The pastry and marble counter myth

[@Eden_Laika]

I once got into a, fairly mild, argument with a friend who swore gold couldn't conduct heat. For those unaware, gold is one of the best thermal conductors in existance. His reasoning: it's always cold to the touch. Thermodynamics is often very counter-intuitive.

[@Nova32x]

Just heat up some gold and have him touch that

[@melaniemagdalene1616]

​@@Nova32x WE GETTING SECOND DEGREE BURNS WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥

[@michaelcanary7814]

@@Nova32x Ok, now the ring has some really funny words on it

[@USBCORD11]

The first sentence hurt my head in a special way

[@coin777]

Not true. copper is much better at conducting heat

[@gregoryalexander4410]

Thermal Engineer here! The second/third ice cube tests you did where you froze the cutting boards is over a long enough period of time that the marble slab with its high(er) thermal conductivity probably reached room temperature quickly enough from the air around it that it then had a higher heat flux into the ice. I think over the reasonable time period of rolling out pastry dough (what, 5 minutes?) the frozen marble would still yield colder dough. I'd love to see a thermal IR camera over the period of the ice melting to see if I'm right!

[@bobapplebob9695]

Yeah I'm only a physics undergrad myself but the tests seem like they're measuring the wrong thing.

[@elon6131]

I’ve never even officially leaned physics and i too am in complete agreement.

[@suntzu6122]

How would a thermal engineer cool off a battery for an EV?

[@thenefariousnerd7910]

Maybe the thermal conduction by direct contact with the countertop also contributed? I’d be interested to also see the result when both cutting boards are placed on some kind of insulating surface rather than a hunk of room temperature marble.

[@kenmore01]

Yes, I was going to say this. Also, since the ice sits in its own puddle once it starts to melt, that increases the thermal conductivity and since the now warmed marble is a better conductor of heat, that makes it melt faster. Finally, one hour was probably not long enough to cool the marble to the core.

[@azael1474]

As a pastry chef: marble tops are used because it's (almost) as clean and water/fat proof as steel, but less thermally conductive. It doesn't stick, stain, warp, it isn't toxic, it doesn't (almost) absorb flavours. If damaged, you can renew it by polishing. You can clean it by scraping, you can apply disinfectant and so on. Wood while technically better for bread and dryer doughs (like shortbread/ pie crust), doesn't have all these features so it just isn't allowed in professional kitchens. You can get away with using a wooden spoon or a wooden board that you can throw and replace if compromised but not a tabletop.

[@azael1474]

Also, even though it's not featured in the video, plastic would be as good as marble, if thermal conductivity was all that mattered. However plastic of course too soft and easily cut and scratched which makes it rough and unsanitary, not easy to clean. And it does absorb fatty flavours and spices.

[@fredericchristie3472]

Does it work to freeze them?

[@iykury]

@@fredericchristie3472 it sounds like they're talking about a whole countertop, so that would be pretty difficult to move and put into a freezer

[@azael1474]

@@fredericchristie3472 if you can put it in a freezer, it's probably too small to be useful in a professional kitchen. If you are at home, as Adam shows, much better to use a wooden board, maybe a large and stable one like the ones for pasta making. The temperatures of your room, ingredients, and tools are much more important than the table anyway

[@butterscotchpanda]

Personally I prefer to use marble over wood because it's just a lot easier for me to clean, even at home, and I don't have to worry about what side of it I cooked a particular thing on ("Oh no did I chop garlic on this side? That's gonna ruin my pudding!", et cetera).

[@ianleggett8429]

It’s funny cause if you asked me yesterday how heat transfer thermodynamics works I would have described it correctly but then in the next sentence asked me if you should prepare dough in marble I also would have said yes. Previously they were two unconnected concepts. Now they are one.

[@charliedoyle7824]

Preparing dough on marble is still a good idea. It's just that the reason may not be what people think. It's smooth and good for scraping dough up thoroughly, and is easy to clean. Rough wood takes more scrubbing. Smooth wood blocks are good for a while, but they get rougher over time, especially if you use your knife on it for other things. Marble isn't a good surface for chopping with knives, so it stays smooth, just for your pastry works. As for temperature, marble is still fine, especially if you refrigerate it first.

[@ilesalmo7724]

A prefect example of cognitive dissonance

[@kadanseward3022]

I literally did this during the intro of the video and I did the same

[@PopeGoliath]

I was able to suss out my error just from the title and thumbnail. "Marble is wrong? Because it's cold? ..ohh because it's colder than ME, but not the BUTTER. It's just moving heat efficiently.

[@LethalLuggage]

The entire intro of the video I was laughing because of the "boy I couldn't have been more wrong" because my brain finally connected those two thoughts.

[@wgrandbois]

He's trying so hard to avoid the jargon of thermal mass and specific heat

[@WaffleAbuser]

He does say heat capacity in the end. I don’t know why but I really prefer heat capacity over thermal mass

[@euansmith7059]

@@WaffleAbuser I would also normally use heat capacity but here since the density of the material is also important then thermal mass takes that into account too

[@Kassidar]

@@WaffleAbuser I say "Thermal Mass" when talking about the amount of heat energy an object can absorb which is directly dependent of the mass of the object. eg: After the sun sets, a brick holding a beehive lid down has half the "thermal mass" as if there were 2 of those bricks on the lid. I'd only use "Heat Capacity" when talking about a material's ...well heat capacity, irrespective of how much of that material there is. While they may be technically interchangable I wouldn't use them in the same situations.

