Learn the science behind:
Don’t understand why a specific ingredient is a part of your recipe? Have no clue how to handle an ingredient? Or are you curious as to what happens to an ingredient in your application?
Then these posts are written for you! For a wide range of ingredients we investigate why they’re used (e.g. why add sour cream or zucchini to a cake), and just what they do in your application.
Knowing this will put you in a great spot for determining substitutions, whether it’s because of diet, costs, or availability of ingredients. We believe understanding your ingredients is the key to good cooking and food manufacturing!
Previous step: all these ingredients started out at a farm!
Custard ice cream, creme brulée, lemon meringue pie. They all rely on egg yolks. Without them, custards melt too quickly, creme brulées are runny, and the pie filling wouldn’t set. Egg yolks can thicken liquids. But, it’s a fine balance.…
A lot of cake recipes rely on eggs, or parts of an egg to succeed. Without them, the cake might not set or rise. Or the batter, or the final cake itself, turns out dry. But, if you design a…
Summer is zucchini time. And if you happen to be growing your own, you might well be faced with a zucchini overload. After zucchini soup, zucchini pastas, grilled zucchini salads, you might just start to run out of ideas. So…
Using pectin can be a great way to make a gummy – a bouncy, slightly translucent gel-like snack. A good gummy holds its shape and isn’t sticky. However, pectin can be a finicky ingredient to work with. It is prone…
A good sauce doesn’t just depend on its flavor. The consistency of that sauce is just as important. Is it runny and thin, or thick and gloopy? To control consistency, cooks all over the world have developed a wide range…
How you prepare broccoli doesn’t just affect its flavor. It also affects color, texture, and more. Do you cook it short or long, hot or dry? The final results can be very different! Using science, we compare 5 different ways…
Want to make ice cream without eggs? But only know how to make ice cream using an eggy custard? Don’t worry. There is a way to stay very close to your original recipe, but without the eggs. Instead, we’ll be…
Sometimes it’s amazing how a small process step can make such a big change in a food. Merely heating some butter, until it turns brown transform a yellow/white solid fat into a flavor bomb. It’s promoted from being just another…
Ice cream made with just 2 ingredients, made without using an ice cream maker, or even a stove? Real ice cream? Yes, you can make ice cream using only cream and sweetened condensed milk, in just 3 simple steps. Since…
Every year in August/September our pear trees give us a good supply of pears. They’re not the pretties, but sure are tasty. We have two types: Conference and Doyenne du Comice and once they start coming off that tree we…
It’s not the most common baking ingredient, but it shows up here and there. You might have come across it if you’re into baking cookies or cakes of a Northern European origin. Or, if you’re looking for gluten-free alternatives. It’s…
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…