How to brown a banana.
Hi everyone, this is Dr. Kate Biberdorf,
but you may know me as Kate the Chemist.
I'm a chemistry professor, a science entertainer,
and the author of "The Awesome Book
of Edible Experiments for Kids".
So what we're gonna do is investigate three different ways
to take the starches that naturally exist in a banana
and break them down into the sweet sugar sucrose molecules
so that we can use them for banana bread.
So we're going to investigate the browning of a banana
by using a paper bag,
by using a microwave, and using an oven.
So let's get started with experiment A, banana A.
Take your banana and put it directly
into this brown paper bag,
and tape that banana into that bag.
We do not want any of the gases that are in here
or that are naturally coming off of the banana
to escape at all.
Essentially what we're doing
is encouraging the ethylene molecules
that naturally come off of the banana.
And then we trap them here inside that paper bag.
What happens next is the ethylene molecules
go into the banana and they actually allow us
to break down those big starch molecules
into the sweeter, smaller sugar molecules.
So it's so cool, but it just takes a little bit of time.
So about two days, we're gonna let them sit over here, okay?
All right, it's been about 24 hours
so it is time to check my banana here.
So what I'm gonna do is try to rip this off
without ruining anything. (yelps)
Wow! All right, that's not too bad!
So we can see a really nice browning of the banana.
I definitely think if I had let that stay in there
for about another 24 hours, it would be even darker
and even better for our banana bread,
but that's not too bad.
Go ahead and label this banana B.
Pop the banana in there,
place it in there for about 30 seconds. (clock ticking)
And then we're gonna flip it over,
ooh, so you can see halfway through, it's already starting
to brown just a little bit right there.
So we're gonna flip it over, put it on the other side,
and do about another 15 seconds or so. (clock ticking)
Ooh, it's definitely browning now.
It's definitely browning, this is awesome, okay.
Three, two, and one!
Ooh! We got a brown banana!
Take another banana.
Grab your fork and put a lot of puncture wounds
directly into the banana.
What we're doing here is just allowing
for any trapped gases to escape
when we actually put the banana into the oven
so we don't want it to kind of explode, if you will.
So you just want to give it some spaces
for the gases to get out.
So once your oven is up for 300 degrees,
you're gonna take your baking sheet,
put it into the oven and wait for about 30 minutes.
You are going to be amazed at what this banana looks like
after 30 minutes in the oven. (clock ticking)
(oven beeping) All right, it's time!
(gasping) Oh my goodness.
Look! Look at that.
The exterior of the three bananas is completely different.
First, banana A, where we just used the ethylene molecules
in the bag to brown it and sweeten our banana.
Here, we used a little bit of heat,
primarily in the form of microwave radiation,
to brown our banana here.
So it worked okay, right? Not super great.
And then here, 30 minutes in the oven.
All this banana needed was a little bit of heat
in order to encourage those starch molecules to decompose.
So now what you can do is open them up
and actually taste them.
And what you will see is that banana C
should taste a lot better than banana A, but let's try it.
It's still pretty firm. It's not too mushy.
Okay, so it's not too bad.
Okay. So let's see here, can it hold its form?
Not so well, okay, so it's definitely falling over.
It's a little mushy.
Mm. Oh, that's good.
Oh, that's really good.
That's a sweet banana, that's delicious.
So then I have our last one, banana C that went in the oven.
So that had the infrared radiation
so a little bit higher energy than the microwave radiation.
And let's look at this one.
Ooh. Oh my goodness.
Okay, completely mushy all the way through.
So for banana B, there was still some texture here,
it's still firm, but for banana C,
like there is nothing there keeping its shape whatsoever
but let's try it and see how it tastes.
Oh man. That is good.
I could eat that all day, I mean, that is delicious.
Oh man, that tastes like fruit, like actual fruit,
like sweet fruit, like you would for an apple or pear
or anything like that.
Oh man, that is delicious.
(smacks lips) I love science.
Thank you so much Rachel,
keep experimenting and see you soon!
(chimes tinkling)