[@WaffleAbuser]

@@Kassidar The second one would usually be called specific heat (capacity) and not just heat capacity.

[@bartendingcrow6497]

He's doing a great job at it too! Keeping the info understandable but simple enough despite it being a little counter intuitive! Truely adding the topic of thermal mass would EXTEND this video and overwhelm the cooks who just wanna know which is better XD

[@DrAlwaysFirst]

Why I season my marble and not my pastry

[@dank._.o7]

LMFAO

[@maxmustermann-xs6kg]

​@@dank._.o7I hate that chinese hacker

[@pnyfids]

​@@maxmustermann-xs6kgand his associate, his brother Lmbao

[@stratsboneless6270]

@@maxmustermann-xs6kg no its like, i cant say the word but its like an acronym like laughing my bloody ass off

[@KelsomaticPDX]

Will these ever not be funny? 😅

[@xBananaskinx]

My sister is a professional baker and pastrychef, specialized in viennoiserie, and they need to use a huge marble table for work, but they use it in the "cold room", which is much colder than room temperature. They also make hundreds of croissants at once, which means they need to keep a lot of butter on the right temperature for extented amount of time, and be very mindful of how much they are even touching the dough so they don't ruin the delicate butter-dough layers with their body heat😮

[@TheHappybunbun]

And body temperature is exactly the reason why one should use a marble surface and I think Adam missed it... If you warm up the dough enough with your hands, the butter inside it will start to melt. By using marble, a good thermal conductor, the temperature of the dough will drop again at room temperature, which will be enough to not start the butter melting in a small setting. Big productions will need a cooler room of course.

[@dirtyketchup]

And that's the important part about it being a "cold room." The room and all that mass in it are willing the marble to stay at a lower temperature, which helps with the process. But if you take a marble item that is at odds with the mass in the room, it will quickly start adapting to its surroundings and acts as a coldsink, actually stealing the cold in an item and replacing it with heat energy in the room. It's kind of like how you can use an aluminum sheet tray to help defrost something much faster in your fridge, because it aid in the energy exchange. It's why even if my kitchen is cold, if I place something frozen on the marble countertop, it will start to defrost much faster than if I had just placed it on my maple cutting board, because marble is a much better thermal conductor than the air and wood. I honestly don't think a marble board is at all useful to the home cook, as its large flat surface and thin gauge make it suck up all of the heat energy in it's surroundings way too quickly for it to remain useful for any meaningful amount of time, and certainly not long enough to justify leaving it to take up space in the freezer overnight. The only way I see them as being useful is if placed over some kind of cooling element or dry ice. I honestly have found way more success in just sticking with aluminum trays in the home kitchen. If I am working with pie crust or puff pastry, and the dough is getting too warm, I can just slide it only a bare aluminum trays with a little flour and pop it right into the freezer. In less than 4 minutes, it is already plenty cool and can be transferred back onto my cutting board stiffened and ready to work.

[@Hovzlozki]

One of the best things my physics teacher taught me about thermodynamics is to not think about the heat you feel as the “temperature” of the item, think about it as the “temperature delta (temp difference)” you don’t feel a cold object, you feel the heat leaving. You don’t feel a hot object, you feel the heat moving into your fingers.

[@shelleyb162]

This is what my physics teacher taught me as well. His analogy was getting up in the morning to use the bathroom and stepping into your slippers vs stepping straight onto bathroom floor tile barefoot. 😂 Of course the tile "feels" colder. The slippers and tile are roughly the same temp, but the tile absorbs heat from your feet much faster than the slippers do. Lol

[@brofenix]

That's mostly correct, but I would say what you feel is the "heat flux" or rate of heat loss/heat gain, which is dependent on the temperature delta (difference) but also the heat capacity, thermal conductivity, thickness, & amount of mass.

[@M4rtingale]

I liked the part about hot Adam rubbing on cool Adam to warm him up.

[@wgrandbois]

"I'm hot, just like you!"

[@chomosuke0720]

What a horrible day to be literate.

[@NitinPatelIndia]

sucks that YTP trend has now kinda died down.

[@Meepzilluh]

Wow bro thanks for spoiling

[@royblack27]

i knew somebody was gonna say something like this lmao

[@SuperMegaCoffeeGuru]

Adam "You can pipe cooling elements through marble like chilled water" Me "Yeah they do that at Cold Stone Creamery" Adam "They do that at Cold Stone Creamery"

[@PonyCraft]

You have the skill of pre-watching young padiwan

[@zaxtonhong3958]

@@PonyCraft They do that at Cold Stone Creamery

[@JetstreamGW]

And... *_Marble Slab!_*

[@katarh]

This whole video I kept thinking about Coldstone. Glad they got a mention. A marble cutting board isn't meant to be used without a temperature control mechanism. Room temp marble is useless. I've seen hot candy marble too, where the person needed to keep their molten sugar malleable for a longer period of time.

[@polarknight5376]

@@zaxtonhong3958 They do that with Stone Cold Steve Austin.

