Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Roast chicken aroma

Baphomet - 21-9-2009 at 06:20

Hi guys. I have a challenge for any who may be interested.

It's become necessary to create an aroma of roasted chicken in my business premises.. the smell must be obvious to customers during all business hours.

However it isn't practical to have a chicken baking all day. Is there some way to mimic such a complex smell? Thanks!

12AX7 - 21-9-2009 at 07:16

Bake a chicken and put the pan drippings in a heated scented wax holder thing?

Somehow I don't think you'll be coming up with an artificial flavor any time soon. I can imagine lots of interesting combinations of hydrolysed and pyrolysed sugar, protein and fat combinations.

Why?

Tim

Baphomet - 21-9-2009 at 08:00

Yeah that might be the best way :)

I'd thought of mixing a reducing sugar with chicken fat & heating it but the result was not a very strong smell.

The idea was to get a smell associated with the restaurant. For example Subway have a type of spray they use to produce a roast vegetable & bread scent.

Sedit - 21-9-2009 at 12:17

Fats use to be used along time ago in oil lamps and such, perhaps an old oil lamp filled with the fats and oils would burn producing the same smell of cooking chicken. If that don't work a popperie burner like tim mentioned would surely spread the smell around.

not_important - 21-9-2009 at 18:40



http://www.inghams.com.au/inghamhelpline/sitedocument.aspx?d...


Also United States Patent 3966988 - Flavoring compositions and processes utilizing dithiazine compounds may be of help.


Panache - 21-9-2009 at 18:47

Quote: Originally posted by Baphomet  

However it isn't practical to have a chicken baking all day.


I would beg to differ.

I formerly worked for a very large petfood maufacturer. I key understanding in petfood is tat one is selling the food tot he pet owner but feeding the pet, aroma is best obtained from what you are actually attempting to mimick.

Old laying hens are next to nothing pricewise (like 20-50cents australian) and petfood companies use these for their chicken. A small toaster oven, set at around 160C, with an old laying hen in it, will produce copious roast chicken smell all day, especially is the door is left slightly ajar and a tiny fan blowing past eh ajar door.

End of shift, throw the chicken in its alluminum pan in the bin, repeaat daily. Cost would be about dollar a day in power and materials. You are not going to get cheaper and more effective than that.

If your chef is any good he'll use the roasted chicken for stock.

Voila!!

Baphomet - 21-9-2009 at 19:25

Thanks guys. That video was funny, not_important! If only there was such a spray. The patent is interesting however it looks like a flavour enhancer rather than synthetic aroma.

Panache I like your approach however after a couple of hours the chicken would dry out and stop producing aroma. Maybe the animal should be cut-up and placed in a tray with some water added occasionally.

zed - 21-9-2009 at 21:16

Simmer, a chicken carcass in a pot. What you are looking for is a "steam" distillation.

All day on low heat is fine.

Not interested in wholesome? Try bouillon cubes.

Chicken smell.....At a bargain price.

I would imagine bouillon, in a pyrex coffee pot, sitting on the warming plate of an inexpensive coffee machine would do the trick.

An uncovered crock pot might also work.

Rosco Bodine - 21-9-2009 at 21:36

So let me make sure I understand correctly that what you are seeking is something in the way of a concentrated and appetizing albeit a fowl smelling odor :D

A sprinkling of curry powder and black pepper will enhance the fowl aroma and also will improve the taste of the bird if it is to serve double duty and be eaten.

Klute - 21-9-2009 at 21:44

Have a look at these:

Hexyl mercaptan
2-pentyl thiophene
Meaty dithiane
Chicken Flavor
Chicken Odors

Baphomet - 22-9-2009 at 00:49

zed > Thanks for the input. I'll try stock cubes and see what happens!

Rosco > HAHA. Ironically we do not serve much chicken but market research indicated that roast chicken is people's favourite smell.

Klute > Thanks, that's great! The most feasible is probably Hexyl Mercaptan..

1-Hexanol + TsCl ---> C6H13O-Ts
C6H13O-Ts + Thiourea ---> C6H13SH

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/104545641/abstrac...

..as long as it works on this substrate. Or I could just buy some :)

Ephoton - 22-9-2009 at 01:05

I dont think I could work in a place that asked me to smell chicken all
day and not eat it.

Klute - 22-9-2009 at 19:20

That synthesis seems completly feasilble, you could even use commercial hexyl bromide, iodide and perhaps even chloride. It might not smell directly like roasted chicken, you might need to prepare a blend to obtain a nature-like smell...

wpenrose - 23-9-2009 at 20:38

Quote: Originally posted by Baphomet  

...However it isn't practical to have a chicken baking all day. Is there some way to mimic such a complex smell? Thanks!


Put some chicken broth in a slow cooker?

Chances are that recreating baked-chicken odor will cost more than sacrificing one carbonized chicken per day. But chicken broth is cheap, and you could even make it yourself from scraps.

Just for perspective, the odor of apple consists of nine components, and the aroma of coffee has as many as 640 compounds.

Dangerous Bill

wpenrose - 23-9-2009 at 20:48

I've worked with hexyl mercaptan, and it smells nothing like chicken.

DB

blogfast25 - 24-9-2009 at 12:41

I don't know about reproducing the smell of roast chicken but how about reproducing the taste?

All flavoured potato crisps are made by spraying the flavour ('Cheese and Onion', 'Salt and Vinegar' 'Prawn Cocktail', 'Roast Chicken' etc) onto the freshly deep-fried potato crisps. How do they create a liquid that can be sprayed onto crisps and yet mimics the desired flavour (and smell) of the target grade quite well?

Tinton - 13-10-2009 at 18:32

Tetrapyrrole in myoglobin is red: http://books.google.com/books?id=fGrvVuYWyG8C&pg=PA93&am...

According to this website of ambiguous credibility, myoglobin's tetrapyrrole rings breakdown under heat, browning the meat. http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Maillard_reaction

So it's likely that the browning of meat is the breakdown of the tetrapyrrole rings in myoglobin. So you just have to constantly break that down to recreate 1/100 of the smell necessary to begin to simulate roast chicken. :P
However, I did a quick search on the smell of myoglobin and it appears that you will be getting the smell of chicken more than the smell of roast chicken.
Perhaps you could use that as a base smell and caramelize sugar on the side, or something.

Whistler05 - 11-11-2009 at 23:11

Quote: Originally posted by Baphomet  
Yeah that might be the best way :)

I'd thought of mixing a reducing sugar with chicken fat & heating it but the result was not a very strong smell.

The idea was to get a smell associated with the restaurant. For example Subway have a type of spray they use to produce a roast vegetable & bread scent.

That was really the best way;) By the way, can I know what kind of smell that the restaurant you are talking about has? They use to produce a roast vegetable & bread scent? Really? Why?



_________________
Deep Fryer

garage chemist - 11-11-2009 at 23:38

Recreating a Maillard reaction in a test tube is remarkably simple:
put equal weights (like, 100mg each) of glucose and an amino acid into a test tube, add a few drops of water and heat carefully at first, then stronger. Smell the test tube often, and heat until the aroma becomes apparent.

The aroma being produced depends on the specific amino acid that's reacting with glucose:

Cystein: short heating: roasted meat (could already be what you're looking for!), long heating: onions

Methionine: cooked potatoes

Proline: fresh bread

Glycine: caramel

(only short heating for the last three).

With other natural amino acids, many more such aroma productions are possible.

This was taken from Prof. Blumes chemistry page:
http://www.chemieunterricht.de/dc2/tip/

[Edited on 12-11-2009 by garage chemist]