Background for an Idol
Afficionados of junk food — and their grandparents — may be interested in the history of the Oreo cookie. So here it is.
The Oreo was first made in 1912 by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco, later Kraft Foods). Developed to compete with the Hydrox chocolate cookie, the Oreo became so popular that the Hydrox eventually ceased to exist altogether.
The origin of the Oreo’s name is still in dispute, but the word oreo, in Greek, means “beautiful.”
Throughout the 100+ years of its existence, only one change was made in an Oreo’s ingredients. In the early 1990s, lard was discarded as one component of the filling and replaced with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Soon this switch attracted two new groups of customers: Jews who chose Kosher diets and Vegans!
It is estimated that more than 500 billion Oreos have been consumed worldwide, mostly by humans but probably also by a few hungry inquisitive pet dogs — and some voracious kitchen ants. Oreo is the best-selling cookie in the world. It is now sold in over 100 countries.
A few non-culinary aspects of Oreos history should be mentioned:
the word Oreo was a derogatory term once applied to a Black person who was perceived as adopting the characteristic mentality and behavior of white middle-class people
During the notorious Superbowl XLVII power outage, Oreo enthusiasts tweeted the phrase “you can still dunk in the dark.” That, for a while, became a popular refrain
Finally, the word Oreo is a frequently requested answer to crossword puzzle clues. Why? Well, probably because — with the equally popular “oboe” — 3 of its 4 letters are vowels.
Contributed by Norman Sissman
The Science Behind “The Dunk”
Scientists have studied the ideal amount of time for dunking an Oreo in milk. Turns out, there is a right way and a wrong way to accomplish the deed for maximum results.
In 1998, a professor at the University of Bristol in the UK looked into the ideal method for dunking a British biscuit (aka “a cookie”) into a drink, using the concept of capillary action — the way fluids move spontaneously through small tubes in porous materials — and Washburn’s equation, which describes their journey. Eventually, he determined that the typical British biscuit is best dunked for 3.5 to 5 seconds.
Using this same technique in 2016, scientists at the University of Utah’s Splash Lab determined the perfect dunk time for the much-beloved Oreo. Although the amount of time to get to “perfect” depends on preferred sogginess levels and milk-fat content, the Utah researchers determined that 3 seconds was enough to thoroughly saturate the Oreo without losing structural integrity.
Here’s the journey in slow motion. Cookies are porous. Milk travels through the small holes inside them the same way ink does through blotting paper — or a spill through a paper towel. During tests, the Oreo soaked up 50% of its potential liquid weight in 1 second. That number shot up to 80% at 2 seconds, flatlined at 3 seconds, and maxed out at 4 seconds — meaning the cookie could absorb no more milk. So if the goal was to saturate the cookie but not lose structural cohesion, 3 seconds was the perfect number.
While this test used 2% milk as its dunking medium, the optimal dunking time will vary slightly when using other milk. The higher the milk fat (like whole milk or cream), the longer a cookie can be dunked, but only by mere fractions of a second.
And now you know. Happy dunking!
Source: interestingfacts.com
Photo by Dmitry Kuzmenko/ Unsplash
Contributed by Jane Hart
In honor of the mighty Oreo and the practice of dunking there with, we present the perfect Oreo-eating accessory:
