What silicone is, and why I don’t love cooking with it (PODCAST E42)
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I'm so glad this podcast has gone back to food x sciences, its so good to listen to while cooking and/or doing the dishes.
lauren on blast
when you wash a silicone utencial one it immidiatly gets a permant soap taste that goes into the food when you cook with it.
I use oxo silicone spatulas, high grade silicone, they never smell to me. I stopped using wooden spoons because those harbor bacteria and do get smelly.
"I still don't really understand what a photon is" congratulations, you've shown a relatively advanced knowledge in physics
Absolute banger of an intro had me loling
Watching this reminded me of how to free adsorbed gases for high-vacuum settings. Gases tend to stick to surfaces through adsorption and can be loosened by heating the surface up. This helps high vacuum settings because it allows you to reach a lower pressure faster by releasing the adsorbed gases quickly rather than letting them slowly freeing themselves from the surfaces. But as it applies here, the odors (gases) are stuck inside the silicone and are slowly freed, producing some amount of odor for a long time. Plus, scrubbing and soap may not reach into small or deep pores to free the odors. Hypothetically, heating the silicone, preferably in a low pressure environment, should release the odors. @that_food_science_grad_student_adam_mentioned @aragusea
i'm still looking for and not finding a large enough silicone matt that would work as kitchen bench protector. instead stores only have cruddy materials bench protectors and usually small formats.
Uhhh no, gases do not get trapped, you said it yourself its NOT FULLY LIPIPHOBIC, that meabs volitiles dissolved in the lipids absorb into the silicone then release over time. You must siak it therefore IN MINERAL OIL, AS Water will only trap it
My dad, a boomer who worked as a tech executive for decades, still calls Silcon Valley, "Silicone Valley" — with no irony. I always snicker at this.
So true, I never paid attention in science classes thinking how on earth this is going to help me in life.
Food science undergraduate here, and I would guess the reason silicone absorbs smells is the same reason fats/oils are good at holding odorants. Odorants are typically hydrophobic, or at least have a hydrophobic region. They need to to pass through the mucous in your nasal cavity, which is also hydrophobic, so you can smell them. As you said before silicone can dissolve into oils over time in the right conditions, because they are both hydrophobic. So there you go, the little hydrophobic compounds (odorants) that like to be dispersed in oil also like to stick to hydrophobic silicon.
It seems that the hydrocarbon chains that make up part of silicone, also make up fatty acids (the main thing in oils and fats). So, it makes sense that they would have some similar properties, like absorbing odorants.
If fats carry flavors so well which I learned from one of Adam’s videos, it would make sense that silicone holds smells since it is so lipophilic.
Damn, thanks for making a distinction for all of us lazy learners. "Good day!?!"
Your humor! You are relentless!
You sure are good at it.
Thank You.
With all due respect and love, you’ve been really trying to squeeze a lot of juice out of the questions in the past two episodes. Like more juice than what’s actually there. Love your approach and the content and I wanna keep hearing great stuff from you. Thanks for reading and considering my input.
its polysiloxone right? siloxone is what silicone/polysiloxone made of
Silicone and silicon is not the same thing
Man, I was so hesitant to listen to your podcast for so long, because the titles didn’t really spark my curiosity. I didn’t even watch that many of your videos before, i don’t really watch a lot of food-related channels.
But I watched one of your pods by chance and I’m so glad I did. I love these so much. Those long-winded, but well structured answers that touch on so many fascinating topics. Honestly, thank you for these!
Cannabis concentrates sometimes do strange things in silicone containers.
The thing about silicone retaining odors was interesting, because I’ve never had that issue with my silicone spatulas 🤷♂️
Wood retains water bad for chocolate.