Chemistry of Food and Cooking "The Chemistry of Meringues"
How can we measure the qualities and desirability of a finished recipe both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to determine the success of our recipe experimentation?
Measuring the desirability of a finished recipe is very important. The use of both quantitative data and qualitative data when considering how good, and how desirable a finished recipe can be.
Quantitative data is important when looking at how food should taste, when experimenting with different amounts of ingredients, or cooking times, it is very good to know what is happening chemically when different amounts of ingredients are added to food. Take for example, the meringue project that I completed this semester. Quantitatively, I was dealing with the importance of cream of tartar in preventing egg whites from collapsing when whipped. Different amounts of cream of tartar created batter that was either hard and fluffy, or soft and watery. By using different ratios of ingredient:ingredient, quantitative testing can make the best recipe possible.
Qualitative data is important when looking at how food does taste. Any recipe can be modeled to make the product the hardest, the fluffiest, or the crunchiest. However, taste is very different. The overall taste of a product is the most important factor when considering the desirability of a finished recipe. By using people to qualitatively test a recipe, the most desirable recipe can be found, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
In what way(s) is cooking like doing science and in what way(s) are they different? How are a cook and a food scientist similar or different?
To be completely fair, cooking is science. Even before basic scientific principles were established, cooking used things like; experimental design, use of the scientific method, and using reactions to dictate results. When humans began cooking, we began using science as well. For hundreds of years, people have used taste to dictate the success of recipes, which is a scientific testing principal. If a recipe tastes good, or helps sickness, or helps one gain energy, it is considered a success. All iterations of the recipe are discarded, and one, remarkable, beneficial product remains.
That being said, cooking has always been a huge part of human culture. French cooking is very different from Russian cooking. Humans have used food as a means to congregate, bond, and socialize. Science does none of that for humanity. Though important relationships are created through the practice of science, scientific relationships are not a foundation of human culture. Science is a foundation of culture, but the human relationships that result from science are not.
Cooks use emotion, and feeling to make food, but they also use scientific experimentation, and human feedback to improve recipes. This makes them the culmination of what a scientist practices, and what an artist practices. They are an important part of any society. Scientists provide the foundation of scientific principles that humans use every day, but cooks do not provide any principles that help the human race on a daily basis.
Measuring the desirability of a finished recipe is very important. The use of both quantitative data and qualitative data when considering how good, and how desirable a finished recipe can be.
Quantitative data is important when looking at how food should taste, when experimenting with different amounts of ingredients, or cooking times, it is very good to know what is happening chemically when different amounts of ingredients are added to food. Take for example, the meringue project that I completed this semester. Quantitatively, I was dealing with the importance of cream of tartar in preventing egg whites from collapsing when whipped. Different amounts of cream of tartar created batter that was either hard and fluffy, or soft and watery. By using different ratios of ingredient:ingredient, quantitative testing can make the best recipe possible.
Qualitative data is important when looking at how food does taste. Any recipe can be modeled to make the product the hardest, the fluffiest, or the crunchiest. However, taste is very different. The overall taste of a product is the most important factor when considering the desirability of a finished recipe. By using people to qualitatively test a recipe, the most desirable recipe can be found, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
In what way(s) is cooking like doing science and in what way(s) are they different? How are a cook and a food scientist similar or different?
To be completely fair, cooking is science. Even before basic scientific principles were established, cooking used things like; experimental design, use of the scientific method, and using reactions to dictate results. When humans began cooking, we began using science as well. For hundreds of years, people have used taste to dictate the success of recipes, which is a scientific testing principal. If a recipe tastes good, or helps sickness, or helps one gain energy, it is considered a success. All iterations of the recipe are discarded, and one, remarkable, beneficial product remains.
That being said, cooking has always been a huge part of human culture. French cooking is very different from Russian cooking. Humans have used food as a means to congregate, bond, and socialize. Science does none of that for humanity. Though important relationships are created through the practice of science, scientific relationships are not a foundation of human culture. Science is a foundation of culture, but the human relationships that result from science are not.
Cooks use emotion, and feeling to make food, but they also use scientific experimentation, and human feedback to improve recipes. This makes them the culmination of what a scientist practices, and what an artist practices. They are an important part of any society. Scientists provide the foundation of scientific principles that humans use every day, but cooks do not provide any principles that help the human race on a daily basis.
Energy and the Environment
POST PROJECT REFLECTION
The way that the majority of the world gets its electricity, is through fossil fuel combustion and consumption. When fossil fuels are burnt, they release by-products into the atmosphere, the gasses that they release are generally heavier than air. When energy from the sun enters the earth’s atmosphere, some energy is bounced back onto earth by the ozone layer, but when by products from fossil fuel combustion enter the atmosphere, excess energy is trapped between the earth and the atmosphere. This effect works in ways similar to a greenhouse, extra layers of material trap heat. The effect that results from the combustion of fossil fuels is called the greenhouse effect.
Scientists and engineers play a very important role in today’s society. It is important to continue our understanding and appreciation for the world we live in, scientists not only collect data about the world, but they advertise their data in a way that allows for politicians, and citizens to make changes. Engineers take data and make innovative solutions to shared problems. Without scientists and engineers we would not have an informed, or fact based society.
Clean energy is important to sustaining life on this planet. We must start with innovations in science and energy in order to fix the environmental atrocities that the human race has been committing since the industrial revolution. We cannot reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that has already been emitted into the atmosphere, but we can halt future greenhouse gas emission via innovations in energy production.
The way that the majority of the world gets its electricity, is through fossil fuel combustion and consumption. When fossil fuels are burnt, they release by-products into the atmosphere, the gasses that they release are generally heavier than air. When energy from the sun enters the earth’s atmosphere, some energy is bounced back onto earth by the ozone layer, but when by products from fossil fuel combustion enter the atmosphere, excess energy is trapped between the earth and the atmosphere. This effect works in ways similar to a greenhouse, extra layers of material trap heat. The effect that results from the combustion of fossil fuels is called the greenhouse effect.
Scientists and engineers play a very important role in today’s society. It is important to continue our understanding and appreciation for the world we live in, scientists not only collect data about the world, but they advertise their data in a way that allows for politicians, and citizens to make changes. Engineers take data and make innovative solutions to shared problems. Without scientists and engineers we would not have an informed, or fact based society.
Clean energy is important to sustaining life on this planet. We must start with innovations in science and energy in order to fix the environmental atrocities that the human race has been committing since the industrial revolution. We cannot reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that has already been emitted into the atmosphere, but we can halt future greenhouse gas emission via innovations in energy production.