Comparison of Heavily and Lightly Contaminated Soup

Purpose

To determine if saliva destroys the jelly-like texture of hot & sour soup.

Hypothesis

Saliva present in Hot & Sour soup will quickly turn it from a thick, jelly-like soup to a thin, watery soup.

Method

  1. Order two containers of Hot & Sour soup from Chopsticks Chinese And Indian Chili Cuisine (2152 Danforth Av, Toronto (416) 696-6988). Update 20030417: Chopsticks went out of business a few months ago, so you cannot order soup from them for experiments or otherwise anymore.
  2. Distribute soup from one container among friends' bowls.
  3. Eat yummy soup, leaving a small portion in each bowl.
  4. Return uneaten portions from bowls into one soup container. Mark this container "C" for "Contaminated." Close container and refrigerate.
  5. Close container which had no soup returned to it. Mark this container "NC" for "Not Contaminated." Refrigerate.
  6. Wait one week.

Observations

The soup in the container marked "NC" appeared to have thickened significantly from its original state while in the fridge. It was very jelly-like, nearly opaque, and would hardly pour from the container when an attempt was made to discard it. It left the container in what could be called "glops." No mould or other evidence of decay was present on the soup.

The soup in the container marked "C" appeared to be very thin and runny. The soup was clear, and the vegetables were clearly visible. This soup poured freely from the container with no evidence of "glopping" whatsoever. There was also no evidence of mould or other decay on this soup.

Conclusions

It would appear that Hot and Sour soup which has been "eaten at" behaves very differently when stored than soup which has remained in its container. The soup which was "eaten at" did, in fact, become runny. Unexpectedly, the soup which was not "eaten at" thickened considerably during storage.

Solved?

From: Macdonald, Greg
To: Dan Fraser
Subject: FW: science experiment
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 16:11:35 -0400

Hey Dan, I sent our soup experiment url to a few people and my friend Rob, who is a scientist (albeit an environmental one) by training e-mailed back. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Ranger
Sent: June 4, 2002 3:36 PM
To: Greg Macdonald
Subject: Re: science experiment

Hey Greg,

After some thought I think I can offer up some explanation to your soup riddle.

One possibility is that, in your insatiable zest for soup, you and your buds ravenously but unknowingly ate the majority of the soup stock, which normally binds the soup together (hence your watery contaminated sample). Another, more likely theory is that human saliva is naturally acidic, and contains several digestive enzymes whose sole purpose is to break down food into something easier for the body to absorb. So likely the saliva just festered in your soup container overnight, slowly but surely breaking down the normally tough soup into the watery mixture you woke up to the next day.

In either case this should not deter you from further dining at such a fine oriental establishment. However, I would personally not eat soup that looks or smells any different from when I first got it, regardless of how long it's been in my fridge. Unless of course, it is washed down with copious amount of alcohol to deaden the brain from knowing what it's consuming.

Thanks for the noodle-scratcher (no pun intended) to break the monotony of my work. It offered up some fun (and confused looks!) around the office.

Rob

Update 2003-12-11

From: Justice Rangarajan
Subject: COMMENT
Date: December 10, 2003 9:22:20 PM EST

Dear Mr. Fraser,

I happend to see your soup experiment. I thought you may be interested to know that Hindus traditionally believe that saliva is great contaminent so much so that we usually avoid putting cup to lip and learn to drink even water by lifting the glass over the mouth and pouring it down.

All the best in your experiments
Yours sincerely
Rangarajan

Justice T.N.C. Rangarajan
Former Judge
High Courts of Andhra Pradesh & Madras

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