Foods such as crumpets and pikelets exhibit a structure consisting of columnar bubbles in a set batter, which develop during cooking. However, blind bubbles (those which are not open at the top surface) are sometimes formed and it may be difficult to achieve the desired columnar structure consistently.

Cross section of freeze dried crumpet showing columnar bubble structure.

This Faraday Partnership project will investigate the setting of crumpet batter and the development of the columnar bubble structure by several approaches: models for bubble expansion in viscous materials; analysis of heat and mass transfer during the cooking process, with varying physical properties; and experimentation to support the mathematical modelling.

Project staff and support

James Healy (Postgraduate Faraday Associate, University of Southampton)
Colin Please (Academic supervisor, University of Southampton)
Kevin Parrott (Academic supervisor, University of Greenwich)
Leo Pyle (Academic supervisor, University of Reading)
Peter Sadd (Industrial supervisor, RHM Technology)
Heather Tewkesbury (Technology Translator, Smith Institute)

This project is being pursued at the University of Southampton in conjunction with RHM Technology and the Universities of Reading and Greenwich. It is supported by an EPSRC industrial CASE studentship, through the Faraday Partnership for Industrial Mathematics. Start date: March 2002; duration: 3 years.

Related projects

Baking and crusting