Want to win a copy of the Ultimate Cookie Handbook (by Tessa Arias)? Join our giveaway!
Category Understanding Ingredients
Once your food has been grown and harvested (or slaughtered), you’ve got your core ingredients, ready to be eaten or processed one step further. The core to really understand what happens next though, is that you really understand those ingredients. Understand why they are the way they are. Make sure you’re able to compare ingredients, and understand why they’re different and, very importantly, understand what their role is in your specific application.
Previous step: all these ingredients started out at a farm!
Next step: transform those ingredients, wherever necessary, into food through processing or cooking!
Sour Cream vs Creme Fraîche – Digging into Cultured Creams
In the Netherlands, sour cream and creme fraîche often share a shelf in the supermarket. They’re packaged in very similar packaging and even look and taste alike to some extent. But recipes can be very specific about using just one…
The Chemistry of Olive Oil (And Why It’s Stored in Green Bottles!)
Ever stood in front of the shelf spaces full of olive oil bottles and cans and wondered why there are so many different types of packaging? Non-transparent plastic bottles, slim and tall transparent plastic bottles, oils in greenish plastic, some…
Why Oxtail Is Perfect For Soup
For years I’d been making a family recipe for brown bean soup with a packet of dried oxtail soup, not thinking much about it. The soup always turned out great, with a lot of flavor. Never did I think twice…
Sweet vs. Popcorn vs. Tortilla Corn
Grilled corn on the cob, cornbread, popcorn, corn tortillas, none of these would exist if there had been no corn. But did you know that they all rely on slightly different types of corn? There are a lot more corn…
Why Does Popcorn Pop? – Popcorn Science
Whenever you’re popping corn, whether it’s in a microwave, or on the stovetop, your ears play a crucial role. At the start, the kernels are quiet, not a lot of going on and at some point, your start hearing popping…
Why Use (Black) Beans in Brownies?
Always looking for a new experiment, I decided to try my hand at some black bean brownies the other day. Looking for a fun variation on brownies, and having some left-over sweet potato, I ended up making sweet potato-black bean…
Science of Urad Beans (+ Medu Vada recipe)
When looking into scientific literature you will find that some ingredients have been researched very intensely, whereas others have barely received any attention at all! Western staple ingredients such as wheat and potatoes have millions of hits when searching for…
How to Make Oat Milk Pancakes
Just because you are allergic to milk, use less dairy milk out of concern for the environment doesn’t mean you can’t eat pancakes anymore! It so happens, pancakes don’t really need (cow’s) milk. They’re actually very flexible regarding the type…
Why Carrots Are Used in Cake (& Carrot Walnut Cake Recipe)
Not that many years ago, my only reference to carrot cake was a Dutch joke. It involved a baker and a rabbit, who does not like carrot cake, though makes the baker think he does. In all honesty, a carrot…
How to Use Moisture Sorption Isotherms in Food
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…
How to Determine The Quality of Wheat (Flour)
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…
Should You Rinse Rice? – The Science of Cooking Rice
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…