Understanding food production, whether it’s at home are in a factory, starts with science. Once you have a grasp on some of the more basic science concepts, which you can find below, a whole new world opens up!
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
When you prepare food you continuously change the states of our ingredients. You melt butter in a hot pan, boil down a runny stock into a thick syrupy consistency or transform a liquid custard into a solid tub of ice…
Think you need to be a molecular gastronomist, pr a chef at a fancy restaurant to try your hand at making food foams? Nothing could be further from the truth! Even though a lot of articles online write about these…
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…
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,…
