You might not think you ever need (or use) moisture sorption isotherms. But if your bag of (icing) sugar has started to clump or your pie crust started to go soggy, you’ve at least come across some of the phenomena…
The simplest of breads are made with just water and flour (such as a chapati). Add a little yeast and maybe some salt or fat and you can make a wide range of breads from a wide range of cultures…
One of the first foods I learned to cook is French toast. Don’t ask me why, but our school’s cooking classes started by teaching us how to make French toast. Of course, over the next several weekends, I wanted to…
If I had to choose only one type of food I’d be allowed to eat for the rest of my life, freshly baked bread would rank high on my list of contenders. The smell, whether it comes from a hot…
It is one of the most important parameters when determining the shelf life of foods. It’s what explains why your pie crust turns soggy over time. And it sounds more complicated than it is: water activity. For any food scientist,…
Ever wondered why you can’t store a peach at room temperature for several days, but why a peach flavored candy or peach jam will stay good for years? Or why fresh chilis may turn moldy in the fridge, whereas dried…
Have you ever thought about how major historical events relied on seemingly small inventions? Napoleon has Nicolas Appert to thank for his invention of canning. The US would have had a harder time in World War II without the invention…
“Making” milk from a cow is ‘easy’, that is, from a chemist’s perspective. All you have to do is feed and grow a cow, let her give birth and the cow will make milk all by herself. Your cow is…
Once you’ve decided which of the many rice dishes you want to cook and once you’ve decided which specific rice variety to use, you’ve got another decision to make. How to cook your rice? And, just as importantly, should you…
Ribs had never really been my favorite meal. Too much bone, too much sauce, too much salt, too much fat and too little good taste. That was, until we made spare ribs at home: tender meat, falling off the bone,…
This is a guest post by Karen Rutherford founder and editor-in-chief at the Cakedecorist. I was making cheesecake the other day and thought it could do with a strawberry sauce on top. So, I set out to boil down my…
The other day, having some rhubarb left and not wanting to make a rhubarb pie, cake or crumble (>90% of rhubarb recipes online seem to be for one of those!), I decided to try a rhubarb ice cream. I had…
