Anisa's Instant Grits

Anisa's Instant Grits. 

When I was assigned to research my favorite food's chemistry I instantly thought of breakfast food. Breakfast food is very quick to make and easy to have a independent variable. So I  chose grits and decided my independent was going to be the liquid. One of my liquids was water and the other was oil.

The Science Behind Grits

Before grits are turned into the instant grits that we eat on a daily, it goes through  a process called Nixtamalization. Girts is dried up corn that is soaked in Alkali solutions. This process allows the proteins to stick together and thicken up. Now that we have instant grits, you can easily boil the water(100 C) and add the grits mix into it. The water instantly vaporizes the water present in the food. 

Experiment & Results

The independent variable in my experiment was the liquid. The amount of liquid, cooking time, and stove temperature was kept the same. 

Procedure

1. Scooped 1/2 cup of grits three times and put each serving in each pot. 

2. Add 1 cup of water to first pot, 1 cup of oil into second pot, and 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of  oil into third pot 

3. Set stove to medium temperature(5) and let boil for 5 minutes

4. Stirred all 3 mixtures within 2 minutes 

Trial 1( Water)- 

The grits were white and fluffy. They were smooth and the smell was pleasant.

Trial 2( Oil)-

The girts were red and very small. They smelt like old popcorn and was very hard to mix.

Trial 3(1/2 water + 1/2 oil)-

They were both hard and soft. The oil did not dissovle and they were rough and soft.

     To conclude, The liquid affected the apperance and texture of the girts tremendously. First, the water blended well and came out normal. This is becuse water is a universal solvent. Its easy to dissolve almost anything with water. Water is capable is able to dissolve so many things because it is a polar molcule. Secondly, the oil blended very weird with the grits. It became very red and it stink. This happended because oil is non polar and dosent dissolve well with other liquids. Lastly, when the water and oil was mixed it did a combination of both. It was half hard , half soft and it was very hard to mix. So, polar solvents mix well with grits and comes out normal while non polar solvents doesnt dissovle at at with girts and become hard.