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At the 13th BoP labor we tested lettuces, red and green lollos, butterhead, romaine letuces and chichory with the help of Tamás Koltai (GreenFortune). The lettuces were bought from an open market, a hypermarket, a supermarket and we also had one bio lettuce. The test took place again at the kitchen of KIOSK.
The results: we tasted bitter and terribly bitter salads, some tasted like chemicals, but we also had some pleasant, sweet and slightly tart-tasting ones. Of course the perception of bitterness is the question of personal taste and type, but what makes a salad (sometimes extremely) bitter?
Csirmaz Rita rajza
Made by Rita Csirmaz.
We started exploring this month’s new topic: (dried) beans and lentils for passing winter time. We meet with these foods at the chamber shelf commonly in pre packed form. We know particulary less about the lentil plant itself and the processing method. We will present these methods in a new series and discuss weaknesses in applied procedures.
We made our most extensive research and analysis of supply and availability ever, thanks to our voluneers. This months’ lab will be done with Eszter Fűszeres, the results will be available via Prezi as usual.
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Helsinki based urban ecologist Ferenc Vilisics and artist Niina Ala-Fossi got in touch with us a few weeks ago. They got inspired by our Based On Pig’s activities and together with some friends decided to start food research ventures in similar manner. Their diverse group is based on friendship, people come from different countries and work/study at the University of Helsinki.
We tested 8 types of acacia and 7 different blossom honey mix. We measured their water content and compared their taste.
We have chosen those two types, because they are the most common on the market (in Hungary). The acacia is one of the most natural honey, so often people, who do not like the strong honey taste, or kids pretend to like it. The blossom honey mixture is made out of different types of flowers and sometimes we can feel that some flowers taste more intense in the mixture than others. For example we spotted some linden in one of tested products.
One of the quality indicator with honeys is the water content. Usually we measure it with hand-held refractometer, which is an often used equipment of a beekeeper. Csilla brought her measurer so we could work with it. Putting one drop on the device’s tray we could see the result. (The refractometer defines the sugar content by calculating with the refractive index of the dollop and it is also used for fruits and wine.)
A good quality honey contains no more than 19% water. In case of a higher water-content it starts to rot, at 22-23% it starts to ferment. Out of the tested products only one had 21%, that was very fluid, had scratchy taste, and felt diluted. We have found one fermented honey as well but it’s water content was normal. So possibly it was fermented before the packaging but its water content was artificially modified (unfortunately this is one style of falsification). It is important not to eat a honey which tastes ferment or alcoholic because it must be rotten.
