Last night we explored the wonderful science of making your own tortilla chips! The teens did not know they could make their own chips, nor did they guess they could find scientific information in the process. Read on to discover what variables we tried and some of the results!
The teens were divided into groups. and one group tested corn tortillas and one group tested flour tortillas. Each group tested baking versus frying, peanut versus olive oil, and spritzing water on the tortillas before undertaking frying or baking them. The water did not seem to help the process of making tortilla chips, in the teens observation. The water seemed to spread the oil around and cause the chips to have overcooked and soggy places. They surmised that this was most likely because oil and water do not mix and the water prevented the oil from being evenly coated on the chips. They liked the way the baked tortilla chips came out, as these seemed to cook more evenly, although they did not like the extra time baking took versus frying.
Interestingly, the teens noted that the olive oil tortilla pieces seemed to fry faster.
No surprise, the teens were evenly divided on corn versus flour tortilla chips and peanut versus olive oil, but they were unanimous on their love for chips (especially since I brought non-scientific tortilla chips to serve as a control example!)
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