[@lazercheesecake]

I don’t blame you at all for the mistake. We simply can’t question every single “old timey kitchen wisdom” because there are too many of them. I love that you do your due diligence to make sure you’re giving us the correct science and kitchen knowledge for us home cooks. But in the same vein that I admire about you, some things, even if they’re “wrong” in a commercial kitchen, just isn’t worth the trouble for the family kitchen. Thanks Adam!

[@sam7559]

Marble also isn't used in commercial kitchens because it is cold or such, it is used because it is easy to clean, durable, and easy to repair. Wood while better for keeping dough cold has issues with cleaning and isn't as durable.

[@formes2388]

@@sam7559 And this is where I'm going to have to say: No. Just no... with a whole wall of text to follow. Marble is Porous - this is to say: If you spill something on it, it's liable to stain and can absorb in to a point of being a pain to remove. Natural stone is also not great to use a range of chemicals on depending on the stone, and the chemical. And this brings us to: If you have Marble you have two choices - be prepared to put a lot of time into cleaning, or you need to be on top of resealing regularly to ensure the surface is maintained. However, if a chip or break, or crack forms - it's in the realm of you are far more likely to want/need a professional to come in and do the work then do it yourself. Oh and you are going to be resealing every 6-12 months, and expect to take about 30-45 minutes every time you do, if not longer. With Wood - An End grain cutting board made out of one of the harder hard woods is extremely durable - not like steel, or granite, but durable. Beyond this, if you are cutting into it - the fact that the end grain is facing up means the grain is split, and will reform and press itself back together. Over time you may need to do a quick sand + refinish, but that isn't a whole lot of effort. In a lot of cases, just doing a thorough clean, let dry and apply a board wax is all you need to do (usually some mixture of beeswax and mineral oil). My expierience with the time it takes to touch up a board - periodically every 3-6 months, it takes like 5 minutes, and every 12-18 months I end up doing a light sand and refinish which takes about 30 minutes total. With wood cutting boards: If repair is needed - you can easily do it yourself, even with basically no talent/skill. With a Marble counter top - you are calling someone in. And this goes for commercial spaces, just as much as with home use. So why do commercial places use Marble? Well: A lot of places don't. Some use granite, some use an engineered quartz - both have advantages and disadvantages... actually the quartz is basically all upsides. And that brings us to tradition basically; and that tradition is likely born out of the fact that Marble being mined and sold was a commonality, and if you have some Marble that is lets say: not as good looking, you need a market. Anyone needing a smooth, strong, reasonably durable surface might turn to it if you market it, at some point the association is made and no one questions it; some people make up some answers and it... just sticks. Marble is fine. But don't go trying to say that wood is somehow less durable, or whatever else when well maintained - as anything in a commercial kitchen should be - it's straight up as straight forward and simple. If you want a likely more historic answer as to why high end kitchens, and such use Marble: It's because marble is seen as a detail for well to do places, making it appear and feel more upscale - and while I have no direct source for that one, I can tell you throughout history this kind of thing happens a LOT. There is a reason people think dressing in expensive clothes is high class, and makes them look top tier - while actual wealthy people are going about in whatever decent looking jeans and a t-shirt. Opulence is there to sell something - not to be practical.

[@andrewthompson4739]

Mechanical engineer that focuses on heat transfer here one of the best explanations of conductivity and heat capacities I have seen out side of an actual class

[@tinkerer4]

Fun fact- Most preshredded cheeses now have natamycin dusted onto them to prevent mold growth. This is more necessary with shredded cheese than block cheese because of increased surface area. People with certain antibiotic allergies (like me!) may have their stomachs WRECKED by natamycin. NataMYCIN is related to azithroMYCIN (Z-Pak). So if you have stomach problems that seem to be related to dairy but is super inconsistent and you're frustrated that you can't seem to isolate the cause, try eliminating natamycin! This caused my doctors and me to think I had IBS for years which angers me plenty, but let's not even start on the subject of how overuse of antibiotics is contributing to the breeding of superbugs! Note: It's sometimes in other food too, like cream cheese spreads so you really have to read those food labels!

[@moth.monster]

TIL that -mycin is a suffix that means "produced by Streptomyces bacteria" so thanks for getting me to look that up wondering what the connection was.

[@OrigamiMarie]

Wow! That makes sense why they can shred & ship now. Used to be, those bags of cheese were only shredded in-house and given short dates (and were mostly in the pizza kit section, because you knew the customer would use it that night). Turns out, the improvement wasn't sparklingly perfect grating equipment (I guess no surprise there).

[@PonyCraft]

Holy shit for real? I didnt realize the anti-molding agent was antibiotic in nature. I have an antibiotic sensitivity but nothing bad, usually a little bit of cramping or splatters. But is VERY inconsistent and gets worse with stress(Which makes sense) Im gonna give this a try I love you so much rn

[@tinkerer4]

@@PonyCraft Dude, I had a bunch of blood tests and a colonoscopy and they couldn't find anything to explain my stomach issues. Then my wife saw something about natamycin on Instagram and said, "hey, didn't you tell me you have some antibiotic allergies?" I still have some stomach problems, but cutting natamycin has quite literally changed my life. Considering how many people have these kinds of allergies, I'm surprised I don't hear more about it. So I try to make comments anytime I see someone talking about pre-shredded cheese to get the word out! Considering the implications, it seems like something that should be more broadly known.

