Ijarh's Scrumdiddlyumptious Salmon

Introduction

For this chemistry, I chose to do an experiment on one of my favorite, tastiest seafood. It goes by the name of salmon. I figured coming up with an experiment would be somewhat of a challenge, but making this dish made up for the difficulty of it. While doing this project, I had major help from my mother and aunt. I'm real picky when it comes to this dish, and I won't eat if it still looks too pink or has no taste. Overall, it was a lot of fun doing this experiment.

Research

Before cooking this for my experiment, I found out that salmon is supposed to be cooked past a certain temperature. The preferred temperature for cooking salmon is 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Salmon, especially wild, has collagen and other connective tissues in it. It also has a large number of cross-links along with molecules of collagen. While cooking it at the preferred time, the muscle fibers in the salmon shrink. That means is potentially will reduce fat and create more moisture for it.

(Broiled)

The broiled method was cooked at 450 degrees Fahrenheit. It was in the oven/broiler for 35-40 minutes.

(Baked)

Salmon was cooked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Due to the higher temperature, it was in the oven for 23 minutes.

(Fried)

Since it was being cooked via frying pan, it was a little different. It was cooked at a high temperature. It was done after 17 minutes.

Scientific Results/Explanation

To answer the question of my hypothesis, yes, the different cooking methods affect the taste of the salmon. The fried salmon I couldn't really into too much detail with. I did easily spot the difference with the baked and broiled salmon though. The cells in the meat, have a lower concentration than the ingredient salt, does. Since the baked salmon was wild, it had to be cooked at a lower temperature. The surface of the salmon, which happened to be the collagen, would stand out in a bad way if overcooked or set at too high of a temperature.

Freire Food Chemistry