Springer Publishing

Monday 31 August 2015

Cucumber + blueberry

Cucumber and blueberry, when eaten together, produce a combination of taste which is overall positive.
Together, I wouldn't say they enhance each other directly, but they dull each other's stronger flavours. For instance, some of the distinctly cucumber notes are lessened at the same time the bitter tones of blueberry are lessened.

Noticeable is the buttery flavour of blueberries still present. Overall the total flavour is not strong, but smooth.

The texture is dominated by the crunch of the cucumber whereas the blueberry, almost creamy in the presence of cucumber, is barely noticeable from the point of texture.

When cucumber is eaten directly after blueberries, the flavour of the cucumber overpowers the blueberry flavour quickly but not immediately.

When blueberry is eaten after cucumber, the flavour of the blueberry dominated the cucumber flavour in much the same fashion as the cucumber did to the blueberry.

C + B = C + B + 0.5CB

Monday 24 August 2015

Carrot + nectarine (white flesh)

The acidity of the nectarine, though low compared to other fruits, seems to "kill off" the flavour of the carrot.

Raw carrot comes with its own rooty tang which had a cousin in parsnip and maybe ginger. Yet, when combined with nectarine, the carrot almost seems to have no unique taste of its own and ask I can taste is nectarine with some tasteless crunch.

There's a huge difference in texture between a soft nectarine and a carrot stick. The carrot is hard, crunchy and dry while the nectarine is juicy, fleshy and soft.

Tuesday 18 August 2015

Canteloupe + raw peanuts = slightly unpleasant

Cantaloupe, when eaten with raw peanuts, produces a distinct mixture of flavours which is on the neutral to slightly unpleasant side.


Peanuts are dry and crunchy with slight chew and canteloupe is wet and slightly firm. In terms of texture, the two do not mix very well.

Raw peanuts clash with cantaloupe aftertaste.

Cantaloupe clashes with raw peanut aftertaste, but to a lesser extent than the reverse.

For me, the collective aftertaste is generally slightly unpleasant.

Monday 10 August 2015

Canada Substance Groupings Initiative

There are currently nine groupings of substances which pose environmental and health risks to Canadians.

Aromatic Azo and Benzidine-based Substance Grouping
Boron-Containing Substances
Certain Organic Flame Retardants Substance Grouping
Cobalt-Containing Substance Grouping
Internationally Classified Substance Grouping
Methylenediphenyl Diisocyanate and Diamine (MDI/MDA) Substance Grouping
Phthalate Substance Grouping
Selenium-containing Substance Grouping
Substituted Diphenylamines Substance Grouping

A *csv file containing all the substances is shown below. Copy and paste it and save it as *.csv.

Tuesday 4 August 2015

Recipe title word frequency for describing the food context of a searched keyword

A search for "adobo" using the Yummly API led to just over 6500 recipes containing the word "adobo".

Viewing the recipe titles then grouping the words according to frequency results in a table of the most frequent words associated with my searched keyword "adobo".

The top 30 most frequent words can be described by a pie chart: