NEA 1

October 12, 2017

Using Nutrition Program for AQA Eduqas OCR Food Preparation and Nutrition

Download for free the 3 resources for Food Preparation and Nutrition GCSE

We’ve written 3 resources for each exam board to show how to use the Nutrition Program for

Food Investigation NEA  Task 1

Food Preparation NEA Task 2

Teaching the subject content.

 

September 26, 2017

3 New NEA 1 Tasks

We’ve trialled and tested 3 more Tasks for NEA 1 for download and Powerpoint.

They are gluten in bread, gluten in pasta and egg white foams and meringues.

Here are some classroom challenges that I found!

  1. Washing gluten out of a flour dough takes ages and it is easy to wash bits down the sink by mistake. My tip – use 150g flour for the dough so you have enough dough to work with and wrap it in muslin.
  2. Make small loaves of bread so that they can be kneaded, proved and baked in a short time – the problem is to make the loaves all at the same time in the same way – I couldn’t do it.

  1. I don’t know how to test gluten in pasta – I made it by rolling out by hand and then by machine which was very fiddly. Then cut it into 1 cm noodles and cooked it for 2 minutes. But how can you test and compare the pasta flours? I’ve put this in my Evaluation of the Task.
  2. Egg white foams are very difficult to measure so I decided not to do this for the Task. I tested different sugars on a basic recipe and cooked a control which had no sugar at all. Then I added other ingredients and got an amazing result with cream of tartar which gave huge volume.

  1. I highly recommend Harold McGee’s Book On Food and Cooking to support all the food science questions I needed answered.

October 4, 2016

Chemical raising agents – NEA 1

Food Science You Can Eat - all the science you need for Food GCSE
Food Science You Can Eat by Jenny Ridgwell – all you need for Food GCSE

NEA1 Investigations available on this link. Please this book was written in 2016 so check exam spec.

For my Chemical raising agents investigations I tested different raising agents in warm water. See the results on this link.

When the scones were baked I took photos. They are a bit burnt! I made batches with different raising agents to compare.

Presenting results

I used The Nutrition Program to present the results of the tasting. This is how it is done.

Open the Program

Click My Recipes and name one as Scones for test or something like that.

Put in each scone recipe in Ingredients.

Go to Star Profile.

Star profile for chemical raising agents

For each Taster put in the name of the raising agents – I’ve chosen plain + baking powder, SR + baking powder, plain + bicarb and tartar, SR flour

Then think of Descriptors for sensory appraisal – your tasting work.

I’ve chosen light, well risen, crumbly, solid

Then I tasted the scones and gave each a mark out of 5 where 0 = not and 5= very.

This is function is added to The Nutrition Program for NEA 1 test – Click Hide Rating.

Star profile for chemical raising agents

I can now see the Star Profile with each scone tasted.

Then I can write my Evaluations.

Evaluation of raising agents

Then Download as JPG and write some comments

Full marks I hope!!

All this work and more appear in Food Science You Can Eat 

 

 

December 2, 2015

Star Profile / Star diagram for Pastry

Here’s how you can use the Nutrition Program for GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition NEA 1

Assessment 1: The Food Investigation Assessment 15% of total qualification

Task A Example: Shortcrust pastry should be crisp to the bite and crumbly in the mouth. It can be prepared using a range of different ingredients.
Investigate the working characteristics and the functional and chemical properties where appropriate, of the different ingredients needed to achieve a perfect shortcrust pastry.

Choose fats for pastries – for example, Trex, butter, lard and margarine, lard on its own.

Think of 5 words to describe pastry – crumbly, short, buttery, light, tough.

See our Tasting Word Bank.

Make and taste the pastries and put the results on My Recipes, Star Profile.

The Tasting words are listed as descriptors on the left side.

Then carry out several tastings and get marks out of 5.

The Nutrition Program creates the star as you can see below. You can then write the Evaluations of the different pastries as shown below and download your work.

Star profile for pastry

YouTube video using a star profile to evaluate

This is the star profile for sugar in sponge cakes.

Star profile of sugar in cakes with annotation
June 12, 2015

Food Science – Chemical Raising agents NEA 1

Raising agents

Four main raising agents are used in cooking:

  1. Air – egg whites, beating creaming, rubbing in
  2. Steam – profiteroles,choux pastry, Yorkshire pudding
  3. Carbon dioxide – yeast fermentation, baking powder, self raising flour
  4. Chemicals – bicarbonate of soda, baking powder

How do chemical raising agents work?