[@doneverhesitate288]

what you are saying is mostly correct, however azithromycin and natamycin are absolutely not related, neither in mechanism of action, nor by their spectrum of activity.

[@timft4606]

Adam: "I'm hot!.." Me: *nods* Adam: "...just like you!" Me: *blushes*

[@thecringequeen31]

It’s true!

[@primaveral-s8s]

best comment

[@TheLowstef]

It's one of my favourite demonstrations as a physics teacher but I tend to use a piece of metal with the wood. Which is colder to the touch and which melts the ice better. Students get it "wrong" all the time and opens them up for a nice discussion of heat capacity, heat conductivity and so much more. Really nice experiment to use in the classroom. Also, it is SOOO awesome of you to model honesty and humility by admitting and correcting a previous mistake. We need more people with that mindset. Thank you!

[@superslash7254]

Carbon steel vs cast iron is also a fun one. People see something sizzling in a screaming hot cast iron skillet and assume the cast iron conducts heat better. The reality is cast iron is a worse conductor than carbon steel but has staggering thermal mass compared to 2-3mm of carbon steel.

[@Souchirouu]

I think you hit the nail on the head at the start when you mentioned the temperature of the room you are in. Your old timey wisdom comes from a time where temperature controlled housing wasn't really a thing, especially for cooling. So it makes sense that in a hot climate like that off the mediterranean would prefer a cutting board that had both high mass and high surface area. Store the cutting board in a cool place and it will hold its temperature for a long time. None of that makes sense for a temperature controlled room though as heat is constantly removed the more poreus wood will work functionally the same as stone.

[@sam7559]

The wisdom applies still to today but because marble has other advs other than cold. It is easy to clean and durable which are much more important factors for a commercial kitchen.

[@VPCh.]

As a geologist, this is something we deal with a lot. Marble (or carbonate minerals) have a high thermal capacity of about 880J/kgC. That's bit higher than quartz (a main component of granite) and twice as high as most metals. So they store a lot of heat. But the only issue is that water (4200j/kgC) is so incredibly good at absorbing heat that a dough or your hands can quickly cool or heat a rock board. It's the same reason we use pipes of water to cool down mines, water is very good at storing heat. I haven't run the numbers, but I'd be willing to guess that a damp wooden board would hold more heat than a stone board.

[@espenstoro]

Geology and pastry goes hand in hand. You know, with the layers and all. Imagine biting into the Paleozoic era layer of a Danish... 🙃

[@zanderclark1461]

@@espenstoroMmmh delicious, tastes like early life.

[@cbakeratfsl]

Adam, thank you for making this video. I have. Been a building science trainer for 30 yrs. To see that you corrected yourself on how thermal dynamics works just made my day. Thank you!

[@edamael]

It's so important that you're willing to correct yourself once you learn more accurate information. Thanks for doing your part to combat the myths that can come with something as tradition-heavy as pastry making, and make people just that little bit more science literate

[@ashhitchner9184]

As a dog groomer, I actually use a small marble slab to help my blades cool faster. My sister(who taught me the trade) said that the marble actually conducts the heat so well that it pulls the heat from your blades so they cool faster when placed on it. The caviat? If your blades are getting hot fast and you're constantly rotating them, the "cooling" power will decrease with use until you just let the stone cool. The heat just transfers really quickly, giving the effect of cooling a pretty short time period until the stone becomes a heat soak. I think it's less a question of "cooling" and more a question of heat transfer, at least in my case. If anyone here watches Technology Connections I think you'll know what im getting at 🤔 Loving the variety of video topics Adam!

[@northcoastcopper]

A piece of copper would work best🙂

[@pinkmuffin9842]

I love that you pronounce atom like Adam. It sounds funny that there are more adams packed into the marble.

[@Zelmel]

Isn't that the most common US pronunciation?

[@danielthecake8617]

it is lol

[@catsnorkel]

​@@Zelmelthe us isn't everywhere

[@Zelmel]

@@catsnorkel It's literally a video of a guy in and from the US.

[@ObliteAbyss]

I imagine the myth likely comes from a time before we had heat everywhere in the home, and when we had larders rather than fridges - The marble WOULD be cold while working on it, likely around the temperature of the food you're working with, and wick away the heat your hand imparts to it.

[@GeoffArnold1]

This was one of your very best videos, Adam. Good science. Excellent visualization (using the ice cubes). Practical. And with a tasty postscript. More like this, please.

[@aboynamedjayy]

As a dietitian, I personally hate this craze for Gruns and other supplements being pushed on every social media platform.

[@Subtracks_]

As someone who has personally done no research on Gruns and therefore have not much of an opinion on it, what do you find bad about it?

