Chemistry of food and cooking
- How did your cooking process transform your food macroscopically and affect the food’s overall characteristics? Be specific and describe the transformations that happened on the molecular level that led to the observed macroscopic changes.
I made french bread with basic ingredients and a very simple recipe. The ingredients were all-purpose flour, instant dry yeast, salt, and water. When you make bread you gather your ingredients and start with getting the yeast ready to be added to the flour. In a bowl you add yeast and lukewarm water and let it sit and ferment, There are two kinds of yeast that will work for this recipe. One is instant dry yeast in which you pour the yeast into the warm water and then immediately dump the flour to mix it together. The other option is an active dry yeast which you pour into the water and let sit for several minutes before adding it to the flour. I think the effect is the same no matter which type of yeast you use. At this point, the recipe is the same. The variable I added was to change the treatment of the dough by kneading one according to the directions and the other I smashed it flat with a rolling pin right before it went into the oven.
The cooking process I experimented with was changing the way the dough was treated and they did turn out differently. When you knead the dough it produces a little bit of heat which then produces gluten and gliden which reacts to make gluten. When that happens the dough gets more elastic and allows the dough to rise. When I rolled one loaf flat it completely counteracted what happen d when the dough rose. Once baked one loaf was beautiful and airy and delicious. The other one was denser and flatter. It didn;t rise back up to its previous state.
- In what way(s) are cooking and doing science similar and in what way(s) are they different? How are a cook and a food scientist similar or different?
A cook makes food that they think people will like and a food scientist is looking for the reasons why food responds the way it does. When someone considers themselves to be a chef or cook they are creating new and exciting foods in order to feed hungry people, create delicious food, and practice and refine their culinary skills. They might also cater to people's favorite dishes in order to evoke emotions that feel good like comfort, joy, and happiness. For example, when someone makes your favorite dish you feel happy and you feel loved because someone took the time to cook for you. Food is a connector of worlds and people can relate to each other, celebrate events and come closer together. There is a love language through food.
A food scientist has a different job. Their job is to look for the reasons why food reacts as it does. For example, sugar. Why does it start as a crystal and when you heat it up it turns to a liquid, changes colors to caramelize, and then hardens back up in another form? A food scientist knows why this happens. They are also studying and discovering the chemistry behind food reactions, like flour and water creating heat when kneaded to create gluten. Food scientists have the cool job of blending food (the key to all life in nutrition and emotions) and chemistry, which sounds like a really cool and fund job.