Monday, April 16, 2007
Formula for the Perfect Bacon Sandwich
Food science researchers at Leeds University, clearly with either too much time on their hands or too little cholesterol in their systems, tested 700 variations of bacon butty - an English term for bacon sandwich - to find the perfect variation. Trying different cuts of bacon, cooking techniques, types of oil (Who the heck needs extra oil to cook bacon?) and cooking times and temperatures, they came up with the following requirements for a good snack: bacon cut 1 to 2 centimeters thick, cooked under a broiler for 7 minutes at 475ºF. In fact, the group developed a formula for success:
N = C + {fb (cm) . fb (tc)} + fb (Ts) + fc . ta, where N=force in NewtonsWhat? No mayonnaise?
required to break the cooked bacon, fb=function of the bacon type, fc=function
of the condiment/filling effect, Ts=serving temperature, tc=cooking time,
ta=time or duration of application of condiment/filling, cm=cooking method,
C=Newtons required to break uncooked bacon.
