Define

Reflection 2

What obstacles have you encountered while cooking your products?

This week our group decided to cook from the country Colombia, from which we made chicken tamales. The product came out okay for our first try. As a group, we encountered a couple of issues. First, we had not made tamales before so this was new to us. We relied heavily on the recipe, and Abel had some techniques that he remembered from making tamales at home. During the making of our product we had an excess amount of poultry meat in ratio to cornbread batter. We used this to our advantage to store the meat to let it marinade for a period of time to differentiate taste on our next lab time. Also, we used a sample of the excess meat to make tamale balls which we fried. Next, our recipe called for a steamer, which we did not have. We improvised by using a pan and placed on two stove-eyes and covered with tin foil to steam the tamales. Lastly, our cornbread came out a little too dry but this is easily fixed by adjusting the time on steaming and recipe content.

How has your group worked as a team in the kitchen?

Our team has improved each lab on working together and knowing each individuals tasks. One individual reads the recipe and directs each individual on what to do. Another individual is over the stove and watching the time. Two individuals are responsible for cutting and/or mixing. The last individual’s task is to find the proper ingredients or fills in any spot that needs to be filled.

An area of improvement that this team needs is effectively communicating with each other. At times the team becomes distracted and individuals do not communicate with the others during the product development. This can lead to confusion and wasted time in the kitchen. However, we are working out our problems to be more efficient.

Has your group decided on a product to showcase? Why or why not?

We believe the product we would showcase would be tamales or chicken noodles. Chicken noodles was our first choice but a lot of work needs to be done to obtain the correct protein chemistry, and time is strictly limited. On the other hand, this product is unique and different from other groups which is essential for our product development. It may be worth it to spend a couple of extra hours outside of the classroom to create chicken noodle product.We also feel like we have something special with our creation of tamale balls. We had a lot of interest from our taste testers on the possibility of our product. However, our group’s goal is to be more unique and try something out of our comfort zone. As of now, we are currently trying out our chicken noodle recipe.

Has your audience for item changed? Why or why not?

As a group we are now focusing on a different product so we are now changing our audience. The tamales were focused on a fast food and quick meal product but negative healthy content. The chicken noodles, which we are now developing currently, are focused on a healthier audience but we are not sure if we would like it to be a quick heat up meal or a meal that takes time. For instance, instead of fast food restaurant we are looking into promoting it for diner settings.

Images:

• Our team taste testing our steamed tamales

• Find the coating color for our tamale balls

• Doing so will help us determine our optimal coloring in which costumers prefer

• Taste tester for our tamale and tamale balls

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