How does the ingredient you experimented with affect the food's overall characteristics? In many fruits including apples there is a fiber called pectin that is present in fruits, pectin acts as a glue for the plant world. When going down into the molecular level pectin contains a long chain of polysaccharide molecules that bond together to form a gummy like paste. Polysaccharide is a carbohydrate that consists of a big amount of sugars that are bonded together. In a regular muffin recipe it calls for butter, or in other words fat. Fat when baking is a lipid so that means that the butter is keeping the flour from getting to watery. Since applesauce is not a lipid like butter, you think that the batter would be way to watery. Due to the fact that it doesn’t keep the flour from getting to watery. However applesauce and pectin work differently. Instead of adding more moisture to the batter by adding applesauce, the applesauce will challenge the flour for the water. Through that process the muffin is able to have a nice fluffy and moist consistency over a muffin made with butter. In what way(s) are cooking and doing science similar and in what way(s) are they different? How are a cook and a food scientist similar or different? There are so many ways that science and cooking are similar, we could almost call cooking just science. Sometimes it doesn’t always have to be the food cooking it can be the procedure before you cook your food and so much more. Some ways cooking is similar to science is by the way we measure out our ingredients. For both science and baking measurements is key, they have to be accurate in order to get a successful product. Without science in cooking chefs can’t be successful, they need to understand what chemical reactions make the best product and how mixing certain ingredients can change the outcome. When cooking there is always something on the molecular level occurring, most of the time due to heat, chemical reactions occur or something else. Personally for me finding a difference between science and cooking is challenging. I can see some small ways but how I see it there is science in all cooking. However some differences would be that there isn’t as much safety caution in cooking than science. You don’t have to wear goggles cause you are not handling toxic chemicals and with cooking you can eat the food you made. A scientist and cook are similar in many ways, cooks need to be educated on the science behind food in order to make a good tasting meal. They don’t go through the same schooling or education route but, they carry similar knowledge. As well as dealing with many measurements and conversions. |
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