Liquified Fat and Protein
culture  

Liquified Fat and Protein

By Chengyi L

Cheese fondue is the food of Roommmate S’s homeland, so she’s been bugging everyone about making it for a while before Roommate N caved in and agreed to make it. I was still a bit skeptical about the healthiness of this meal because it’s carbohydrates dipped in liquified fat and protein, but Roommmate S couldn’t be stopped.

Since I have no knowledge of this strange foreign food, Roommate S took over. Using a recipe from her parents, she gathered up the ingredients necessary (some mysterious assortment of cheeses, spices, and things). Meanwhile, Roommate N made baguettes last night because we’re too cheap to buy them.

All seemed good and well. We grated the cheese and put all the ingredients in a crock pot. The cheese started melting, and then…

Seems… legit…? It seemed like the crock pot wasn’t hot enough, so, instead of melting into a nice cheesey goo, the protein and fat just separated. The lumpy white thing had a delicious-seeming rubbery texture, and I was really tempted to just eat it, but Roommate S demanded perfection. So on the stove it goes!

The higher heat from the stove did the job; the protein blob melted and mixed together with the liquified fat, forming the thick liquid we know as fondue.

In fact, you almost can’t tell that it’s just a slurry of liquified fat and protein anymore! With that done, we dumped the cheese back in the crock pot. The crock pot was actually quite hot – it’s just that the ceramanic pot it came with is a bad conductor of heat, so it and the food inside were taking a long time to heat up to a high temperature. I guess this is why crock pots are meant for slow cooking…

I never had legit fondue before, and I must say that bread-and-cheese-the-dinner was quite tastey. I quite like the texture of the cheese-covered bread. Of course, you get full super fast from the large amounts of fat and protein in the cheese, but that’s how fondues work. Too bad cheese is super expensive. It costs more than meat! Terrible, terrible… Final Verdict: 8/10, tasty, but make me feel bad afterwards…

Recommended Articles

My Friday Nights
culture

My Friday Nights

It was the Friday night of midterms during my first year at Caltech, and I was alone in the library. That weekend (week five of term, if you’re keeping count) also happens to coincide with Halloween. But as a bright-eyed frosh trudging my way through Ma 1a lecture notes, I was just baffled that no one else was studying alongside me. Spoiler alert: not all Caltech students spend Friday night—or every night—studying or grinding sets, even during midterms. And especially on Halloween weekend.

By
caltech q and a
culture

caltech q and a

In order to get a good sense of the Caltech community, there is no better way than to talk to the students themselves. To give a little bit of an inside perspective of Caltech, I asked some students a variety of questions. Questions ranged from conspiracy theories to Caltech-specific takes and other random topics.

By
What's on my desk?
culture

What's on my desk?

I’d like to think that I keep a tidy desk, but hey— entropy prevails for everyone. Here’s a breakdown of all the items you could find on my desk, circa February 2023.

By
Searching for snow
culture

Searching for snow

My grandma always says that it rains whenever Dragonssuperior zodiac sign travel, and sure enough, it was raining when I landed at LAX for my last calendar year at Caltech. It’s officially my graduation year—but between leaving campus just before spring term in my freshman year and returning, twenty-one years old, as a junior, it really does feel like my time here has flown by.

By