18 August 2013

Oysters–a new experience

tip, food, cooking

Probably two to three years ago I had finally gotten out of my zone of comfort about eating oysters. No – you don’t eat the shell. When I was in Brighton I recall, I had tried one or two. They had a ‘different’ sort of metallic taste. I wasn’t put off by that. As time went on I would have tried more – only one or two at one serving – in Birmingham. It looked a bit risky trying to pry them open with a knife – so I hadn’t tried it for myself.

2013_08_18_6990_0516

Today though I did something different. I decided to buy some and get them open for myself.

They were going at over 50% off at my local Tesco.

2013_08_18_6989_0515_with_note

On first glance it isn’t obvious where to put the knife. But on closer inspection there is a ring – or a sort of lip that borders the bottom of the oyster.

So that’s where I realised the knife goes in.

It’s actually not risky once you hold the head of the oyster and put the knife in away from your hands.

It’s amazing to see the two sides open up.

2013_08_18_6984_0510

In there is a live animal. Well I’ve probably killed it now, because opening the two sides of the shell causes it that white fleshy part to rupture.

Anyways – bit o’ sauce in there and a good slurp – oooh.. it’s so nice.

My sauce:
1. Small amount of ground garlic
2. Encona pepper sauce – 0.5 ml.
3. Two tablespoons of water.
4. Generous juice from two fresh limes.
5. A dash of Worcester sauce.
Just stir – no heat required.

Then spoon the sauce into oyster and slurp!! LOL.

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For those who want to spend their life understanding

The Analysis Tool (also called REPL) – is JavaScript code used by Claude.ai to perform the thermal calculations and generate the data. This was invoked using the repl command.

React Component – This is the visualization code Claude.ai created as an artifact using React and the Recharts library to display the temperature profiles. This was created with the identifier “temp-profile” and used the artifact type “application/vnd.ant.react”.

It now all makes perfect sense – right? 🤣😂

import React from 'react';
import { LineChart, Line, XAxis, YAxis, CartesianGrid, Tooltip, Legend, ResponsiveContainer } from 'recharts';

const TempProfile = () => {
  const [data, setData] = React.useState([]);

  React.useEffect(() => {
    // Using properties from Table 3
    const albumenFraction = 0.58;
    const shellFraction = 0.11;
    const yolkFraction = 1 - albumenFraction - shellFraction;
    
    const avgSpecificHeat = 
        albumenFraction * 3935 +
        yolkFraction * 3266 +
        shellFraction * 888;
    
    const eggMass = 0.06;
    const eggRadius = 0.025;
    const eggSurfaceArea = 4 * Math.PI * Math.pow(eggRadius, 2);
    
    const timePoints = [];
    const fridgeTemps = [];
    const eggTemps = [];
    const timeStep = 1;
    const totalTime = 7 * 60;
    
    for (let t = 0; t <= totalTime; t += timeStep) {
      let fridgeTemp;
      if (t <= 20) {
        fridgeTemp = 4 + (10 - 4) * (t / 20);
      } else {
        fridgeTemp = 4 + (10 - 4) * Math.exp(-0.01 * (t - 20));
      }
      
      const h = 10;
      const tempDiff = fridgeTemp - (eggTemps.length > 0 ? eggTemps[eggTemps.length - 1] : 4);
      const heatTransfer = h * eggSurfaceArea * tempDiff * timeStep;
      const tempChange = heatTransfer / (eggMass * avgSpecificHeat);
      
      const newEggTemp = (eggTemps.length > 0 ? eggTemps[eggTemps.length - 1] : 4) + tempChange;
      
      timePoints.push(t);
      fridgeTemps.push(fridgeTemp);
      eggTemps.push(newEggTemp);
    }
    
    const chartData = timePoints.map((t, i) => ({
      time: Math.round(t / 60 * 10) / 10,  // Convert to minutes with 1 decimal
      fridgeTemp: Math.round(fridgeTemps[i] * 1000) / 1000,
      eggTemp: Math.round(eggTemps[i] * 1000) / 1000
    }));
    
    // Sample every 3rd point to reduce data size
    setData(chartData.filter((_, i) => i % 3 === 0));
  }, []);

  return (
    <div className="w-full h-96 p-4">
      <ResponsiveContainer width="100%" height="100%">
        <LineChart data={data}>
          <CartesianGrid strokeDasharray="3 3" />
          <XAxis 
            label={{ value: 'Time (minutes)', position: 'bottom', offset: 0 }}
            dataKey="time"
          />
          <YAxis
            label={{ value: 'Temperature (°C)', angle: -90, position: 'insideLeft' }}
            domain={[3, 11]}
          />
          <Tooltip />
          <Legend />
          <Line 
            type="monotone" 
            dataKey="fridgeTemp" 
            stroke="#8884d8" 
            name="Fridge Temperature"
            dot={false}
          />
          <Line 
            type="monotone" 
            dataKey="eggTemp" 
            stroke="#82ca9d" 
            name="Egg Temperature"
            dot={false}
          />
        </LineChart>
      </ResponsiveContainer>
    </div>
  );
};

export default TempProfile;