell Hobbs K2.

As reported in today’s Metro, we’re appealing to the public on this contentious issue: should you reboil or refill a kettle for that second cuppa? The best answer wins a trip down to London for two people to indulge in a British instution: tea at the Ritz.

There’s a huge body of opinion that maintains a bad-tasting brew is inevitable if you reuse water once boiled – some say it rids the water of taste-enhancing dissolved oxygen gas. There are others who heard from their grannies that reboiled water causes cancer.

But some say that the difference in taste and composition is minimal, and a new draught of water is just a waste of a precious resource – not to mention more expensive. Still others say it makes no difference at all!

Arguments about limescale, dissolved gases… surely this is just chemistry, yes? So there must be a scientific explanation for all this.

Explain your choice of reboiled or reused water, in a clear and scientific manner, in a comment to this post. The answer we judge to be the best will win a trip for two to London, and tea at the Ritz hotel on Piccadilly – incidentally just a few steps down the road from home of the RSC, Burlington House.

We’ll be closing comments on 30 June, so pull up your favourite search engine, give your granny a ring and present your theory below!

Click here if you can’t see the comments box.

UPDATE: Cadbury emerges the clear winner in our tasting. You can still cast your vote at the bottom of the post!

Over 300 people came to our chocolate tasting this morning, and a resounding 74% of participants said their preferred chocolate was Cadbury Dairy Milk.

Interestingly 71% of people raised in North America preferred Cadbury chocolate – so it’s not just “what you grew up with”!

Here’s a few photos from the morning’s event:

On Tuesday 28 April the RSC will host the bout of the century: Hershey’s vs Cadbury. Which is the public’s preferred chocolate?

The venue: the courtyard of Burlington House, Piccadilly, home of the RSC.

The contenders: in the purple corner, and weighing in at 49 g, Cadbury Dairy Milk. In the brown corner, at 43 g, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate.

The referees : the general public, who will express their opinions of their preferred chocolate in a blind test. A team of chemists from Keele University have analysed the chocolate and its different chemical properties, and will also analyse the results of the opinion poll on the day.

It would hardly be fair to limit this poll to the lucky few who walk past Burlington House at 10.30 on Tuesday, however. So we’re throwing the poll open to the entire world! Speed your preferred chocolate to success by casting your vote below:

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Another gruelling day at the RSC. Sorry.

Today saw people flooding in to Burlington House’s courtyard from Piccadilly to try the RSC’s authentic Dickensian gruel. Held to order by the terrifying Mr Bumble, the public tucked into their traditional 1850s London workhouse cuisine.

The gruel was cooked up by our own chef Fabien Aid, and received mixed opinions: most thought the gruel itself was a tasty porridge, but the addition of onions certainly ruined a few officer-workers’ afternoons – or at least their colleagues’.

Giving out gruel – and thereby feeding the masses – serves to highlight the RSC’s upcoming report on food, “The Vital Ingredient“, which is launched later this month, and the RSC’s theme of food for 2009.

The pictures below were taken for the Press Association. Click each thumbnail to see the larger image, and the wide variety of faces people pulled while eating the gruel!

And if photos aren’t enough for you, here’s the news footage that appeared on Virgin news, MSN news and Daily Mirror videos… follow this link (goes to MSN News Videos).

EDIT: We have had extreme demand for a more “accurate” recipe, including measurements of ingredients. A very fair point! Rest assured we are working on it and will provide a definitive version of the recipe shortly.

EDIT 2: The amended recipe is now included in this post.

EDIT the third!: to complete the chemistry-perfected roast dinner, you could check out chemically-perfect gravy

The RSC made the bold proclaimation today that Yorkshire puddings simply aren’t up to scratch unless they rise to four inches or higher.

With the collaboration of Dr John Emsley – chemist, RSC author, and proud Yorkshireman – the RSC established that the perfect Yorkshire stands at just over four inches, with a light, fluffy texture and crisp exterior.

An RSC-approved Yorkshire pudding, standing tall, risen and proud

It all started with a chap called Ian Lyness, who called the RSC to complain about his lack of Yorkshire success in Boulder, Colorado. “Is it the pressure difference?” he asked us. An investigation is under way.

Incisive science writer and Twitter giant David Bradley told us the American equivalent for the famous Northern stomach-filler is a “popover“. Curious.

This is just the beginning for the RSC in the kitchen. 2009 will see the RSC focus its energies on a food theme, a year-long campaign with food-related events and exhibitions to highlight the importance of chemistry in food.

If you’ve been having trouble with this savoury delight, try the experts’ recipe below.

The Royal Society of Chemistry Yorkshire Pudding

Ingredients

85 g polysaccharide powder, kitchen grade (flour)
1 g sodium chloride, NaCl, table grade (salt)
1 egg
Solution of 230 cm³ reduced-lipid bovine lactate (milk), 20 cm³ H₂O (water)

Method

Put flour in a bowl, make a well in the middle, add the egg, stir until the two are combined then start gradually adding the milk and water combining as you go.

Add the liquid until the batter is a smooth and thin consistency.

Stir in half teaspoon of salt and leave to stand for 10 minutes

Put beef dripping into Yorkshire pudding tins or into one large tin but don’t use too much fat.

Put into hot oven until the fat starts to smoke.

Give the batter a final stir and pour into the tin or tins.

Place in hot oven until well risen – should take 10 to 15 minutes.

Serve

Always serve as a separate course before the main meal and use the best gravy made from the juices of the roast joint. Yorkshire housewives served Yorkshire pudding before the meal so that they would eat less of the more expensive main course.

NB: When the batter is made it must not be placed in the fridge but be kept at room temperature.