[@aymen9316]

@@Subtracks_i think it’s the fact that people overconsume supplements, whereas they have plenty of nutrients from their food, or they think that it’s a miracle drug and thus they can eat whatever crap they want

[@michaelgoldsmith3534]

It's not Gruns specifically, it's the Supplement Industrial Complex. Unless you've been specifically told by a medical professional that you need to take a supplement, you don't need a supplement. Fortunately, thanks to intense lobbying, these aren't legally drugs, but a totally different category of thing that people put in their bodies where you can claim literally anything you want. B12 "supports energy" because cobolamin is needed for red blood cell formation. Therefore, if I take more, I get more red blood cells and more energy! More B12, more energy! Nope, not how it works at all. But here's a story someone told about how they took it and now they have more energy! QED, ya'll! It's a miracle we've all survived as a species until this moment without buying all these amazing pills over the interwebs.

[@turbo________]

@@Subtracks_ there is nothing inherently bad about it. it is just useless. doesn't really do anything meaningful. so just a waste of money

[@RyanEglitis]

I just hated the scammy transition from normal content into sponsored content.

[@Zanthum]

I tried to explain the thermal conductivity leading to a sensation of cold thing to my mom's friend who swore aluminum beer bottles were better than glass bottles or aluminum cans at keeping a drink cold. She never understood. She is a nurse.

[@wobblysauce]

It maybe, but could also be the flavour difference they are noticing. As bottle v can are made differently.

[@Zanthum]

@@wobblysauce they were specifically referencing that the container felt colder in the hand and that meant the liquid was colder.

[@clemensmartin1034]

I was often surprised about how little nurses know about the scientific basics of medicine while knowing a lot of practical things but I guess knowing what to do and why you do it aren't the same.

[@wobblysauce]

@@Zanthum Ah ya.. mind games.

[@HansMaximum]

Many nurses aren't familiar with the theories of thermodynamics

[@stephenshoshin3190]

In addition to your impressive "experimentation" videos, your production ability should not be ignored nor unnoticed. I appreciate your skills in the videos and the making of the videos. Thank you!

[@JoshBCamp]

3:59 really thankful there was a visual aid connecting wood to tree.

[@cachecow]

The restaurants I've been to have a slab of marble that is the top of a low-boy frdge. The wood will stay cold under the cube but the marble being a denser material will disperse the cold of the cube over a greater area, so it's cooling more of the surface area

[@TheLaziiness]

Fridges keep cold in lol. If anything it would be warm cause of the components it has making the cold. Idk what bluds on about

[@vcpark]

Man, Adam is such a natural. His transitions and meta commentaries feel so unrehearsed yet so on point. It's hard to describe but what I'm trying to say is he's fucking amazing at "effortlessly" making these videos.

[@boazattar1587]

Hi Adam. Just wanted to say that i'm a big fan and wanted to see a video of yours explaining a bit about aftertastes and how to counter them (the goat's cheese was not very pleasant although I added lots of lemon juice, salt and black pepper). If there is already a video about it that I missed, i'll be glad if you could point it out. Thank you so much for all the content and hard work. Really love your channel

[@duncanw3861]

This video was particularly satisfying to me as a senior in Materials Science; I love when niche info about heat capacity and thermal conductivity gets disseminated in an easy to understand format. It also helps me to forgive the grievous error you made in the other video. :)

[@Gohitov2]

6:16 thermodynamic properties.

[@sakesaurus]

wrong and wrong. Degrees of freedom that he's talking about are a mechanical property (I believe that's what he meant)

[@TheBenLemonade]

I remember watching a video a long time ago (forget whose, maybe Vsauce or Veritasium) where to drive this point home, they went out into a hot day with a book and a metal box. They asked people to touch both and then would ask which was hotter. Everyone said the metal box was hotter, at least intuitively, but when they would measure the temps with the thermometer the book would be the same temp. Its just that the metal box would transfer the heat to their hands significantly faster than the book.

[@BjornTheProgrammer]

The most intuitive way to explain thermal conductivity was given by my old physics teacher. Things that are cold to the touch are conducting the heat away from your fingers faster. That’s why marble is cold to the touch while wood is warm despite both being the same temperature.

[@Niesmiesznyy]

Adam: I'm hot. Just like you. Me: why thank you adam

[@autobots9786]

Hi Adam, love the content and appreciate making corrections! Just something to be aware of when using IR temperature readers, the surface finish can affect the reading. Glossy finishes can reflect IR, which can cause the readings to be off. A quick hack when comparing differing surfaces is to slap a bit of masking tape on both so you can measure that as a reference!

[@Xanderqwerty123]

Call up Linus. He can probably hook up a water cooled countertop for you.

[@MutheiM_Marz]

Charge Adam some money and then auction it off without telling him, pocket the money and told people it was for charity.

[@danielazevedoteixera4194]

Takes a lot of both love for what you do and humility to admit a past mistake without anyone even calling you out on it. Thats why i respect this channel

[@germanywx]

I used what I learned in this video to soften butter to room temperature quicker! I cut into cubes and put directly on my granite countertop (with a bit of plastic film between). It softened incredibly fast!

[@macgyvercohen1223]

8:49 I feel like the marble being put on the countertop transferred It’s cold energy into the countertop, thus warming it up faster than the wood. I would suggest (if possible) to do the experiments again, but this time put both of them on a wooden platform and see if that changes anything.

[@tvh300]

Nice to see a KZbinr correcting their mistakes. Thanks for sharing!

[@therealchayd]

"...take the old timey kitchen wisdom for granted...", surely you mean to "take it for granite?" I'll get my coat....

