Engineers Figured Out How To Cook 3D-Printed Chicken With Lasers (arstechnica.com) 71
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Engineers at Columbia University [...] figured out how to simultaneously 3D-print and cook layers of pureed chicken, according to a recent paper published in the journal npj Science of Food. [...] The scientists purchased raw chicken breast from a local convenience store and then pureed it in a food processor to get a smooth, uniform consistency. They removed any tendons and refrigerated the samples before repackaging them into 3D-printing syringe barrels to avoid clogging. The cooking apparatus used a high-powered diode laser, a set of mirror galvanometers (devices that detect electrical current by deflecting light beams), a fixture for custom 3D printing, laser shielding, and a removable tray on which to cook the 3D-printed chicken.
"During initial laser cooking, our laser diode was mounted in the 3D-printed fixture, but as the experiments progressed, we transitioned to a setup where the laser was vertically mounted to the head of the extrusion mechanism," the authors wrote. "This setup allowed us to print and cook ingredients on the same machine." They also experimented with cooking the printed chicken after sealing it in plastic packaging. The results? The laser-cooked chicken retained twice as much moisture as conventionally cooked chicken, and it shrank half as much while still retaining similar flavors. But different types of lasers produced different results. The blue laser proved ideal for cooking the chicken internally, beneath the surface, while the infrared lasers were better at surface-level browning and broiling. As for the chicken in plastic packaging, the blue laser did achieve slight browning, but the near-infrared laser was more efficient at browning the chicken through the packaging. The team was even able to brown the surface of the packaged chicken in a pattern reminiscent of grill marks.
"Millimeter-scale precision allows printing and cooking a burger that has a level of done-ness varying from rare to well-done in a lace, checkerboard, gradient, or other custom pattern," the authors wrote. "Heat from a laser can also cook and brown foods within a sealed package... [which] could significantly increase their shelf life by reducing their microbial contamination, and has great commercial applications for packaged to-go meals at the grocery store, for example." To make sure the 3D-printed chicken still appealed to the human palate, the team served samples of both 3D-printed laser cooked and conventionally cooked chicken to two taste testers. It's not a significant sample size, but both taste testers preferred the laser-cooked chicken over the conventionally cooked chicken, mostly because it was less dry and rubbery and had a more pleasing texture. One tester was even able to identify which sample was the laser-cooked chicken and did note a slight metallic taste from the laser heating.
"During initial laser cooking, our laser diode was mounted in the 3D-printed fixture, but as the experiments progressed, we transitioned to a setup where the laser was vertically mounted to the head of the extrusion mechanism," the authors wrote. "This setup allowed us to print and cook ingredients on the same machine." They also experimented with cooking the printed chicken after sealing it in plastic packaging. The results? The laser-cooked chicken retained twice as much moisture as conventionally cooked chicken, and it shrank half as much while still retaining similar flavors. But different types of lasers produced different results. The blue laser proved ideal for cooking the chicken internally, beneath the surface, while the infrared lasers were better at surface-level browning and broiling. As for the chicken in plastic packaging, the blue laser did achieve slight browning, but the near-infrared laser was more efficient at browning the chicken through the packaging. The team was even able to brown the surface of the packaged chicken in a pattern reminiscent of grill marks.
"Millimeter-scale precision allows printing and cooking a burger that has a level of done-ness varying from rare to well-done in a lace, checkerboard, gradient, or other custom pattern," the authors wrote. "Heat from a laser can also cook and brown foods within a sealed package... [which] could significantly increase their shelf life by reducing their microbial contamination, and has great commercial applications for packaged to-go meals at the grocery store, for example." To make sure the 3D-printed chicken still appealed to the human palate, the team served samples of both 3D-printed laser cooked and conventionally cooked chicken to two taste testers. It's not a significant sample size, but both taste testers preferred the laser-cooked chicken over the conventionally cooked chicken, mostly because it was less dry and rubbery and had a more pleasing texture. One tester was even able to identify which sample was the laser-cooked chicken and did note a slight metallic taste from the laser heating.
Really? 3D printing is still a thing? (Score:1)
Pureed chicken forced through a nozzle and cooked with 40 year old industrial laser?
Where's the 3D printing? By this definition used in the submission, I 3D printed cupcake frosting in my kitchen too.
I thought 3D Nutters retired 10 years ago...
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"it sounds like they invented a tedious chicken nugget"
It's a bit like a chicken nugget, just with real chicken. :-)
Re: Really? 3D printing is still a thing? (Score:1)
Re: Really? 3D printing is still a thing? (Score:1)
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interesting.
other than mistaking the time when cooked food began.
would this have space based applications
You shouln't eat ground/pureed rare meat (Score:5, Informative)
It's relatively safe to eat whole red meat that is just cooked on the outside. If you grind the meat though that's a whole other thing and the meat needs to be well done to be safe.
