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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Denature An Egg!

Meat isn't the only protein-containing food that people commonly eat. Eggs are another good source of protein. In fact, the effect of denaturation are more obvious when you cook an egg than when you cook meat.

What's inside a raw egg? There's a dark yellow, liquid yolk floating in a light yellow liquid called the egg white. Now, what about a hard-boiled egg? The yolk turns light yellow, and the white becomes really white. Those changes occur because the heat from boiling denatures the proteins in the egg - exactly the same process that happens in meat.

Here's a pretty amazing way to denature the proteins in egg white without cooking them! Crack open an egg and separate the white from the yolk (you may need an adult to help with this). Put the white into a small bowl, and add some rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol to it. Pretty soon, you'll see white strings, which are denatured proteins. So, heating is only one way to mess up the protein knot - you can also do it simply by placing the proteins in an environment that they don't like.

Warning here: DO NOT EAT THE DENATURED EGG WHITE. YOU CAN POUR THE EGG/ALCOHOL MIXTURE DOWN THE DRAIN.

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