if

if

if say you know something - or even think you have an idea that something someone said is wrong...

what do you do?

me? I usually say something.

most people i guess prefer to ignore.

take the chain lube stuff... if someone is doing something different, like cleaning a chain with a water based degreaser, but not assuring that all the cleaning agent has been removed before re-applying a semi-dry or wet lube. I said something at one time to someone doing that and they dispelled my explanation as wrong. And they left it at that. A solid business model? If you share your secrets, well they aren't yours anymore are they. That annoying-know-it-all might leave you alone after seeing the light. But then again, maybe not. Not worth the risk or effort if your secret gets out, and probably not the time to explain, or risk being corrected again. Just as long as more people ride bikes who cares how the chains are cared for? As long as they look clean on the outside. Right? Who cares what happens inside the chain where you can't see? Well besides me?

In the practical sense I suppose that is true. The end justifies why things are done, esp when they have no negative impact.

Say pick a compound that can have more than a few applications. Maybe the first and most application/use is to act as a solidifying/cross-linking agent. One proprietary application might be to sustain the growth of bacteria that could care less about using lactose as a fuel source. Pretty different. No? Pure speculation on my part, maybe? But is it wrong? So far those who took issue with me associating a certain compound with having thickening/stabilizing properties haven't felt the desire to do much more than defend a company they felt was being attacked for being questioned why this said compound is included.

I don't know a lot about some stuff. As much as it bothers me when others are wrong, it seems to bother me more when I realize I'm wrong. But. It happens. I try to correct myself. I don't mind eating the crow served to me. I just like to know why. So I can move on, learn, add the facts to the pile. patterns and behaviors are harder to change. I will make a false assumption again. But many times, more is learned by making a statement, even a wrong one, than saying nothing at all. So if people help me lose focus and spin me into degenerative nonsense, the only way it seems I can get out is to stop stirring the soup I am sitting in and sort it out for myself. This time it happened to be about some comment post pudding sugar high about consistency. I was wrong a bit it seems. Proper set style yogurt is all gelled. Problem is. My framework for yogurt is a preference for stir-styled stuff. But that's a preference that belies my issue with certain stabilizers/thickeners I guess.

So what about this whole p e c t i n thing. Bacteria food? Secret suspending agent? Thickening agent?

To be on the safe side, some yogurt manufacturers use small additions of various ‘thickening agents’ such as starch gel, various plant gums or pectin to the milk to improve the retention of water in yogurt.

All in an effort to prevent syneresis.
Here's another example discussing the addition of stabilizers to yog(h)urt products:
Stabilisers

Hydrophilic colloids will bind water and consequently increase the viscosity of a yoghurt, they also help prevent the separation of whey from the yoghurt, a problem known as synuresis. The most beneficial quantity os stabiliser to add to a yoghurt mix has to be determined experimentally by each manufacturer. Too much stabiliser and the yoghurt can take on a rubbery texture, far too much stabiliser and the yoghurt can become a hard solid mass. A traditionally produced natural yoghurt will require no stabilisers to produce a firm, fine gel, however commercially produced yoghurt that has to be pumped, stirred, fruited and filled will often break down to a runny liquid without the addition of stabilisers. Pasteurised yoghurt will definitely need to be stabilised as the nature of the heat treatment will adversely affect any naturally formed gel. The mechanical handling of a yoghurt after its incubation has a significant effect on its final texture and viscosity, consequently the design of the equipment needs to reflect this.

Common stabilisers are, gelatin, pectin, agar, starch. In quantities in the order of 0.1% to 0.5%.
Yogurt is what? A network of casein spheres purposefully cross-linked into a gel matrix. Ya warm up the milk, make the curds and put in the bugs (but not when it is hot - that'll kill em) to eat up the lactose and acidify the stuff so the casein breaks down just so and cross-links?

More or less, right? The 'live active' cultures acidify the milk and make yogurt. Many sources have compelling data that shows yogurt is digested 4 times faster than milk (bottom line is that lactose breaking down and the changes to the casein make it easier to process). That is a good thing, right? Faster digestion = easier to assimilate the good stuff. But then, that could be an assumption.

So, I guess, does the pectin make the yogurt more inverted dog food like? Or is that just a well reacted milk gel? Does the pectin feed the bacteria or does it help retain water during shipping/storage? Is it only needed when you overload the flora with six different cultures? Do some of those bugs out-compete for lactose leaving the others looking for a more complex carbohydrate to break down and use for fuel? Or is it purely to encapsulate the bacteria? Or are those more needless questions that shouldn't be asked.

Maybe the encapsulation is the answer and it just so happens to work as an 'all of the above' multiple choice answer.

Maybe there needs to be more platforms given to the voices of Vegan's crying foul at the whole dairy industry, organic or conventional (is there really a difference?).

They have a very compelling argument regarding the amount of grain/feed given to cows and animal destined in part or product for human consumption would save the planet outright. But that doesn't put any dairy in a positive light. Well it does if the dairy's cows eat only the grass growing on the non-tillable fields of a farm. If they exist.

here's the deal (finally maybe)

I honestly don't know the REAL reason why some yogurt companies add a soluble fiber like pectin and some don't. I can speculate. I can guess. I can assume. I can sound like I know what the hell I am talking about, and can probably read enough reference material to discover an article in the Journal of Dairy Science or Food Science or Yogurt Microscopy Unlimited that clouds the issue more than clarifies it.

There might be a really good reason. Maybe the reason helps elevate their climate counts numbers. I dunno.

It never was really about a pudding maker vs a yogurt maker although the examples selected were construed in that manner by most it seems... i was ripe for festering an argument needlessly and I managed to do as much...

maybe it simply comes down to a personal preference for a stirred style yogurt vs a set styled yogurt with perfectly set casein networks?

Bottom line. ANY yogurt sold over the counter is a good option. And you might as well buy from a company that is as green as it gets.

When pondering the pectin question in a certain vaulted company (that is beyond reproach in many people's book) a few links were sent my way as an answer to the 'pectin' question.

While I still have no idea what they have to do with the small harmless fruit derived constituent in their product, the links are, none-the-less, worth looking at:
Check out #6 on the list: http://www.newsweek.com/id/130625

and then this is very impressive:
worldtrademag.com/Articles/Cover_Story

So yes, from many people's point of view a minor addition to the nutritional label is pretty silly. But then, many people work very hard to buy as little food with a nutritional label as possible.

Often the pot I stir is the one I sit squarely in. And it usually just makes me all dizzy until I grab the sides and start peering through the steam clouds boiling out of the cauldron.

heddwch
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