3/3/10

The Science of Whipped Cream

[by Naveen]

Whipped cream has been on my mind a lot lately. A classmate and I just gave a presentation about our experimental studies on the physics of these aerated dairy emulsions for an Applied Physics class that we're taking. People have made whipped cream since at least the mid 1600's, but it has only become more common in the past hundred years thanks to centrifugation (to separate out cream from whole milk), refrigeration (to shorten the whipping time and make stiffer foams), and pressurized nitrous oxide dispensers. Even more recently, scientists have begun to examine its micro-scale characteristics.


From a physical perspective, whipped cream is more complicated than most typical foams, which are just a dense packing of air bubbles held together by surfactant (like soap). The air bubbles in whipped cream are all coated with fat molecules, which is why it tastes so good, and why you need to start with about 30% fat content in the cream. These fat molecules are initially contained within a coat of proteins, but somehow need to escape to attach to the entrapped air.


The physics of mechanically whipping cream is fairly well understood. The whisk introduces large air pockets into the cream, which break into smaller air bubbles. At the same time, the whisking breaks down protein-coated fat globules in the cream, which allows naked fat molecules to adhere to the air bubbles. If the temperature is slightly above freezing, then the blobs of fat only partially coalesce, leading to a more rigid structure.


However, whipped cream that comes out of a can or nitrous oxide-powered dispenser follows a completely different process. The gas is initially dissolved in the fat globules, but comes out of solution when the pressure is released and the whipped cream is dispensed. With the traditional method of making cream, large air pockets are fragmented into small air bubbles. With aerosolized whipped creams, dissolved gas expands to form the air bubbles. We wanted to know how the resulting creams differed.


To be more quantitative about the mechanical properties of the various types of whipped creams, we put a small amount of each in a device called a rheometer. The device consists of two parallel circular plates that can rotate relative to each other in a controlled way. By placing the whipped cream between the plates, we can measure how viscous (like honey) or elastic (like a rubber band) the material behaves. In one experiment we rotated the plates back and forth over a range of frequencies and saw how the mechanical properties of the whipped cream changed. I'd be happy to discuss the results in more detail, but the basic idea is that additives in store-bought whipped cream make the whipped cream less elastic, but more stable.




We also did some preliminary microscopy measurements. My favorite was the confocal fluorescent microscopy, in which we added a lipid-soluble dye that revealed the location of all the fat globules. In the image below, you can see the fat globules clustering around an air bubble (the field of view is about 0.2 mm).




These early experiments are far from rigorous, but they do suggest all types of further studies. There is no shortage of variables to control: the amount of surfactant, the types of fat molecules (e.g. saturated vs. unsaturated), the protein composition (pasteurization can have a major effect), the air bubble size distribution, etc. Moreover, chefs are finding all types of novel uses for the refillable whipped cream dispensers, such as making espumas of seafood, mushrooms, and vegetables, as well as single-serving cakes.

On the agenda this month: the science of chocolate.

18 comments:

  1. wow this is so cool. i wish i could use confocal with food instead of brain slices with retrograde pseudo-rabies injection...

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  2. I am doing a science project on whipped cream. Do you think you could help me? So, in my experiment, I am testing to see which whip cream lasts longest, Cool Whip of Fresh homemade whipped cream. To stabilize the homemade whip cream, I am using gelatin, unflavored jello packet. In my project, I have to give background information on what it has to do with science. I am clueless. I chose to do this experiment because I love whip cream and thought that it would be a good experiment. Now I'm stuck because my teacher said to relate it to science. Any advice?

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  3. Sorry, I meant Cool Whip OR Fresh homemade whipped cream :)

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  4. On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee has good background information about whipped cream. It's part of the more general subject of foams, which is still an active area of research. You could try varying the concentration of gelatin and measuring the change in foam stability (hieght of foam over time). If you have access to a microscope, it could also be interesting to look at the size of the bubbles. Another thing to mesure would be the density of the different foams, which is related to how much air it contains. I hope this helps.

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  5. Yes! thank you soo much:)

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  6. Why would the fat globules partially coalesce in the aerosol type foams? Was there a big difference between aerosol and traditionally whipped foams in terms of the modulus?

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  7. Im doing science fair project too, i would like to do it on this, however my "question" needs to be a "why" question, any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated.

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  8. update: ive decided to do "why doesnt coconut cream whip?" as my question (I tried it, it didnt work) so now i need a good hypothesis, plz help fast!

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  9. Have you published any of this research?If so, could you provide me the references? Thanks!

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  10. what lipid soluble marker did you use for the micrograph? I would love to repeat experiment.

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  11. What do you think wold happen if you whipped cream by hand to allow the fat to coalesce slightly and then used nitrous oxide to add buubles to it? The reason I'm asking is because the whipped cream from cream chargers (aerosolized) are remarkably short lived - but much lighter so actaully better quality than the hand-whipped variety.

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  12. As a home cook, I loved your post! Thanks for sharing!

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  13. Thanks for that. whipped some cream this morning and the question struck me 'what's the physics of whipped cream?' and you answered it fantastically!

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  14. How to measure the internal pressure and temperature of as home model whip cream dispenser utilizing single n2o cartridge compared to the same upon release nozzle?
    Summer school science projects are becoming difficult.. thank you be for any answer.

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  18. Great article. I love cream. I love your work keep it up. Will be reading your other posts. Thanks.
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