So far, I’ve really enjoyed the learning in our Food Chemistry course. It has really forced me to recall knowledge and rules from all the different chemistry/biology courses I’ve taken and use them explain the experiments we’re doing in class. The small class size (5 students total!) makes it a comfortable and easy-going environment and the course material is introducing me to a world of applied chemistry outside of medicine. Also we get to eat our experiments, which is definitely a plus.
In week 1, we learned a bit about how flavor can be extended beyond our gustatory system to our other four senses. Sensory receptors in our nose, the texture of food, color of food, and our associated memories all play a factor in how we perceive and experience flavor. These are the factors a chef must consider to create a masterpiece.
We also did an experiment explaining how alkalinity can be used to maintain the greenness in vegetables. Slightly acidic cooking environments, can break the ligand between Mg+ and N in chlorophyll and replace the Mg+ with H’s, causing the vegetable to lose its green color and giving it a yellow hue. Adding a bit of baking soda in the water creates a basic cooking environment, therefore the acidic reaction does not occur as abundantly.
The last experiment we did was flavor partitioning in green beans/asparagus. Through this experiment, we learned that green beans contain more oil-soluble/water-insoluble “flavor” molecules, while asparagus contains more water-soluble “flavor” molecules. Solubility rules explain why it is perhaps better to cook green beans in water and asparagus in oil.
Although we did not go into the details of the complex chemistry behind each experiment , it was enlightening and really cool to see how basic solubility rules and acid/base chemistry can be used and has been used to create tasty meals for generations.
In week 2, we did 2 experiments:
The first experiment, mashed and centrifuged 2 types of peas– canned and frozen. We had to sneak our edibles into the labs and use the large rotors to properly centrifuge our mushed peas. We found that, using different densities and gravity, we could separate the frozen peas into 3 layers– juice, paste, and grinds and the canned peas into 2 layers- salty juice and thick paste. It was really interesting to all the different tastes the 2 types of preparation produced
The second experiment, we tested the browning of apples by placing them in water, boiling water, lemon water (acid), and air. It was obvious that the lemon water preserved the whiteness of our red delicious apple even after 30 minutes. Again we can see acid/base chemistry at work here again.
Anyway, I’m having a great time in this course so far and it has been really exciting for me to learn and work with the group of girls in the course. 🙂