Want to win a copy of the Ultimate Cookie Handbook (by Tessa Arias)? Join our giveaway!
Category Food Chemistry Basics
Ever wondered why/how a banana browns, how a piece of meat gets those classic grill marks, why a broccoli is green (and can turn yellow or mushy green), why an orange is orange or how yeast ferments? All of those are questions that can be answered using food chemistry.
Food chemistry studies and analyzes molecules and their transformations/reactions in food.
However, before you can start doing these more complex analyses on your food, it’s useful to have your basics sorted. The articles you will find here do just that.
Considering doing a mini course on food chemistry? We’re offering one right here!
How to Measure the pH of Food Products (Using pH-Strips)
One of the most important properties of food products is their pH-value. It gives producers an insight into the shelf life of a product, how stable it might be over time, and how it reacts with other products. It’s what…
What Is Enzymatic Browning and How Can You Prevent It?
Once you’ve peeled your banana, you’d better eat it. Leave it unattended for a couple of hours and you’ll get back to an unappetizing brown banana. Same for apples, pears, avocados, and plenty of other fruits (and some more vegetables).…
The Science Behind Cooking Sugar Syrups For Candy Making
Making candy is often described as a science, requiring thermometers to boil that sugar syrup to the exact right temperature. Alternatively, you can cook the syrup to a prescribed stage, “cook to hard crack”, which can be daunting. If you…
The Science of Caramelization – Food Chemistry Basics
If you think of chemistry, you might be thinking of a lab, with people wearing white lab coats, where lots of complicated, maybe even dangerous chemicals are being mixed and tested by experienced chemists. You might almost forget that your…
How to Make Rock Sugar – Using Supersaturation Science
You might be familiar with the brightly colored version on a stick. Or you might regularly use it as a core ingredient in your (savory) Asian recipes. Or, you might use it to sweeten your tea. Rock sugar, or rock…
The Stages of Cooked Sugar Syrups (+ Their Science)
Whenever making caramel, marshmallows, honeycomb, or most other sugar candies you’ll need to bring a sugar syrup to the boil. Often, you’ll find very detailed instructions on just how to boil that syrup. You may be told to cook until a…
How to Measure the Color of Food
Would you buy a raw brown steak? What about a blue apple? Green coconut flakes? Or a grey orange? Probably not. If the color of food isn’t ‘right’ consumers won’t buy it anymore, even if it is perfectly safe and…
How Turmeric Gets its Color (& How to Make it Turn Red!)
The ‘secret’ behind that yellow dal, yellow rice, or beautifully colored curry? A decent chance that it’s turmeric. A mere teaspoon can help color a sauce or dish and it’s not just used in savory dishes. In some countries it…
Managing enzymes in food – Basics of enzyme science
Have you ever made a beautiful pesto blend, full of basil flavour, with a vibrant green colour, that didn’t look all that vibrant anymore the day after? Or left that peeled banana or sliced apple for a few hours to…
An Introduction to the pH-value of Foods (& Acid/Base Reactions)
Red cabbage juice changes colour when you add a squirt of lime juice or a spoonful of baking soda. Baking powder causes your cake to rise beautifully in the oven. You can ‘cook’ fish by adding lemon and lime juice,…
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) oxidation & Preventing vitamin C loss
Only a few centuries ago, European (and likely many others) seamen died by the dozens during months long sea voyages to the East. Trips to the East, essential for European traders to get those beloved spices, fabrics and other trading…
How baking powder & baking soda work – Chemistry of leavening agents
Ever forgot to add the baking powder or baking soda to your recipe? Or used baking soda and baking powder in your cake, only to discover it resulted in a flat cake? Baking powder & baking soda have a crucial role…