There are 3 main chemical raising agents:

  1. Sodium bicarbonate (bicarbonate of soda, E500 sodium carbonates) is a raising agent used in soda bread and gingerbread. It is an alkali.
  2. Cream of tartar is an acid called potassium hydrogen tartrate and it is mixed with bicarbonate of soda to provide the acid ingredient for baking powder. This ingredient can be added to stabilise whipped egg whites and increase their volume, and is added to whipped cream.
  3. Baking powder is made from the alkali, bicarbonate of soda and the acid, cream of tartar.  As soon as liquid is added to the baking powder or bicarbonate of soda, carbon dioxide gas bubbles are given off which push up the cake, muffin or bread mixture. Baking powder has a drying agent mixed with it to stop it reacting in the packet.

Make your own baking powder:  Mix 1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda and 2 level teaspoons cream of tartar.

Self raising flour is made from plain flour and baking powder.

Make your own self raising flour:  Add 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder to 100 g plain flour.

The science bit

Bicarbonate of soda produces more carbon dioxide gas if it is mixed with an acid food – cream of tartar, buttermilk, sour milk. If you don’t mix it with an acid, you get a soapy taste in the food.

Baking powder experiment

Experiment to blow up balloons.

You need
Bicarbonate of soda
Baking powder
Cream of tartar
3 small DRY 500ml plastic water bottles
3 balloons

Method

  1. Label the bottles 1,2,3.
  2. In 1 put 2 heaped teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
  3. In 2 put 2 heaped teaspoons of baking powder
  4. In 3 put 2 level teaspoons of cream of tartar and 1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.
  5. Boil a kettle of water. Mix 300ml boiling water with 200 ml cold water.
  6. Pour 100ml of hot water into 1, quickly put a balloon on top and shake.
  7. Pour 100ml of hot water into 2, quickly put a balloon on top and shake.
  8. Pour 100ml of hot water into 3, quickly put a balloon on top and shake.
  9. Watch what happens. Which balloon is blown up the most?

Which one does not blow up?
Explain why the balloons either blow up or remain empty.

For science experiment, make soda bread or scones

What can I cook?

Irish soda bread
Serves 4
Ingredients
80g self-raising flour
80g plain flour
½ level tsp salt
½ level tsp bicarbonate of soda
100ml buttermilk or 100ml milk mixed with ½ teaspoon cream of tartar or vinegar

soda bread

Method   

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Lightly flour a baking sheet.
  2. Put the flours, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl and stir.
  3. Make a dent in the centre of the flour and pour in the buttermilk, or milk mixed with cream of tartar or vinegar. Mix quickly to form a soft dough.
  4. Add less or more milk if the dough is not sticky enough.
  5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead.
  6. Shape into a round and flatten the dough slightly before placing on the baking sheet.

Cut a cross on the top and bake for about 25 – 30 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.

What can I cook?

Cheese and onion muffins
Makes 6
Ingredients
75g margarine or butter
1 small onion (50g), very finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
150 g grated Cheddar cheese
100 g self raising flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder (2g)
2 tbs milk (30g)

Nutrition per portion
Energy 273 kcal, Protein 9.4g, Sugar 1 g, Fat 20g, Salt 0.9g
Allergens gluten, milk, egg

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6.
2. Melt the margarine or butter and stir in the chopped onion, beaten egg, 120g cheese – reserve the rest for the top.
3. Mix in the flour and baking powder to make a soft dough and add milk to soften the dough.
4. Place equal amounts into 6 muffin cases and bake 20-25 minutes until they are golden brown and spring back to touch.
Equipment
Mixing bowl, muffin tray, teaspoon, measuring jug, chopping board, sharp knife, fork, grater, muffin cases

Presenting results
I used The Nutrition Program to present the results of the tasting. This is how it is done.
1. Click My Recipes and name one as Scones with different raising agents
2. Put in the scone recipe in Ingredients. You can test out different scone recipes using plain flour, self raising flour, flour with bicarbonate of soda and flour with baking powder.
3. Go to Star Profile.

Star profile for chemical raising agents

For each Taster put in the name of the raising agents – I’ve chosen plain + baking powder, SR + baking powder, plain + bicarb and tartar, SR flour

Think of Descriptors for sensory descriptors. – I’ve chosen light, well risen, crumbly, solid
Taste the scones and give each a mark out of 5 where 0= not and 5= very.
Click Hide Rating.

Star profile for chemical raising agents

See the Star Profile with each scone tasted.

Write Evaluations.

Evaluation of raising agents

Download as JPG.

Full marks I hope!!

NEA 1 Food Investigations 10 Tasks  – links on this blog
Task 1 – Starchy ingredients to thicken sauces and soups  
Task 2  – Chemical raising agents for scones, cakes and biscuits 
Task 3  – Fats used in shortcrust pastry. 
Task 4  – Flours used in pastry – use for gluten tests 
Task 5  – Gluten in flour for breadmaking
Task 6 – Gluten in flour for pasta making
Task 7  – Sponge cakes – changing the flour
Task 8  – Sponge cakes  – changing the sugar
Task 9  – Eggs as setting agents 
Task 10  – Egg foams and meringues

Food Science You Can Eat on this link

NEA1 on this link