So I'm not sure what they're on about with the "Millimeter-scale precision allows printing and cooking a burger that has a level of done-ness varying from rare to well-done in a lace, checkerboard, gradient, or other custom pattern,"
Who cares, you can't eat partially cooked pureed meat.
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Yes, I noticed this too. Grinding meat distributes any bacteria on the outside throughout the meat, so rare cooking, as mentioned, is interesting from a fine control point of view, but useless in practice.
This can be done (e.g. steak tartar, or kibbe nayyeh) but you have to be careful and know what you're doing.
Then there are the lawyers, so goodbye to any settings less than well done.
Re:You shouln't eat ground/pureed rare meat (Score:5, Funny)
Then there are the lawyers, so goodbye to any settings less than well done.
Totally, if you’re going to eat them, make sure your lawyer is cooked to an internal temp of 180F/82C. They aren’t as gross as everyone says if you scrape all the slime off first.
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Don't ever eat a lawyer that's not prepared by a properly certified chef. If you don't remove the poison sacs just right you'll be dead before it hits your stomach.
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Where's a mod point when I need one?
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> scrape all the slime off first
Mine must've been too old; I tried your suggestion, but there wasn't any meat underneath.
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In Germany, all meat is inspected by a vetrenarian before it is allowed to be sold. So we can trust in it having to trichinosis, for example. (Remember: Meat from a healthy animal is by definition sterile, unless you pollute it.)
And since we can't just not care and later throw it in clorine, we have to be clean throughout the whole process.
This is especially important, since we love to eat Mettbrötchen. Half a bread roll, topped with butter, then a really thick amount of raw ground port, and then turn
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Here is a link to 15 raw meat dishes, not even rare. While some are 'solid', being sliced into larger pieces, several mention dicing, mincing or similar. How about a raw sausage? pretty much puree. I am guessing that extreme freshness is fairly important, but yes one can indeed eat these things.
Ossenworst (The Netherlands)
This *raw* Dutch sausage was originally made with ox meat (hence the name--ossen is the Dutch for "oxen"), and is flavored with spices brought in by the vast Dutch trading empire of yore
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Not only that, but denatured protein in general is quite unhealthy.
Especially semi-denatured protein, which the body sometimes confuses for healthy protein, builds into its cells, then notices something is wrong, and destroys the cells. A form of auto-immune response, if you don't look closely.
Aside from it just tasting crap and costing more (processing) anyway.
It's a lose-lose-lose-lose.
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That doesn't apply to chicken. Chicken always needs to be pretty well cooked because during processing pathogens can migrate into the interior of the meat. Maybe in some places they are processed differently (no soaking?), but in the US at least, they aren't safe unless cooked throughout.
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Who cares, you can't eat partially cooked pureed meat.
Yep, everyone who eats steak tartare dies.
How else would you cook it? (Score:3)
If it's a 21st century food, it should be cooked with 21st century methods.
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For Coomer generation, this is the 21st century method:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re:How else would you cook it? (Score:4, Funny)
This is why sharks have lasers.
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True Nerds (Score:3)
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Just you wait. It won't be long until someone purees the chicken, 3-D prints a chicken-shaped object with the puree... and then grills that.
Or maybe it'll be turkey, and it'll be a Thanksgiving Slashdot story.
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Yes, that is sarcasm.
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It'll be awhile before they manage Klingon food in this replicator.
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Reading the paper they talk about being able to combine the printing and cooking processes into one. As well as being more efficient (faster, saves energy), it also allows for potentially cooking food in interesting ways that are not currently possible. Essentially every part of the 3D printed food can be cooked by laser according to an specification, varying the power, time and colour of the laser for different effects.
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Or just grill the motherfucker. It's not that hard and probably tastes better.
From the summary:
You're doing it wrong! (Score:2)
The scientists purchased raw chicken breast from a local convenience store ...
Breast tastes like shit! Once you go black (dark meat, eg. thigh, wing, or leg) you never go back.
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Or you can eat breast of a black cock.
https://i.natgeofe.com/n/2aa7d... [natgeofe.com]
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breasts can be great when prepared in sauce or with butter, lemon and capers, just cooked they're meh though. and pureed and run through a goddamned 3D printer, what the fuck are these kids playing food frankenstein for. You know the commercial places would go ten levels worse and make "pink slime" with connective tissue mixed in...
I propose the radical alternative meat processing steps of kill, bleed, pluck, gut and dismember a fucking chicken. Then refrigerate until needed.
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As far as chickens go, for the most part I really dislike anything oven-cooked. Dry-rubbed with a reasonable amount of sugar (and plenty of other spices - not just sugar) and then grilled over charcoal (either hardwood lump, or regular charcoal with a couple chunks of apple or hickory thrown in) is the way to do it. The sugar caramelizes pretty quickly on a grill, and helps lock in the moisture so the thing doesn't get dried out.
