Reproducing Pringles Crispness Force Data under different Conditions

Two weeks ago I described the general trends we saw when analysing the force-displacement data from breaking Pringles that had been left unsealed for a varying number of days. I stated that the feature that showed most correlation with the age and hence the crispness was the amount of force peaks after the major force drop. We have since produced a graph showing this trend. The graph is displayed below, we used the standard error derived from the three sets of measurements at each age for the error bars.

Pringles Days Peaks After

To be absolutely sure that we found a trend we decided to redo the measurements under different conditions. This time we used Pringles again, but instead of leaving them in open air for a varying amount of time we decided to steam them, hoping to see similar trends.

The problem with steaming Pringles is that the longer you steam them the more they lose their original shape, biasing the test. We decided that the best way to get around this would be to make them all lose their original shape before steaming them for different amount of times.

This was done by first steaming all Pringles so long that they would be completely flatten out. We then weighted them down and put them in the oven to dry them up again but ensure that they keep the same shape. Finally we would refry them to ensure that they regained their crispness. The result was not very tasty but nonetheless we had uniformly flat, crispy Pringles.

When we looked at vegetables last week we steamed them for several 30 second intervals. We found, however, that this had a potential for errors as it was not always easy to get them out in time. We wanted to overcome this problem by reducing the humidity in the oven from 100% to 67% and steaming the Pringles for five, ten, fifteen and twenty minutes.

This turned out to be problematic because although it softened the Pringles (and made them less crisp) at first, the Pringles started to burn once exposed for longer times, making them more crisp again. Since we had limited time available in the lab we decided to proceed with measurements anyway, hoping that this trend would also be reflected in our data.

The graph below shows the results from the measurements and show the trend that I have described above. This time we used 5 sets of measurements in an attempt to reduce the uncertainties and show a stronger trend. Whilst the behaviour we observed was not ideal to show the trend, we now have a method of making uniformly flat Pringles and can argue that we have more evidence pointing towards then trend from before.

Pringles Steamed Peaks After

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