Culinary reactions
Subtitle: the everyday chemistry of cooking
By: Simon Quellen Field
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Chicato, Ill
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 238
ISBN-13: 9781569767061
Subjects: COOKING / Reference; COOKING / Essays; Food; SCIENCE / Chemistry / General; Cooking; Analysis
Description: "When you're cooking, you're a chemist! Every time you follow or modify a recipe you are experimenting with acids and bases, emulsions and suspensions, gels and foams. In your kitchen you denature proteins, crystallize compounds, react enzymes with substrates, and nurture desired microbial life while suppressing harmful microbes. And unlike in a laboratory, you can eat your experiments to verify your hypotheses.  In Culinary Reactions, author Simon Field explores the chemistry behind the recipes you follow every day. How does altering the ratio of flour, sugar, yeast, salt, butter, and water affect how high bread rises? Why is whipped cream made with nitrous oxide rather than the more common carbon dioxide? And why does Hollandaise sauce fall for "clarified" butter? This easy-to-follow primer even includes recipes to demonstrate the concepts being discussed, including Whipped Creamsicle Topping (a foam), Cherry Dream Cheese (a protein gel), and Lemonade with Chameleon Eggs (an acid indicator). It even shows you how to extract DNA from a Halloween pumpkin. You'll never look at your graduated cylinders, Bunsen burners, and beakers. er, measuring cups, stovetop burners, and mixing bowls. the same way again"--

"When you're cooking, you're a chemist! Every time you follow or modify a recipe, you are experimenting with acids and bases, emulsions and suspensions, gels and foams. In your kitchen you denature proteins, crystallize compounds, react enzymes with substrates, and nurture desired microbial life while suppressing harmful microbes. And unlike in a laboratory, you can eat your experiments to verify your hypotheses. In CULINARY REACTIONS, author Simon Field explores the chemistry behind the recipes you follow every day. How does altering the ratio of flour, sugar, yeast, salt, butter, and water affect how high bread rises? Why is whipped cream made with nitrous oxide rather than the more common carbon dioxide? And why does Hollandaise sauce call for "clarified" butter? This easy-to-follow primer even includes recipes to demonstrate the concepts being discussed, including Whipped Creamsicle Topping (a foam), Cherry Dream Cheese (a protein gel), and Lemonade with Chameleon Eggs (an acid indicator). It even shows you how to extract DNA from a Halloween pumpkin. You'll never look at your graduated cylinders, Bunsen burners, and beakers--er, measuring cups, stovetop burners, and mixing bowls--the same way again"--
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Variations in recipes. Why sifted flour? -- Density and good eggs -- Calorie estimation -- Foams. Egg foams -- Chemistry lesson : how to read structural formulas -- Fat foams -- Gluten foams -- A bread recipe -- Leavening alternatives -- Chemistry lesson : ionic bonds -- Gelatin foam -- Chemistry lesson : covalent bonds -- Sugar foam -- Recipe : whipped creamsicle topping -- Emulsions. Why some things don't mix -- Emulsifying agents -- Chemistry lesson : hydrogen bonds -- Gum stabilizers -- Shortcuts and aids -- Hollandaise sauce -- Other emulsifiers -- Colloids, gels, and suspensions. Water-based colloids -- Starches -- Agar and agarose -- Pectin gels -- Protein gels -- Recipe : cherry dream cheese -- Oils and fats. Chemistry lesson : different ways to look at molecules -- Saturated fats -- Monounsaturated fats -- Polyunsaturated fats -- Chemistry lesson : kinky molecules -- Omega-3 and omega-6 fats -- Trans fats -- Solutions. Seltzer and temperature -- Syrups, broths, and other solutions -- Candy -- Liquors -- Crystallization. Sugar crystals -- Controlling the size of crystals -- Protein chemistry. Amino acids -- Chemistry lesson : four kinds of protein structure -- Denaturing proteins -- Milk -- Eggs -- Meat -- Enzymes -- Shortening -- Glutamate -- Cheese -- Recipe : Thanksgiving turkey -- Biology. Yeast -- Sourdough -- Yogurt -- Sour cream and cultured buttermilk -- Bleu cheese -- Wine and beer -- Preserving -- Recipe: DNA from your Halloween pumpkin -- Scaling recipes up and down. Surface-to-volume ratios -- Heat flow rates -- Solving the surface-to-volume problem -- Drying -- Timing -- Gravity -- Equipment -- Heating. Browning reactions -- Protein denaturing -- Volume reducing and drying -- Flavor producing -- Carcinogens -- Color changes -- Nutrition changes -- Leavening -- Acids and bases. Effect of acid and heat on sugar -- Effect of acid on proteins -- Cooking with acid -- Cooking with alkali -- pH-sensitive colors -- Sour sensing -- Recipe : lemonade with chameleon eggs -- Oxidation and reduction. Apples, avocados, and lemon juice -- Vinegar from wine -- Oxidation of oils and fats -- Chemistry lesson : how oxygen forms molecular bonds -- Antioxidants -- Boiling, freezing, and pressure. Altitude -- Raising the boiling point -- Pressure cookers -- Vacuum in canning jars -- Lowering the freezing point -- Making ice cream.