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Fermentation I: Beer and chemistry
I had a long break over Christmas and these are a few of the meals I had during that break: at the local pizza joint a pepperoni pizza washed down with beer, a trip to the German club where I had a pork knuckle with sauerkraut washed down with beer, a trip to a French… Continue reading
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Quick bite: A cooks tour of fats and oils, the good, the bad and the ugly
In my last post on emulsions I was a pretty loose with my terminology when referring to fats, oils, lipids, cholesterol etc. In this Quick Bite I just want to explain some of the terminology and start getting a bit more precise about what I mean when I say ‘fat’ (or an oil which is… Continue reading
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Understanding Emulsions II: Mayonnaise
In my mind mayonnaise has always been kind of a Jekyll and Hyde sauce. We all know what mayonnaise is and we all have a bottle of mayonnaise in the fridge. But we also have homemade mayonnaise, a sauce that can be richer tasting but which can also vary greatly depending on what oil and… Continue reading
chemistry, cholesterol, eggs, emulsifier, emulsions, Food, lipid, mayonnaise, micelle, oil, proteins, Science, vinaigrette#cooking, cholesterol, eggs, emulsifier, emulsion, Food, food science, HDL, LDL, lipid, mayonnaise, micelle, recipe, recipes, salads, Science -
Mastering the science of sugar: From simple syrups to caramel
I’ve been catching up on the latest series of the Great British Bake Off and in one episode, amongst all the usual drama of collapsing pastries and sagging cakes, the contestants were overcooking their caramel for the Banoffee Pie technical and it made me think about sugar. In recent posts I’ve talked a lot about… Continue reading
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Hurts so good: The painful pleasure of chillies
When I was running a medical research laboratory I was part of long running research project in Issan province in the north-eastern part of Thailand. One of the perks of working on this project was frequent trips to Thailand to work with Thai and American colleagues. My first visits were close to twenty years ago… Continue reading
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Understanding Emulsions I: The science behind your favourite sauces
Emulsions where would be without them? No mayonnaise, no custard, no hollandaise and no milk, butter or sausages. Not having thought too much about it before, I was surprised to find out just how many of my favourite foods are emulsions or how many are covered with emulsions when I eat them. It’s pretty clear… Continue reading
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Quick bite: The secret life of vegetables
As Harold McGee points out in his book, On Food and Cooking, plants are essentially chemical factories. Plants are famously stationary and lacking any motive power must interact with the external world, for the most part, through a dazzling array of chemicals that they synthesise from basic chemical elements. The same plant will simultaneously produce… Continue reading
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Quick bite: A cooks tour of protein chemistry
If you have read any of the posts on this blog you are probably starting to realise that when we are talking about chemistry in cooking a lot of the time we are actually talking about proteins. For this reason it is important that we have a clear idea of what a protein is, how… Continue reading
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Quick bite: Osmosis and your next BBQ
My recent post about cooking steak got a bit long. To shorten it I had to cut some things that I still think are pretty important when cooking your steak. One of the things I cut was a discussion about osmosis and how to salt your steak before cooking. Both of these issues are really… Continue reading
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Anatomy, heat and the perfect steak
The post explores the challenges of cooking the perfect steak, emphasizing the importance of cut choice, understanding muscle anatomy, and the science behind heat and proteins. It discusses techniques like sous vide and two-zone grilling for achieving optimal tenderness and sear. Finally, it stresses the necessity of resting the steak before serving to retain juiciness. Continue reading
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Flour and water, how hard can pasta be?
Every home cook has been there. You want to make your own pasta, but how? I know – you think, I have at my disposal the single greatest tool for the dissemination of information in the history of man, the internet. I’ll get on that thing and I’ll be an expert in no time. Several… Continue reading
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Why Every Cook Should Understand Food Science
I’m a chemist and an enthusiastic amateur home cook. You tend to find a lot of us, scientists who enjoy cooking, and for me, and I suspect other scientists, this is because cooking uses the same skills I learned working in the laboratory. In both cooking and chemistry the careful application of heat and time… Continue reading
The Science of Food 