Al,
My organic chemistry is a bit rusty, to say the least. Is it possible that
the bacon grease was oxidized at the high temperatures and that the double
bonds had been broken?
Chuck (aboc: anything but organic chemist) Vandergraaf
-----Original Message-----
From: Mccarrick Alan D CRPH [mailto:MccarrickAD@nswccd.navy.mil]
Sent: Wednesday January 31, 2001 8:10 AM
To: 'ASA List'
Subject: A little chemistry
This is somewhat unusual but here goes:
We did a chemistry lab to measure the relative number of double bonds in
common fats and oils - iodine will react with the double bonds and the color
will disappear. The amount of iodine added to make a permanent color change
is a direct measure of the unsaturation of the oil. We used several common
oils, and butter (mostly saturated) and left over bacon grease (gross) -
that I assumed would also be saturated. The iodine tests with the oils
worked well, but the bacon grease should the HIGHEST amount of unsaturated
bonds. Why did this happen ? The grease was the only fat that had been
cooked at high temperature.
Any suggestions ?
As an aside - we also made soaps with them - only the butter and grease
produced foamy soaps - oils didn't.
Al McCarrick
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