Athens: Humans have been eating fried eggs, potatoes and other foods for the longest time on the planet. This seemingly simple process is actually very complex from a scientific point of view.
The process of ‘buoyancy’ makes the act of frying potato on land possible. Buoyancy causes bubbles to form at the bottom of the pot, which rise to the top and enable the frying process. However, this simple task becomes extremely difficult in microgravity. In the absence of gravitational pull, bubbles do not emerge, which causes potatoes to not fry crisply.
Scientists at the University of Thessaloniki in Greece have developed a special automatic fryer that can easily fry potatoes in microgravity.
Scientists experimented with frying potatoes in a zero-gravity environment using a rotating machine-like device.
Scientists conducted two experiments at the European Space Agency’s Parabolic Flight Facility. The experiments, funded by the Space Agency, were aimed at researching cooking methods in microgravity.
The experiments used a high-speed, high-resolution camera to record the frying process, particularly the movement of the bubbles. It is very important to understand the motion of bubbles in microgravity. Buoyancy not sending the bubbles upward causes them to collect around the potato, which researchers believe causes the potatoes to remain raw.
In the results of the experiments, it was revealed that the bubbles in the device used appeared from the bottom of the pot shortly after the potatoes were added, just as they did on the ground.
After this success, the next goal of the researchers is to improve the capabilities of the device. The research results were published in the journal Food Research International.
