When chopping onions, propanethial-S-oxide is liberated. If this compound is not a chemical, what is it then? There are many misconceptions about chemicals, and one of the most common ones is that food should be “free” of chemicals. For example,…
Among dedicated whisky/whiskey drinkers it is customary to add a little water as this “helps to unlock and release the esters, or flavours, from the fats”. Another site claims that dilution helps “breaking down the ester chains and freeing the…
I’ve received the Thinking blogger award from Cocktail Party Physics, Nika’s culinaria, Jon’s travel adventures, Lab cat and Chadzilla now. Thanks a lot folks! I guess it’s my turn to hand the award on now. Here are five blogs I…
5. Learn how to control taste and flavor. When invited over to friends for dinner, even before eating, you judge the food by it’s aroma, handing out compliments such as “It really smells nice”! Thankfully, nature is on the cook’s…
The Scientist in an interview with Hervé This reports that: Recently, New York University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Kent Kirshenbaum teamed up with chef Will Goldfarb to bring experts together to discuss the intersection of science, cooking and eating. Often…
The New York Academy of Sciences has an interesting series on the Science of Food. On April 10th Hervé This, a pioneer of molecular gastronomy, talked about “Dinner: The Final Frontier”. An interview with This and the other speakers is…
Google can be of great help when exploring flavour pairings, especially for those of us who don’t have access to the commercial database VCF. The following tip has been mentioned in a comment to a previous blog post, but I…
Were you told by your mom to chew each mouthful 20 or 32 times before swallowing? Her rationale was perhaps to prevent you from choking. But it turns out there is a link between chewing (or mastication) and release of…
Heston Blumenthal has investigated how sound affects chewing, but I didn’t know that sound was so important for how we perceive the taste of apples. Studying particularily crisp apples, named Jazz apples, researchers found the following: Professor Povey said, “When…
In a comment to my post on making carbonated fruit the iSi way, JoJo at eat2love made me aware of a company, FizzyFruit, that actually sells carbonated fruit in pressurized containers. The fruits currently available are grapes, honeydew and cantaloupe.…
