The Science of Food

April 9, 2025

The science and flavor of Mushrooms

I love mushrooms. I love them in gravy, I love them roasted, I love them in stir fries and I love them sauteed on toast. I like cheap ones and I like fancy ones. Hell I can’t slice a bag of button mushrooms without eating half of them raw. Mushrooms are great but, thanks to… Continue reading

fungus, MSG, mushrooms

botrytis, botrytis cinerea, button mushroom, chanterelle, cooking, corn smut, Food, food science, fungi, fungus, Huitlacoche, hypha, hyphae, lenthionine, MSG, mushroom, mushrooms, mycelium, nature, shiitake, Ustilago esculenta, Ustilago maydis
March 31, 2025

Quick Bite: How salt enhances the flavour of our food

In my recent post on MSG and our taste perception I was going to include a bit about salt and how it works as a flavour enhancer but, as usual, I went on a bit so I couldn’t fit it in. So I wanted to do this short post while it was all fresh in… Continue reading

Bitter, MSG, salt, Sweet, Taste, Taste buds, Taste perception, Umami

#cooking, flavour enhancers, Food, food science, health, MSG, nutrition, salt, Taste, Taste buds
March 30, 2025

The science behind umami: Understanding the way we perceive taste

Most of us have now heard of umami and we probably all know that umami is now recognised as the fifth of our primary tastes, formerly limited to sweet, sour, bitter and salty. You might also know that Western societies were a bit slow to the umami party. Despite being recognised in the East for… Continue reading

Bitter, Sweet, Taste, Taste buds, Taste perception, Umami

Bitter, evolution, flavour, Food, food science, monosodium glutamate, MSG, salt, Science, sour, Sweet, Taste, Taste buds, Taste perception, Umami
March 21, 2025

Starch and Gelatinisation in Everyday Cooking

I’m no historian but I think it would be fair to say that for most of history most humans relied primarily on starchy grains and vegetables to keep themselves and their families fed. Grasses like wheat, rice, oats and barley are easy to grow and the seeds, or grains, of these grasses are rich in… Continue reading

carbohydrates, chemistry, maillard, nutrition, potato, starch, Uncategorized, vegetable

amylopectin, amylose, carbohydrates, corn starch, diet, Food, food science, gel, gelatinisation, health, nutrition, potato, recipes, rice, rice starch, starch, thickening
March 12, 2025

Pasteurisation, food safety and raw milk

I like milk but, lets face it, the rear end of a cow is a pretty grotty place. You’ve got the business end of the alimentary system, a tail swishing around spreading manure all round the place and the udder, the source of our milk, is right there in the middle. Cows aren’t great at… Continue reading

health, infectious disease, milk, nutrition, pasteurisation, raw milk

diet, Food, health, infant mortality, infectious disease, milk, nutrition, pasteurisation, raw milk
March 6, 2025

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

carbohydrates, chemistry, fats, lipid, micelle, milk, nutrition, proteins, Science

casein, chemistry, diet, evolution, fat, Food, food science, health, lactase, lactose, lactose intolerance, mammals, milk, nutrition, Protein, wellness
February 21, 2025

Are eggs bad for science?

The primary aim of this blog is to become a better home cook by learning some of the science of cooking. But I do have a secondary aim and that is to occasionally talk about how science works in the context of food science. This week is the first week I’ve really focused on how… Continue reading

cholesterol, eggs, fats, Food, health, lipid, low carb diet, nutrition, oil, saturated fats

ancel keys, correlation, diet, Food, food science, health, low carbohydrate diet, nutrition, saturated fats, scientific method, weight-loss
February 13, 2025

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

beer, botany, carbohydrates, cell biology, chemistry, fermentation, Science, sugar

ADP, alcohol, ATP, beer, brewing, chemistry, cooking, fermentation, Food, food science, hops, microbes, recipes, Science, yeast
February 7, 2025

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

chemistry, cholesterol, fats

chemistry, diet, fats, fitness, Food, food science, health, lipids, mono-unstaurated fats, nutrition, oils, saturated fats, triglycerides
February 4, 2025

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