Author(s) :

Allen Ping-An Chen, Steven Lu.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

Based on the motivation of making home-cooked meals more tasty while not harming the body by consuming too much seasoning. This study explores the best way to pickle radish using three different types of seasoning liquids: chicken broth, soy sauce, and salt water. The goal of this study is to find out how different factors, including geometrical properties of the radish sample used and the solution’s fluid properties, affect the pickling process. The mechanism behind the pickling process is f irst revealed by including capillary action and osmosis into theoretical and experimental discussions, showing the dominance of osmosis. The distribution of gray scale value across the diameter is also measured, showing relatively uniform pickling for soy sauce and salt water. Through the experiment, higher solution concentrations accelerated water loss in soy sauce and salt water through osmosis, as shown by the fact that radish pickled in 80% soy sauce decreased in weight at a rate of 0.078 g/min, while those pickled in 60% soy sauce decreased at a rate of 0.052 g/min. On the other hand, chicken broth showed irregular weight changes due to its complex solutions and molecules, which is discussed and explained by the Stokes-Einstein relation. For the contact area ratio, 59.8% is found to be the most ideal ratio as it maximizes the weight reduction rate, achieving a maximum value of 0.361 in both soy sauce and salt water. Lower water content created by predrying the sample leads to better pickling results for soy sauce and salt water, especially around 86%, but opposite for chicken broth. This study provides a comprehensive view of a qualitative explanation for physical insight into radish pickling by various physics models referenced, providing a way to healthier vegetable pre-processing.