Brain Teasers
Side Dish
Bob was complaining to Fred about his favorite holiday side dish: Jell-O.
"I grew up eating it. My mom made it for all sorts of occasions," Bob said, "but whenever I make it, it looks like fruit soup."
Fred looked stunned, "Well, what are you doing to it? It only requires boiling water."
"Well, mom always made it with fruit cocktail," replied Bob, "but that stuff tastes awful, so I use fresh fruit. In fact, I like to make what I call my 'International Salad' with all sorts of fruits from all over the world. Of course only one of them can be found in the fruit cocktail mom always used."
Fred rolled his eyes. "Let me guess..."
What was wrong with Bob's Jell-O?
"I grew up eating it. My mom made it for all sorts of occasions," Bob said, "but whenever I make it, it looks like fruit soup."
Fred looked stunned, "Well, what are you doing to it? It only requires boiling water."
"Well, mom always made it with fruit cocktail," replied Bob, "but that stuff tastes awful, so I use fresh fruit. In fact, I like to make what I call my 'International Salad' with all sorts of fruits from all over the world. Of course only one of them can be found in the fruit cocktail mom always used."
Fred rolled his eyes. "Let me guess..."
What was wrong with Bob's Jell-O?
Answer
"...Pineapple," Fred finished. "Are you also using papaya, mango, and kiwi?""How did you know?" Bob asked. "I made that fruit salad up myself. Have you been spying on me?!"
"Calm down, Bob. I haven't been spying on you, I just know that when you do something wrong, you tend to do it really wrong."
Bob looked a little hurt. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, read the box of Jell-O. It tells you not to use fresh pineapple. It should warn about other 'exotic' fruits, but doesn't. All of those things in your fruit salad have various proteases," Fred said, pedantically.
"What's a 'protease'?"
"It's an enzyme that breaks down proteins. Bromelin is in pineapple. Papain is in papaya. Even figs have ficain!" Fred was on a roll, now.
Bob interrupted him, "Hold on, Mr. Science. Just tell me what to avoid."
Fred visibly composed himself. "Sorry. Avoid fresh pineapple, papaya, kiwi, mango, ginger, figs, and guava. You can cook or can any of them to denature the proteases, but when fresh, the enzymes will take the protein in your gelatin and break it down into peptides and water, giving you that lovely fruit soup you mentioned."
Bob looked perplexed, "Wait, Jell-O is protein? What kind of protein?"
"Oh," Fred replied with a smile, "let's not bring that up right now."
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