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Which vegetable would have the highest temperature if taken straight out of a baking oven and placed on a plate?

My family has had this mundane debate for the past several years. My dad insists and is not open to the possibility that it can be a vegetable other than a potato. Is he correct?

Assuming that it is a fairly common vegetable to westerners and that all other factors are equal: time in oven, temperture of oven etc.

Basically: for the first 5 or so minutes upon being taken out of the oven, which vegetable would be the hottest?

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Last edited on: 2009-09-17 13:00:19

Categories: Domestic Science.

Tags: plants, home.

 

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ianpotts says:

Probably the biggest, most nearly spherical (Newton's Cooling Law?). A potato fits the bill.

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posted on 2009-09-16 22:32:11 | Report abuse


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mmmm says:

Pumpkin? I cant think of a bigger and rounder vegetable...

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posted on 2009-09-17 09:52:57 | Report abuse


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Jon-Richfield says:

All would be the same if they had baked long enough to come to an equilibrium temperature all the way through in the oven. Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter. Ask Flanders and Swan. Second law of thermodynamics. That said, it does assume that the food doesn't give off its own chemical energy when heated enough. Notice what I say about candied items. If what you mean is which one will go on burning your mouth longest after dishing up, that has to do with how much heat it can store and how fast it can lose it etc. It also could be an effect of how much heat it is generating. For instance, a nicely caramelising piece of candied sweet potato (yams and similar roots) gives off a lot of chemical energy as well. It could take the skin off your palate after a potato of the same size could go down like a mouthful of salad. (SMALL bites, if you know what is good for you. You get more of the taste that way too!) Apart from chemistry, how fast a bit of veg cools down depends on many factors, including its shape (frondy things cool fast, e.g. broccoli) and so do slender ones (e.g. green beans). Dense, large items with lots of water, especially with their peels intact so that they cannot cool very fast by evaporation (potatoes, yams, whole onions) certainly are the worst as a rule.

Ouch!

 

Jon

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posted on 2009-09-17 10:00:47 | Report abuse


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LordOfRuin says:

Assuming you've left them in long enough, they'd likely all the be same temperature. However, you might actually be asking which would feel warmer, which is a little different. How much heat something conducts isn't the same as how hot it is.

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posted on 2009-09-18 11:52:22 | Report abuse


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SlimJim says:

Well, it depends how long you've left them in there for!

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posted on 2009-09-20 23:00:00 | Report abuse


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