article We’re in the middle of a new wave of steel-infused food products.
We’ve seen them in bars, pizza crusts, ice cream, and even as a flavouring in coffee.
We know they taste good, but how do they actually work?
To find out, New Scientist turned to an expert in steel-based materials: the metal engineer, James Taylor.
“The main issue I see with steel is that it’s so brittle, you have to get the steel through a lot of pressure to break it,” he says.
“There’s no other material that’s so fragile.”
What’s so bad about steel?
The basic principle is this: metal can be a very good conductor of electricity, and therefore has great potential to store electricity, but it can also bend and fracture.
That’s why it’s a poor conductor of heat.
As such, the way in which steel is used in food is critical: as a fuel source, as a source of heat, or as a way of stabilising food.
To break a steel-filled pizza crust, for example, you’d have to break through it with a hammer, a sharp object, or a large steel bar.
It would take considerable force to do that.
But steel is incredibly strong.
It’s not just that it can hold up under strain.
“If you take a piece of steel, and you put it into a hot steel container, it becomes much stronger,” Taylor says.
It takes up to 10 times more energy to break a piece that’s been hardened than a piece like aluminium.
So, it has the ability to break apart much more easily than aluminium.
Steel also has a high melting point.
That means it melts much faster than aluminium does, and much more quickly than other metals.
And it’s this melting point that allows steel to bend, and to bend so much it can break apart.
In the case of pizza crust recipes, the result can be something called the “cheese foam”.
It’s the liquid that forms on the outside of a pizza after the crust has been melted.
“You don’t really need to do any cooking to get cheese foam,” Taylor explains.
“It’s really just the solidified dough that forms at the bottom of the container.”
The key, Taylor says, is to ensure that you’re using steel, which is what the pizza makers of the world do.
The reason that they do is because steel is cheap.
And as a cheap conductor of electrical current, it’s ideal for food.
“So a lot, a lot more, a tonne of steel is in the world than there is in a kilogram of aluminium,” Taylor points out.
“That’s why there are a lot less problems with food with aluminium.”
So what happens when you make your own?
Taylor has developed a method for creating cheese foam that works.
He uses steel in the oven to create the cheese foam, then he heats the steel and heats it up again to make a final dough that’s cooked to perfection.
The cheese foam is a mixture of a mixture that contains calcium chloride, calcium chloride and calcium chloride chloride salt.
The mixture is cooked at about 400°C for about 30 minutes, and then the dough is poured into a container.
The final dough has been cooked at 400°F for about 10 minutes.
The results are beautiful, with a nice, creamy, golden colour.
The dough is ready to be eaten, and the cheese is still warm and chewy, and a little crunchy.
What happens if you make it yourself?
It’s all about using the right ingredients, and that’s what Taylor recommends you do.
“I like to use the right quantity of calcium chloride,” he explains.
And that’s why the dough should be kept in a freezer.
“Calcium chloride is important, because it makes the dough stretch,” he adds.
“Also, it helps to keep the dough from sticking to the bottom and getting soggy.”
The dough has to be very soft, but not too soft to hold its shape, and it needs to be relatively high in fat content, and in a good, moist state.
“A little bit of salt is essential,” Taylor warns.
“Salt is a really important thing in making cheese foam.”
Taylor says that the process should take about two hours, and he recommends keeping the dough in a cold, dark place.
It should also be kept away from the heat source for up to two days.
You can also cook the dough for longer.
“In a good oven, I like to cook it for about six to eight hours,” Taylor adds.
After the cheese has been baked, the dough can be taken out and placed in a bowl, or in a container to cool, and let it rise.
When it’s ready, the cheese can be sliced into pieces and eaten.
What does it taste like?
After it’s been cooked, the resulting dough is pretty light, but still very
