The goal of the final paper is to present your research in addressing the scientific question about your favorite recipe that you identified at the beginning of the semester. The word limit is 1000 (900 – 1100 acceptable; bibliography not included). Rubric below Content: Whether the research question is well defined (20 pts) Whether the story behind choosing the recipe is presented concisely (10 pts) Whether the paper is focused on addressing the scientific question (10 pts) Scientific Rigor: Whether enough research has been done to thoroughly address the scientific question (20 pts) Whether the scientific principles and scientific content presented in the paper are accurate (20 pts) Comprehensibility: Whether grammar, spelling, mechanics, sentence structure, and organization of the paper are adequate for communicating the story and science behind the recipe (20 pts) This is my start, MUTTON BIRYANI- Scientific Question: TO PERFECTING THIS? https://youtu.be/0sAT8Gvm0Cs Whether the story behind choosing the recipe is presented concisely (10 pts) (written portion of this below) Mutton (Goat) Biryani, a memorable and delicious meal, brings back great memories. I am a person of Indian Descent, and having family from the area makes this extra special. Mutton is popular meat among India and Pakistan, but it is well known for being involved in Biryani. Biryani is essentially rice with many spices/flavors and always has some meat in it. This is a meal that we don’t often have because it is only made on special occasions. For example, it is someone’s birthday, and we will make tons of mutton biryani and have a feast for dinner. The taste is tremendous, and I think of this as a refreshing and “feel good” meal. We would then give it to all of our family friends as we like to share the food we think brings joy to people. Some comments I have received based on the scientific question: Thanks for sharing this dish with the class! It looks super delicious, and I would love to try it one day! I also think your research question is very interesting. I’m a huge fan of marinating meat before cooking, and it seems like there is a richer flavor the longer you marinate meat. It probably takes time for the meat to soak in all the extra flavor from the marinade, and from class, we learned that flavor is consists of both taste and smell. My guess is that the marinade introduces more chemical molecules that affect the Mailliard reaction, which explains why marinated meat produces a different smell when cooking than un-marinated meat. Marination seems like a really interesting topic – and one closely related to our current study of proteins! I read this article https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/science-of-marinades, which provided a helpful overview of different marination processes (also I hadn’t thought about the etymology of marination, Latin mare, -is, ‘sea’…very cool!). Because the mutton in your recipe is marinated in yogurt, it sounds like acidic marination is taking place. During this process, the collagen fibrils – amino acids bound together to form a triple helix – in the meat are denatured by some of the acids in the yogurt, meaning that the acids disrupt the hydrogen bonds in the collagen fibrils. I’m curious about the effect of the acid content of yogurt on the marination process: how does acidity accelerate or slow marination time? Best of luck with the rest of your research! Meat marination is an interesting topic because I think there are so many ways that different cultures make marinades to enhance the flavors of their respective dishes. I actually found the same article that Esther found that talked about two types of marinades: acid and enzyme. I’m interested to see if your recipe can use different types of marination and which one would be best? It seems like in contrast to acidic marination, enzymes, which we learned are catalysts, are breaking down the proteins but the acid is denaturing the protein. Here’s another link that I found (hope it’s helpful!): https://www.oliversmarket.com/20000-leagues-under-the-sauce-the-science-of-marination/ From what I have gathered, marination ultimately comes down to the connective tissue that comes in direct contact with the enzymes that digest protein and gets broken down and that direct contact is important because it is necessary for the chemical reaction to occur. Another important note is that enzymes are heat activated at levels between 140 F and 175 F and deactivated at the boiling point, so leaving a meat in a marinade are room temperature really only affects the flavor and not texture. Hope this helps!
