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Everything you think you know about nutrition is probably wrong
Are you confused about what we should be eating? Bewildered by contradictory dietary advice? Overwhelmed by dietary fads and loud-mouthed influencers? Well you are not alone. Over the past five decades endless cycles of contradictory nutrition advice and dietary fads have left most people in a state of utter confusion about what constitutes a healthy Continue reading
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Milk: Nature’s Beverage and Its Curious Chemistry
I think humans have an interesting relationship with milk. Most of us start our food journey with human breast milk yet many, long after we’ve out grown any biological need for milk, chose to consume the milk and milk products of other species. To support this we have set up a $800 million dollar a Continue reading
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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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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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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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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 