Blog posts

Anova Nano
How Food is Made

An introduction to sous vide cooking

It shows up in any cooking competition, or fancy restaurants. There’s even cookbooks devoted to it: sous vide cooking. Sous vide cooking seems to be the perfect match for food scientists and engineers. Cooking in...

December 8, 2018
6 min read
Anova Nano side view
Review

Sous vide cooking – Reviewing the Anova Nano

If you’re a food scientist, it almost seems unavoidable to dive into the world of sous vide cooking. Sous vide cooking has been quite the rage for a while for chefs and food enthusiasts. Apparently, it’s the...

December 8, 2018
6 min read
pulling the pulled pork
Understanding Recipes

Pulled Pork Science

Have you ever wonder why you can pull pulled pork into a lot of tiny strands? Why it’s so different from a quickly grilled pork chop? Why it isn’t tough, but soft and tender (despite having been cooked for...

December 8, 2018
7 min read
Victoria sandwich with cranberry jam and icing sugar
Food History

Victoria sandwich – History & science of a cake

The Victoria sandwich is one of those bakes with a very rich history to it. It is believed to have been (one of) Queen Victoria’s favorite cake(s). It is a round cake of two layers with jam in the middle. As is...

December 4, 2018
4 min read
hot water crust pastry hand shaped
Understanding Recipes

Hot water crust pastry

If there’s one completely new thing I learned from the show Great British Bake Off, it’s hot water crust pastry. I had never heard of the term before watching the show. Although, looking back, I did have...

November 23, 2018
5 min read
on food and cooking cover
Review

On Food and Cooking (Harold McGee) – A book review

If I could recommend just one book to someone interested to learn more about food & science, it would be On Food and Cooking (affiliate link), by Harold McGee. It is more of an encyclopedia than anything and covers...

November 17, 2018
5 min read
Babka, half a circular babka swirled with chocolate
Understanding Recipes

4 ways to shape a bread with a filling

Bread can be as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. You can make a perfectly fine loaf from just flour, water, salt and yeast, shaped into a nice simple boule (or not shaped at all and just put into a baking...

November 13, 2018
7 min read