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Chemical & Engineering News
Science & Technology
July 7, 2008
Volume 86, Number 27
pp. 26-30
Kitchen Chemistry
Our love of food is helping bring science to the masses
Lisa M. Jarvis
".....Philosophical discussions on the place of science in cooking aside, ECC [Experimental Cuisine
Collective] is helping to shift the conversation about chemistry and food away from merely an exercise in the esoteric—how to use sodium alginate to make faux caviar or how to use liquid nitrogen to make ice cream—toward one that is accessible to a wider audience.
For example, Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of "The Cake Bible" and "The Bread Bible," presented an amazingly comprehensive explanation of flour during the group's January meeting. Bread is about as basic as it gets in terms of its ingredients, but the baking process itself is quite complex. She went through the wide varieties of flour, how they differ in terms of protein content, which can range from 8 to 14%, and what that means in terms of texture, flavor, and lift. She threw out phrases and words like "phenolic acid," which is responsible for the bitterness of whole wheat flour, and "glutenin" and "gliadin," the two proteins in flour that form gluten. She went on to explain how the ratio of those proteins influences the density of bread because gluten can absorb three times its weight in water. In the end, she made the perfect sponge cake, weighing and timing the addition of ingredients with the precision of an analytical chemist.
The roughly 80 audience members—some chefs, but many simply fans of baking and of Levy Beranbaum's cookbooks—were surprisingly well versed in the science of their craft. They also appeared genuinely interested in thinking about the chemistry of the baking process and how to apply science to get better results in the kitchen.
That kind of discussion—troubleshooting in the kitchen, defining the chemical makeup of ingredients, considering how those ingredients interact, and introducing concepts like reproducibility and hypothesis testing—is what Kirshenbaum hopes ECC can encourage. Although others involved in the group may have different goals, his primary objective is to engage a wider audience in chemistry."
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Hi all,
If you would like some more information about/from the Experimental Cuisine Collective, the New York Academy of Sciences just posted a podcast featuring some of the ECC's founders. In the Podcast, Kent Kirschenbaum, one of the founders of the group and a biochemist at NYU, talks generally about what they're doing and why, as well as detailing some of the areas that they are studying. It’s pretty cool, so I thought it was something everyone on this blog might be interested in.
You can check it out here: http://www.nyas.org/snc/podcastdetail.asp?id=1832
Reply to this Posted by: Mike | July 21, 2008 12:20 PM #
Thank you Patrincia ;)
Reply to this Posted by: Barbara | July 12, 2008 6:41 PM #
Cool - :).
Reply to this Posted by: Patrincia | July 12, 2008 12:32 PM #
Margaret, I know what you mean. When I tell people I have a degree in physics they usually say something similar. (The hardest one to answer is "Oh, you must be really smart." Do I say "yes" which sounds arrogant and in fact is only true for certain limited definitions of smart, or say "no" which would be false modesty?) Once in a while I get the "Cool!" reaction and it is always a pleasant surprise!
Reply to this Posted by: Barbara | July 11, 2008 8:37 PM #
Thanks for the link to the article. I haven't opened this week's C&E News yet.
I'm an analytical chemist, and I appreciate Rose's books because they read like they were put together by an analytical chemist. Her measurements are very precise, she explains the science, and any time I wonder about something (e.g. how much time it takes to cool bread dough in the refrigerator?), she has already done the experiment to answer my question.
I'm proud of my profession, but usually when I tell people what I do, I get, "I hated that in high school." Last month, for the first time in my career, in my baking class, someone said, "Cool!" when I said I was a chemist. I'm so happy that more people are becoming interested in chemistry because of their interest in food.
Keep educating us, Rose!
Reply to this Posted by: Margaret | July 10, 2008 10:15 AM #
What a great article and worth credit to Rose!
Although I excelled in math and chemistry during high school, I know what it means to fall sleep to it.
I often tutored my friends and also at home to ALL my cousins. I was always in high demand. I always asked why can't you do the math or the chemistry? They answered "because I don't find a practical application, it isn't tangible, I can eat numbers, neither touch sin, cosin or tangent, nor smell the periodic table's rare elements."
And I agreed with them and answered "sometimes you just need to do math or do chemistry just for doing it even if you will never feel it or use it in real life." The ones that listened to my saying improved their grades.
The minute I was given The Cake Bible nearly 20 years ago, I noticed that THIS BOOK was like no other. It was like my chemistry teacher showing me how to bake.
I don't think I will attempt to make liquid nitrogen ice cream or artificial caviar. Learning that will make me fall asleep, but I will still learn it because sometimes you just need to do it for doing it even I will never feel it or use it in real life!
Ok, I have no idea what is my point writing the above. Just wanted to share my personal experience in science.
Last night my sister asked me where to get lard. She found a recipe to make Chinese custard mini pies. She asked "can I use shortening?" I said yes, you will get similar or even greater results, but the taste won't be there nor the health. I also told her don't be fooled with shortening, because although it can be cholesterol free, low calorie, and trans fat free, it isn't as good for your health as lard or butter... just have small quantities! So I told her, go to Chinatown's meat market and buy fresh pig or chicken fat and render your own lard!
Reply to this Posted by: Hector | July 9, 2008 8:21 PM #
In high school, I used to fall asleep during chemistry class. But now, I find Rose's discussions of baking chemistry very interesting. I'm also a huge fan of Harold McGee and Shirley Corriher, both of whom present explanations at the molecular level. My favorite part of kitchen science is that I get to eat the results.
Reply to this Posted by: Christine S. | July 9, 2008 7:07 PM #