My Awesome Revelation

Long time no post man. LOL.
Anyway, remember how I found out that my experiment is actually used for making curry stuff? Well, my aunty happens to do this experiment practically every week. Why? Because she sells mishti. Mwahahaha. So I asked her about my experiment and I found out that...

Too much vinegar = the end product is too hard and smells really bad but there is also more
Too little vinegar = end product doesn't form too well, smell isn't as bad but not that much is made

Also, when I told her how much milk I used, she told me that you could get less than a hand full of casein. Well, now I know how much I lost down the drain. And why she has humongous pots in her house.
Furthermore, I delved into the deepest pits of my memory until I remembered my parents making mishti, and I really wanted to help. Anyway, the main point is that when they filtered the casein, they used a cloth to drain out all of the water, so that the water could completely come out and no casein would be lost. Now I know why a normal strainer didn't work. x.x

So... all that's left is for me to do my experiment again? Oh wait, I have to write up my method, AGAIN. Waaaaaah~

----- I just realised, do I list my aunty in my a references, bibliography or acknowledgments? I'm leaning towards acknowledgment...

Different Types of Milk

So, for my experiment, obviously I'm going to do more than one experiment, because otherwise it would be too easy and I wouldn't be able to make very many conclusions. I think I said that first I'll do experiments where the independent variable is how much vinegar is added to the milk. My second "lot" of experiments is going to be with a fixed about of vinegar but with different types of milk. So this is research on the the second experiement.

It's said that whole milk is recommended for children, teenagers and body builders, and people trying to lose weight should drink skim milk which is actually funny . This is because, according to differencebetween.net (http://www.differencebetween.net/object/difference-between-skimmed-milk-and-whole-milk/) whole milk has all of the fat from the original cow milk, and usually, there is 3.5% of milk fat** for every cup of milk. However, in skim milk, there is a skimming process where as much fat as possible is taken out. This leaves the skim milk with 0.5% of milk fat, because obviously, not all of the milk fat is taken out.

The fat from skim milk is taken out by centrifuges. (http://www.answerfitness.com/tag/whole-milk-versus-skim-milk/) (hmm. this term seems so familiar. oh yes, year 8 FTW) Based on personal knowledge, centrifuges spin a liquid around and the excess solid is taken away. I'm pretty sure this is also how blood is put into a centrifuge and thats how you can see the plasma, red bloods cells and white blood cells.

 The fact that whole milk has more fat in it than skim milk means it's tastier. Obviously. I hate skim milk. It already smells, so curdling it will make it even worse.

I should really start my experiment.

**is the fatty portion of milk. wikied the definition....^^ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfat)

Planning for Planning the Experiment

Well, today I got confirmation from Ms Zhang for my experiment! She told me I could do it but to watch out for my variables. Also, I could make different sections of my method so that I can test different variables.There's so much to write about. D:

The first experiment I'd do would be on changing the amount of vinegar, and whether this would affect the casein in any way. (I still have to decide on how I'm going to measure the 'changes' in the casein though...) Apparently, I also have to change the amount of water corresponding to the amount of vinegar I have so that they equate to 100ml. For example, if I put in 20ml of vinegar, I need 80ml of water, 30ml of vinegar needs 70ml of water etc.

In the next experiment, I would keep the amount of vinegar constant, and change the type of milk, to see if that has any effects on the casein. There are so many different types of milk but I suppose I'll have to use at least 3 or 4 types for my experiment. All of the same brand I suppose (controlled variable!). I'm going to have to drink a lot of leftover milk -gulp- (no pun intended).