http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0112-chemistry_of_cooking.htm
Posted by Rebecca AmsterThursday, September 2, 2010
The Art of Cooking
The daily task to prepare food, professionally or at home, is actually all about chemistry. Cooking is a series of chemical reactions, making it very useful for chefs to know some basic chemistry. When chopped red cabbage is placed in a hot pan, the heat breaks down the red anthocyanine pigment. In turn, the pigment is changed from an acid to alkaline, which causes the color to change. Baking soda can change the pigment back to blue. Another type of reaction occurs when cooking vegetables like asparagus. When the tiny air cells on the surface hit boiling water the cells pop, causing them to turn a much brighter green. Lastly, if you ever are scrambling for a ripe avocado but all of them are far from ripening, place it in a paper bag with an apple. Apples give off ethylene gas, which will ripen an avocado overnight.
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I love to cook so I found this article especially interesting. I try to use chemistry in my cooking too. Like if you add salt to your water when you're making pasta it boils a bit faster.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I don't normally think about chemistry as I cook; however, this article was definitely interesting. Bananas also help to ripen fruit, in addition to the apples. If you go to a supermarket and the produce is close to the flowers, there's a good chance that the flowers won't live as long because of fruits giving off ethylene gas. You'd think that the market would have investigated that first.
ReplyDeleteI used to obliviously eat meals without thinking about the chemistry behind their composition and digestion. I was recently diagnosed with acid reflux and have to pay more attention to what I eat. I watch my intake of highly acidic foods such as citrus fruits and by drinking more water at meals, I am able to dilute my stomach acid. Also, there are antacids available that work to neutralize the acidity of the stomach. Tums, for example, contains calcium carbonate. All acid reflux sufferers do not respond the same way to specific foods or medications. Each meal is kind of like an experiment because I test how my body reacts to its contents.
ReplyDeleteEthylene gas is really interesting, as it is a hormone in a gaseous form, though it is not only produced by plants. It was orginally discovered when scientists noticed that trees near streetlights dropped their leaves prematurely; in 1901 a Russian Scientist showed that the gas causing the premature leaf dropping was ethylene. Ethylene also functions in the way plants move around obstacles, and in programmed cell death
ReplyDeleteI was unaware how much chemistry is involved in cooking before rading this article. I was intrigued how boiling vegetables, like asparagus, will cause the asparagus to be greener because the cells pop. It makes sense how a cabbage will turn red when vinegar is added because acids tend to turn things into a red color, and baking soda (which is a base) will turn pigments blue becaue a base is present.
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