Food Science

15 breaks

The chemistry happening in your kitchen.

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Why a roast keeps getting hotter after you take it out: carryover cooking and the heat still on its way in You pull the roast at 60 °C, and five minutes later the probe says 66 °C. Nothing is heating it, so where did the heat come from? The answer is that an oven… Food Science4 min read Why a microwave leaves cold spots: a standing wave 12.2 cm long, and a chocolate bar that measures the speed of light Microwave ovens fill a metal box with radio waves 12.2 cm long. The waves bounce off the walls and add up into a standing wave, a frozen pattern of hot spots… Food Science5 min read Why honey never spoils: it isn't the sugar, it's the missing water Honey is rich, sweet and nutritious, so why don't bacteria and moulds move in? Because microbes need free water, and honey's sugar holds almost all of it… Food Science4 min read Why bread rises: yeast only inflates the bubbles your kneading put there Yeast doesn't blow bubbles into dough. It only inflates the ones your kneading already folded in. That means the number of bubbles is fixed early, and the… Food Science4 min read Why popcorn pops: a sealed kernel, trapped steam and a 180 °C tipping point A popcorn kernel is a seed with a sealed hull and a little water inside. Heat it and the water can't boil away, so steam pressure builds, like a tiny pressure… Food Science4 min read Why salt makes ice cream freeze: ice melting below 0 °C pulls out the heat Ice is already at 0 °C, so how can a handful of rock salt make it colder? Because salt makes ice want to melt below 0 °C, and melting costs energy: about 334… Food Science4 min read Why chocolate needs tempering: cocoa butter can freeze six ways, and only one snaps Two bars of dark chocolate can share every ingredient and still differ completely: one glossy, snappy and firm, the other dull and crumbly. The secret is cocoa… Food Science4 min read Why a wet steak won't brown: boiling water caps the surface at 100 °C Put a wet steak in a hot pan and it goes grey and steams. Pat it dry and it forms a dark, savoury crust. The pan is equally hot both times. The difference is a… Food Science4 min read Why oil and water mix in mayonnaise: an egg yolk coats every droplet Oil and water refuse to mix, yet mayonnaise is about two-thirds to four-fifths oil and holds its shape on a spoon. One egg yolk does the work: its molecules… Food Science4 min read Why popcorn pops: a pea-sized pressure cooker that gives way at 180 °C A popcorn kernel is a pressure cooker the size of a pea. Its tough hull seals in about 14% water, so as the pan heats, the water cannot boil away and the… Food Science3 min read Why salt makes ice cream freeze: the cold that ice and salt create Ice is already cold, so why does salt make ice cream freeze? Because salt does not add cold. It stops the ice and water from staying in balance at 0 °C… Food Science3 min read Egg yolk sets at a lower temperature than the white. So why is it runny? An egg yolk sets at about 70 °C. Most of the white needs about 80 °C. So why does a soft-boiled egg come out with a firm white and a runny yolk? Because… Food Science4 min read