[@gavinmacaulay2024]

I marble at the depths of the depravity in the comments...

[@Not-a-fancy-name]

I'm not sure if i come here for Adam's content or his sponsorship segue game. Good work and many thanks Mr Ragusea.

[@eggss2]

7:12 Thank you Adam, I feel much better 😁😁

[@anegginthesetryingtimes7636]

I respect that the hustle is a long time coming, I have been around for many an Adam Ad Segment. But I LOL'd for like 10 minutes when the sponsor read had him say(probably their direct necessitated quote for the first half) "-They're made with real vegetable and fruit, and they taste like it. I mean, there is NOTHING that is a chore, about eating that. That is a tasty little treat." I am sure they are a, "tasty little treat" Adam. I am sure they are.

[@satibel]

for "getting rid of leftovers" galettes: use 10g of oil for 500g of flour, 300g of water (250-350g might be needed) and 8g of salt, dough hook on the stand mixer or pasta setting on the bread machine, 5-15 minutes depending on how much protein/gluten there is in your dough (regular cheap flour goes for the 15 minutes, high protein flour goes for less.) you can use up to about 90g of oil, though it will make the dough more brittle you can go to 350g of water, add some of it halfway to a cup, teaspoon of sugar, and your yeast, pre mix the flour and salt, let the yeast rise for like 10-15 minutes, then mix and you have pizza dough. use 60g of oil and add a potato (either mashed or blended depending on preference) and you have a very spongy sandwich bread, cut the oil and you have french bread.

[@carsonoid]

I have a granite countertop and one of my favorite things about it is that I can put frozen food on it to make the food defrost noticeably faster

[@partyfists]

Great video Adam. I love the realization at the end "oh yeah there's an entire stick of butter here". I do this all the time so relatable!

[@aaaaston]

9:39 and that's why i chill my marble, not my wood 😮

[@alexzoin]

Once again Adam proves to be the best youtuber of all time. We appreciate the correction videos so much. And the little salami and cheese pie at then end looked fantastic.

[@-MacCat-]

This video was any eyeopener! Thanks Adam. It will take some getting used to the facts as "muscle memory " will always lead me to reach for a stone surface when working with pastry. P.S. As a mechanical engineer, I should have remembered better in the first place.

[@kruksog]

Very easy mistake to make. The reason we trust you is that you acknowledge it and make a video like this. Thanks Adam! (I know it's not coming back, and it made you unhappy, but I miss the podcast. Enjoyed your appearance on lateral though. You should be a guest on more stuff!)

[@boom-sh2un]

Depending on how thick and how large your marble slab is, it may even take a whole day or maybe more to actually reach freezing temperatures. Even if the slab was in the freezer for a few hours, it most likely never reached 0C with that amount of time. The thermal conductivity of the stone still works to melt ice very easily because of this. However, it maybe have been able to keep butter solidified, since it was at least colder than room temperature.

[@Br3ttM]

That cutting board was pretty thin, though, giving it a lot of surface area. It one of the shots with the ice cube melting I actually saw the frost on the stone melt starting at the edge and moving inward.

[@Lukas-ii9kw]

"Heat/Material-transfer" (rough translation) was my favorite subject at uni, because there are soooo many things it applies to in the real world. its really cool.

[@danielblank9917]

That's why I always liquid nitrogen cool my marble

[@op4000exe]

Only liquid nitrogen? I always reach for the liquid helium! Or was it reaching for me through super fluidity?

[@aziouss2863]

Pfft you are still that? Me and my homies switches to Einstein boson condensate. The 2.6 trillion dollar lab to mass produce it was worth it.

[@Absenteeee]

If I need something cold I'll just call my ex wife lmao amirite folks

[@Absenteeee]

why did i say this

[@NateyCat]

From a college culinary graduate: I always use marble or steel for pastry. Get your mise en place and go as fast as you are comfortable with. I don’t prefer working with dough on plastics or wood. Lots of time to scrub out the gunk. Plus 90% of the time it moves to the counter anyway to roll out. But that’s just me. Good vid ❤

[@michaelwalker4977]

When pie making day comes around I put a stack of clean ceramic floor tiles in the fridge the day before and use them as my rolling surfaces, rotating them in and out of the fridge to make sure I always have a cold surface.

[@tree427]

Your videos are a terrific treat to have from time to time

[@jake9107]

consistently has horrible takes and little to no research about the "science" in his videos

[@tree427]

@@jake9107 Yeah, well, that's just like your opinion, man

[@ronanjm]

@@jake9107such as?

[@Fishtory]

Adam: Owning it, Since Forever. What a man, what a man what a mighty fine man.

[@frenchfriar]

Marble pastry boards are very cold if you put them in the fridge to get cold before you try to use them. They also stay cold very well.

[@RawRamenBoyo]

Remember seeing the same reasoning a long time ago in probably a Bill NYE episode or something similar. They tested ice cubes in wood, styrofoam, and a metal tray, same results. Also learned that to dump liquid out of a jug, the swirl method is faster than just letting it sit, but also adding a straw/tube is even faster

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

You would need to have a chilling system to keep the stone at the right temperature. One idea might be to put a channel on the underside so that copper tubing can be run right against the stone...or bore holes through a thick piece for copper tubing. A number of possibilities.

