As a reward for our hard work on our coursework this year, we took on a fun food investigation which we have been hoping to complete since Lower V!
We wanted to compare the taste and health of a classic take away against our own version of the same food. We decided to trial our favourite outlet – Wingstop!
This means that we recreated a takeaway meal at school using fresh ingredients to see if we could make a healthier or better version for ourselves. We took time to discuss and recreate the spices that we thought might be added to the food coatings, and how we thought they would be cooked, whilst choosing healthier options for our own versions every time using our new Food Science and Nutrition knowledge. We ordered a Wingstop burger and made our own homemade version, along with a few tenders and a milkshake, so that we could compare the two together. We took time to make our food while the Wingstop food was being made in their kitchen in Reading and delivered, we created our own work, based on the pictures on their website and including the same additions, toppings and fillings – all made in The Abbey Food Room.
The food arrived! We looked at things like flavour, crispiness, greasiness, thickness of the sauces and creaminess in the milkshake and overall appearance to decide which one we preferred. After tasting both burgers, we noticed a few differences; the Wingstop burger was crispy, but it was also quite greasy and heavy. However, our homemade burger was healthier, more nutritious and ultimately more flavourful because we could control the ingredients and seasonings ourselves. It was also less oily than the Wingstop burger while still being really tender and less salty. The Wingstop milkshake tasted very sweet and the texture was slightly stringy, like a marshmallow with bubbles, while ours was creamy and fresh, but not as thick. Overall, we found that while the original takeaway burger meal was tasty, our fakeaway version was a great alternative that also tasted good with the benefit of being healthier. We so enjoyed this investigation and it was well worth the wait and the reward!
Alicia and Kara, Lower VI Foodies