Generally, I prefer thighs over breast meat - more flavor. However, if under
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Wings are white meat.
You're just cooking the breast wrong. All chicken is good chicken.
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I thought chicken breasts were meh until I tried them in a recipe with a red marinade and a spicy green pepper, yogurt, herb sauce. Perhaps a whole chicken (as the recipe recommends) would taste a bit better, but it's still fantastic with chicken breast fillets.
https://www.seriouseats.com/pe... [seriouseats.com]
I think chicken breast just needs to be used in a very flavorful recipe. Last time I had it, most of the flavor came from browned onion, sake lees, soy sauce, and miso paste. Not like a lot of western recipes that jus
puree (Score:2)
They lost me at 'purred chicken'.
Shark (Score:2)
Meh. (Score:2)
Am I the only one right now hankering for wagyu tataki with tons of ponzu, yellow peppers, negi? Make a wad of it, roll it up one of those strips and.. nom! O.O Dude, it's like freebasing a steak. Y'all should try it. If you're a meat eater this is the way.
Yeah. Barely ever knew a flame. Thinly sliced, like maybe 1/8th in thick strips. Oh lord I'm foodgasming and that joint closes in an hour... nah, I won't do it to them.
Point is... to hell with the soylent green or whatever tapioca this is about. S
Disclaimer (Score:2)
No chickens were harmed in the making of this chicken. Until afterwards when we got hungry for some real meat.
Just because you can... (Score:2)
It makes sense that someone, sometime, would try using lasers to grill meat. But it should have failed quick and never spoken of again.
If you want to get all scientific and precise, cook it sous vide and use the lasers to make marks on it. But if the first time tastes metallic, don't do it again.
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That's really only a thing for eggs to trigger their solidification at less than normal cooking temp.
The joy of it was lost on me. I think it's a preparation in search of a problem.
Millimeter-scale precision (Score:1)
Why bother - American's have "inch perfect" precision - that should be enough.
Re: Millimeter-scale precision (Score:1)
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As a kid in non-metric America lo those decades ago, I recall seeing plastic bags bragging "3 mil thick!" and, knowing metrics, thought that was damned thick for a plastic bag, too thick.
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It seems particularly appropriate that Americans name a thousandth of an inch using an abbreviation of a latin/french word that confuses the rest of the world because it's the same as the colloquial name for a unit 39 times as big.
Print on demand fast food? (Score:2)
That might make bulk ingredient transport more efficient.
Old news: (Score:1)
Reminds me of that French '70s movie (Score:2)
where they turned some disgusting goo into something that looked like food.
This just sounds like that fastfood factory.
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Cooking in plastic, cleaning tubes (Score:2)
Sounds like a really bad idea. I have no idea where the metallic taste came from, which is very scary, but I once microwaved takeout on a foam tray and oh my god the burnt plastic smell -- nobody ever told me that is a definite no-go. I hate to think what kind of chemicals leach out of plastic as you pass lasers through it and raise the interior to cooking temperatures. And WTF? You are running microorganism laden pureed meat through the printer's tube and nozzle. I know people have tried it with cakes and
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Food irradiation [wikipedia.org] would be a better way of extending shelf-life with no heat required.
clown world... (Score:1)
Balony texture just tastes wrong (Score:2)
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This is how lower cost "lunch meats" are processed, except that the foods are formed into what resembles meat and is not cooked
Close. Most luncheon is pressed into a shape, generally a rectangular cuboid or a cylinder, cooked, then sliced and packaged. Canned meats like Spam, corned beef, etc. are formed into a shaped tube, cut and pressed into a can, sealed, and then cooked, which also sterilizes the meat to give it a long shelf life.
sometimes a get a feeling... (Score:1)
... that editors have some kind of old fart understanding of what "these geeks" want to read about
It's almost like "fellow kids".
The thing they leave out of these articles (Score:2)
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Obligatory XKCD (Score:2)
https://xkcd.com/2514/ [xkcd.com]
There has to be a better way (Score:2)
"Heat from a laser can also cook and brown foods within a sealed package... [which] could significantly increase their shelf life by reducing their microbial contamination
If you're browning them then the surface is getting hot, and it's in contact with the plastic. That means toxics are leaching into the food at accelerated rates. Literally all plastic or plastic-lined food containers leach toxics into their contents, and they do it faster when heat or acids are involved. There's got to be a better way to reduce microbial load than cooking in a plastic package.
Shoe in for an Ig Nobel prize (Score:2)
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Yeah there was no part of this that didn't scream "gross". And I read it very, very slowly and carefully.
Food replicators? (Score:1)
Chicken is interesting, but... (Score:2)
Chicken is interesting, but I want seafood.
3D-Printed Shark cooked with frikken "LASERS".
why cant (Score:2)
Why can;t they just 3d print cooked chicken???
Great Job.. (Score:1)