[@EMAngel2718]

Funny thing is that what is essentially this misconception was the first thing I really got wrong when watching mythbusters as a kid and it was what opened my eyes to how the world is often more complicated than the kind of logic you tend to practice as a kid. (It was the one about putting clothes on snowmen to make them last longer)

[@EMAngel2718]

Also a sort of interesting look into the weeds of this is that the rate at which heat is flowing and the temperature at any given neuron are related. When objects of different temperatures conduct you get temperature gradients (like slopes on a graph) based on the flow of heat and material properties. In this case that means neurons in your hand that are closer to the marble will be colder.

[@least_512]

😊 Fascinating, thanx Adam R. I made some tasty sourdough pie crust yesterday with organic butter to enjoy alongside the beef stew 😋

[@AlexCorrea-x7k]

Very marbelous

[@BrettWordon]

6:05 “hot Adam making contact with a cool Adam”, whaaaat? Vein much?

[@Veroniquekky]

I thought it was kind of funny :)

[@ΓιώργοςΚεραμιδάς-ξ3μ]

The italians with the marble mortars will come for you

[@ajhoward8888]

I have a cutting board shaped thing from the 80's that promises to thaw frozen foods faster. The fun part is that it's actually just a painted aluminum plate that acts just like the heat sink in your PC and actually does work at thawing things faster. All based on the super high thermal conductivity of aluminum.

[@000dr0g]

Brilliant video. We learn from mistakes; UK and US culture seem to hate that, and make people lie or cover-up mistakes. I much enjoyed this lesson. A very bad thing about how "Science" is shared is that peer reviewed journals don't accept well made failures as valuable things to publish. Share mistakes! We all benefit from the adjustment, because we all make them.

[@calvingodfrey7340]

I will mention, this is something you got right in the video about copper mugs and Moscow Mules (it feels cold because the heat is transferring quicker to your body)

[@Yupppi]

Finally my engineering studies becoming useful. Clicking the video I guessed marble has good thermal conductivity so it's cool to touch since it steals your body heat. If you keep it in the freezer I suppose it does help keeping the pastry cold. I assume the issue with the ice cube test was that the ice cube was: frozen. It wasn't warmer than the boards, so the marble would warm up from the room temperature and transferring that heat to the ice if anything. Meanwhile the wood is slower to warm up. If it was let's say a hot cup of liquid, the liquid would likely get cooler on the marble when it could actually steal the heat from the cup instead of warming it up.

[@LiborTinka]

I only use a diamond-coated aluminium board with a built-in Peltier device to do my pastry at constant -30 oC. The only issues are having some extra water in the dough from condensation and occassional frostbites on my hands.

[@todo9633]

The ice melting faster on the marble also had to do with the fact that it moved and slid around, so it didn't remain on the same spot that was already cooled by the ice cube resting on it. The other points are important too, just good to acknowledge.

[@jeffreychandler8418]

The usage of "bolus" is actually completely acceptable! In soil science they use the term "bolus" to help determine soil texture. Etymologically too, it derives from the latin word for "clod."

[@John28530]

I would also add that folding a towel or two on the counter under the marble board would help it stay colder. Having a larger mass would be best. Similar to a pizza steel which again would be the best bet holding for the rust and reactivity issues

[@1kreature]

What you have in marble is thermal mass. Precooling a marble slep allows you to work with such pastries in hot rooms with no significant warming of the dough. This does not work with wood and plastic (well HDPE does have some thermal mass but still not as much). You can also use cooled countertops for this, or just cooled slabs having cold water from the sink run through it.

[@greedtheron8362]

Thermodynamics is tricky business. The way that I really learned it is through playing the game Oxygen Not Included, where you gotta figure that stuff out or accidentally boil your little colonists.

[@Br3ttM]

The mention of piping water through a stone counter to cool it reminded me of how I temperature control my bases by running water pipes through granite floors. The game really makes you think about thermal conductivity, thermal mass (mass times specific heat), and how they interact.

[@ianferguson3998]

I love the Fiestaware cameo. Tangerine is one of my fav colors

[@MRxavo17]

I love how I always fall on your advertisements

[@joebob3683]

Another thing to keep in mind is not the temperature of the butter but your hands. The marble slab will try to keep everything at ambient temps while it adds heat to chilled butter, reduces the impact of your hot body on that butter.

[@ZachSwena]

Your original advice would be true in a cold climate and unheated bakery room where dough was being prepared early in the morning... The key thing is the marble must also be colder than you want the butter.

[@minijag972]

Right! I ignored an argument with my sister about this. That her marble countertop was making the pastry dough warmer. But its okay for bakeries to use it, because the entire room is a refrigerator.

[@sootmann]

Fantastic video for many reasons. Great job on this, and thanks for making it. ❤

[@axiezimmah]

At 3:00 I immediately knew what the issue was. Not having seen the rest of the video yet, I'll make a risky comment: People think marble/stone surfaces are cool because they feel cold to the touch, which makes them assume it's good for keeping the butter from melting. However, the laws of physics state that when something at room temperature is cold to the touch it's not actually cold, it's a good conductor of heat, and a good conductor of heat will actually transfer heat quicker which means the butter will melt quicker, not slower. Because it's not actually cold, it just transfers heat (or cold) faster.

