2012 - March 17, Mochi Making Contest
From ATS Wiki
- Date: Saturday, March 17, 2012
- Event Captains: Emily Yang (epyang@mit.edu) and Stephanie Yu (styu@mit.edu)
- Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM (went until 3:30)
- Location: McCormick Country Kitchen
Contents |
Description
We had some extra funds left over for this cycle, so we decided to try this experimental event. It was designed to be a contest where teams would compete to mash glutinous rice into mochi paste the fastest. We waited about 15 minutes after the start of the event to allow more people to come, but people still showed up in the middle and just joined teams (teams of 3< but >6).
Materials
- 5 8-quart stainless steel bowls
- Bowl-securing rigs: 10 2"x4"x4' boards, 10 20" threaded steel rods of various diameters, knuts of various diameters, drill and hammer to assemble
- 5 straight rolling pins
- rice cookers (from us and McCormick)
- slow cooker
- clean plastic bags from the produce section of C-mart (for holding mochi paste)
- plates, cups, spoons/forks
- food processor (for peanut powder)
Food
- Assorted asian snacks from c-mart (wanted to get mochi ice cream but couldn't find it)
- 20 rice cups of sweet rice -- about right amount for eating, but not enough for making...
- 3 bottles of drinks + 1 pot of milk tea
Other Notes
- We could have gotten twice as many knuts for the bowl-holding rigs.
- Used seat cushions from country kitchen under the bowls.
- Soak the rice beforehand, but don't make it too wet.
- Don't over-tax the rice cooker and start cooking rice earlier (large batch can take up to 40 min).
- People didn't eat all of their mochi but it seemed like there wasn't enough in the bowl during the pounding process... probably because the rice was too wet.
- Need larger space dedicated to making mochi after contest portion. (4 tables instead of 3?)
- Deciding a winner was hard and very subjective. Since we were running out of time, we just had representatives come up with their bowls to compare the consistency. We got lychee jellies for a prize, but then forgot to give them out...
- Don't use salted peanuts and grind the powder finer.
