Innovation

Standing Mixer

Herbert Johnson, an engineer for the Hobart Manufacturing Company established July 20 197, invented  the electric standing mixer. He was inspired by the sight of a baker mixing bread dough with a metal spoon and in 1908 he began experimenting with a mechanical counterpart. By 1915 they started selling eighty quart mixers to professional bakers and by 1919 it was available for the home. It received its name as the "kitchen-aid" because some executives' spouse claimed "all I know is it's the best kitchen aid I've ever had." Since then the name stuck and we still call standing mixers the KitchenAid today. The mixer started out weighing sixty five pounds and costing $189.50, comparable to about $2000 today. Now you can get one on the lower end of the price range for about $250. KitchenAids biggest competitor was Sunbeam's Ivar Jepson who made the MixMaster and sold it at a fraction of the price. However KitchenAid is still leading the market today. To put this in perspective, the hand held manual mixer was patented in 1856 by Ralph Collier, almost sixty years before the mechanical standing mixer and the first electric mixer was invented by Rufus Eastman in 1885, thirty years after the manual mixer and thirty years before the standing mixer.

The standing mixer falls into the innovation category of technology as well as process. Before the standing mixer was a handheld electric mixer and before that was the handheld manual mixer. Going from manual to electric was a large technological feat whereas going from handheld to standing was an innovation in process. The standing mixer provides the chef an opportunity to use both hands for other tasks while mixing batter or dough etc.Therefore, if one were to make a cake, the batter could be in the mixer unattended and simultaneously making the icing or filling.

For me this seems like a very useful tool as it would improve my efficiency, timing, and organization. As a chef I am sometimes unorganized and messy. This innovation helps me stay organized as I can be cleaning or doing prep while something is mixing in the mixer, and this I end up being more organized over all. It is also helpful in reducing the physical labour. Before electric mixers you had to manually mix or whisk which is exhausting when done for anything more than a short amount of time. By the time I have anything mixed or whisked my arm is too tired to do anything else and I need to rest or take a break before I can continue, however with a standing mixer there is almost no physical labour and I am free to exhaust my efforts in more valuable ways.

Thus the standing mixer is an innovation of technology and process.


Sources:

Mixer History - Invention of the Mixer. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2015, from http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/mixers.htm

About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2015, from http://www.hobartcorp.com/about-us/

  

Cake With Breakfast - Is It Too Good To Be True?

According to The Telegraph and The Tampa Bay Times a recent study has shown evidence that eating chocolate cake with a regular breakfast can actually stimulate weight loss. However an article from Women's Health speculates that it is not so much the timing of eating the cupcake but simply that to have a little bit of something indulgent will keep cravings under control. Now this sounds way too good to be true so I intend to get to the bottom of this. I bought a half a dozen cupcakes and will be eating one with each breakfast over the next week. I will make classic breakfast dishes and then finish off with a cupcake for dessert. 

The fun thing about cupcakes is that you can have one of one flavour and then another a completely different flavour. For example, this article shows fifty different recipes for cupcakes!
http://www.food.com/slideshow/unique-cupcake-recipes-239

Day One - Toast with Honey...and a chocolate cupcake.

The first day I found it difficult to eat something so rich and sweet with my breakfast and almost found myself forcing it down instead of enjoying it. Throughout the day I did not notice too much of a change and ended up having a pretty large dinner however, I felt rather full afterwards and was not craving any other sweets throughout the day.

Day Two - Multigrain French Toast...and a vanilla cupcake

Day two I found myself more hungry than usual early in the morning. I had a vanilla cupcake which I liked more than my chocolate cupcake. Throughout the day I felt a little sluggish but not all that hungry - I must also take into account that I had to work the night before and thus was not able to get enough sleep. 

Day Three - Mushroom, Scallion & Brie Omlette...and a vanilla coconut cupcake

The vanilla coconut cupcake was delicious however it was a little frozen when my breakfast was ready so I threw it in the microwave and left it in a little too long. The icing melted off the cupcake a bit but I still ate it. By day three I was starting to feel a little sick of eating cupcakes, who  knew it was possible!

Day Four - Breakfast sandwich...and a chocolate cupcake

Day four was a struggle. I really did not want to eat the cupcake and felt as though I was forcing it down. I still ate the cupcake and for the rest of the day did not crave any sweets but still ate plenty of other unhealthy food. 







Overall I would say that this diet does not work. I normally would not eat something sweet such as a cupcake every day anyways and thus ended up eating way more sugar than normal without replacing it with anything else. I just ate a cupcake as well as my normal diet. I was not even able to do the full week of the diet because it was just too much sweets. I definitely do not suggest this diet however it was a fun excuse to eat cake.

Sources:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/research/the-chocolate-cake-diet-can-dessert-with-breakfast-really-help-you-lose/1214588

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9069276/Chocolate-cake-breakfast-could-help-you-lose-weight.html

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/let-them-eat-cake

Purchasing and Cooking Meat and Game

I chose to purchase a whole chicken. I chose the whole chicken because it was a family favourite growing up. I still remember venturing out to a farm just outside of town to get a couple whole free range chickens and then coming home and the house would have an amazing aroma for hours. So, when I saw the whole chicken I had to buy it. 

Somewhere around fifty billion chickens are farmed for their meat and eggs. The ones used for meat are referred to as broiler chickens. There are intensively farmed and free range chickens. In my opinion the free range chickens are worth the price bump. They are more plump and flavourful. Whole chickens are often roasted on the oven or on a rotisserie spit. Chickens are also in the same family as turkeys which are stuffed and roasted and then of course shared with family and friends. There are many other types of poultry including; duck, cornish game hen, goose, quail, pheasant and others. 

When buying the chicken in the store it is whole, cleaned, and without the organs or neck. However when I was young, and my mother would buy free range chickens and they would come with the organs and neck still inside. My mom would always cook the organs and feed them to the dog and roast the neck with the chicken and believe it or not, the neck was one of the best parts!

The recipe I have chosen to use is one my mother started and then I adapted over the years. It has always been a family favourite and is one I always make when I go home to visit. I call it the best chicken ever!

First things first, you have to brine the chicken. Get a big bucket that will fit the chicken with a little extra room and then add salt water - 1/4 cup pickling salt to 1 litre of water. Depending on the size of the chicken you will likely need more than one litre of water. Brine for about 4 hours.
7/8 lb Chicken2 Apples2 Onions2 Cloves of garlic1 Tall can (473 ml) of hard apple cider (cheap substitute - beer and apple juice)A couple leaves of sage
After the chicken has been brined put it in a roasting pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees then cut the apples and onions in quarters or sixths depending on the size. Take 4 apple and 4 onion chunks and set them in the pan then stuff the rest in the chicken. Now slice the garlic lengthwise and cut 3 slits in the chicken going down the breast and one slit in each leg and stuff the garlic slivers into the slits. Then stuff some of the remaining garlic in the pan and some in the chicken. Next pour the can of cider onto the chicken (If you want a cheap alternative pour some cheap beer and apple juice on instead) and then chop up the sage and sprinkle it all over. You can also crack some pepper on top but don't bother with salt because the chicken was already soaked in salt!














Put the chicken in the oven and let it roast for about an hour and a half or until it is tender but not pink - the way chicken should be cooked, obviously you don't want undercooked chicken. Once it has cooked through let it sit out for 5-10 minutes. Carve it up, serve, and enjoy!