[@-Devy-]

Yeah no one believes your fake attempt at sounding clever.

[@natedetailscars]

My mind has been a polluted cesspool for years due to the old video. I'm glad I can finally clean it up. 😉 Great info as always, Goose!

[@ZeroPlayerGame]

Re marble vs wood tests - you could imagine the whole system as a whole as a heat pipe from the environment to the ice cube. Relative to ice, even thrown in the freezer they'd start at the same temperature as an ice cube, left at room temp tere's some heat left in the pipe; but in the long run, the size of the pipe matters the most, and it's a lot larger for marble. For butter, the results could be different - since butter melts at like 30 C, and the dough doesn't come out of the freezer, the amount of leftover heat in that pipe could matter a lot more.

[@kster809]

Super early again hot damn! Love that you go back and correct yourself like this, takes real humility to be dedicated to the facts like that. Journalistic integrity!

[@loftir-koftir]

And here I was, walking around unaware of this issue and completely at peace. Like an idiot. I didnt even know it was a thing, and even less something to be upset about. Marble at my stupidity.

[@Ramthul]

I really like how you explained the physics. Just one little thing: Heat is just the kinetic energy („movement“-energy) of atoms. In solids that usually means that the atoms are oscillating back and forth. The hotter something gets the faster the atoms are oscillating. Transferring heat is nothing more than faster atoms hitting slower atoms. By this process the faster atoms get slower and the slower atoms get faster. That’s btw the reason you hurt yourself whenever you touch something hot. Very fast oscillating atoms hit the atoms your skin cells are made of and knock them out of place, destroying your skin cell with this process.

[@thomaslodwick5389]

I suspect a good reason plenty of people prefer marble or metal is for durability during cleaning. You can be a lot more abrasive, since it's not as soft as wood. Given the choice, I still take wood, but it's just an aesthetic and preference choice. We're pretty solidly in preference and semantics land.

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

0:08 to 0:53 These 2 sentences (I think, there was a lot of subclauses to that) sounds a lot like the kind of KZbin comments I write when I'm home alone; without any project to work on, being a little understimulated, and then forget to take my 12 o clock ADHD medication (which I actually managed to do just now, though it's 12:43 already so not sure if that counts as taking it on time, but anyway)... BTW, I love that intro; it keeps me engaged and don't give me time to let my mind wander; and it also actually answers any questions I might get distracted by before I have time to get distracted by them (well except the question I'm about to ask of course); so this is not meant as an insult or criticism of your style, but: Do you also have an ADHD diagnosis? Anyways, let's unpause and actually watch the video... (Let's see if I can get through it without pausing for another distraction again.... unlikely, though)

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

Got through with only one more pause... I realised I also needed some food for lunch... not just coffee... Especially since the whole reason I made coffee was to treat my growing headache which is probably caused by forgetting to eat and drink for hours.

[@Talbaz]

The timelapse of the marble warming to room temperature and seeing the condensation move across the stable was interesting

[@RadicalEdwardStudios]

It's probably important, re. the marble v wood experiments, to consider what they're used for. The only place I know that uses cold marble slabs would be ... candy making. The goal is not to keep anything in a state, but to change its state. The marble's job is to have capacity for the excess heat from the material. As an added bonus, it's a sort of sealed surface, relative to wood.

[@todo9633]

Old timey kitchen wisdom is a pain. I know people that to this day refuse to put food in the fridge before it cools down because it's something their grandma told them. No matter how much I show them health organization advisories and try to get them thinking about why exactly they think it'd be less safe to cool down food faster rather than leave it out at slightly above room temperature(the worst for bacterial development) they just refuse to listen because they've held this belief for decades. Same people use paper towels instead of sponges to wash dishes because they think it'll capture bacteria, despite us having a dishwasher.

[@raphaelnikolaus0486]

This somehow reminded me of Tom Scott's "Why You Can't Trust Me" video from 5 years ago (01.07.2019). I love such videos. German scientists Prof. Harald Lesch (Terra X Lesch & Co) and I think Dr. Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim (mathinkX) have done similar "correction" videos.

[@BooBaddyBig]

I'll always remember the look of shear panic on a woman's face when I explained that a marble countertop was REALLY good at BOTH defrosting and rapidly cooling food. Yes, a big, heavy, thermally conductive thing at room temperature tends to make other things to rapidly go to room temperature.

[@yaoster4u]

yup this is basically why moscow mule mugs "feel" like especially cold drinks upon serving but they're actually the first to go warm when left long enough

[@Pr0phet_of_Fear]

For the test with the marble slab out of the freezer, you should have put something down to insulate it from the countertop. With them both being marble/stone, the heat from the counter would have transferred into it much more quickly than into the wood.

[@i.shaikh3724]

5:05 "Look at the back", he says, in glorious 360p quality.

[@LiraeNoir]

If you want something to throw leftovers in, try French (or more famously, Brittany) galettes, which are basically just savory/salty crèpes. You usually do exactly what you did there, but crèpes are thinner, probably less butter in the final dish.

[@williamfugimoto8526]

11:55 Damn Adam, looking good man! Also thank you for the information, never thought about it until now!