Friday Fact 3 April 2009

Get your jazz hands on - it's Friday!

Did you know that the pungency of onions and garlic are measured using a Pyruvate scale?

From Wikipedia:

The Pyruvate scale measures pungency in onions and garlic with units of um/gfw. It is named after Pyruvic acid, the alpha-keto acid in onions which makes peoples eyes tear up when cutting them.

The standard onion has an eight rating, while "sweet onions" have a two or three rating on the scale. The lower the score or scale the more "sweet" the onions are rated. Anything less than five is considered a sweet onion.

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