Cooking is an act and it's preparation is a work of art just like it is science. You know you cannot take away the fact that everything that has to be done for us to have a well prepare meal is a work of science, from boiling, frying, backing, and microwaving. It is a product of science, and I want to explain them to you today.
There is no doubt Liquid Nitrogen is used to freeze food very quickly but you often just see it as one of those normal things that is meant to happen but this isn't the case, it is a work of science. Nitrogen is a gas but it exists as liquid at a very low temperature usually below 1950C. This allows for the quick icing of your ice cream compared to the traditional method and it is known as Flash Freezing. This same method can be used to preserve foods as the solidifying of the food can destroy the structure of the cells.
When we eat some type of food combination, we wonder why they are so good and palatable while some other type of food combinations are terrible and shouldn't be tried alongside. This is known as Food Pairing and it has to do with the molecular component of foods. From bread and butter, to every other type of combo that is palatable to you. With science we know that when we eat, chemical compounds stimulate receptors of the taste buds on the tongue which then send the information to the brain. As the tongue does its part, the nose does a good part as well in getting the flavor of the food as the aroma compound in the food stimulate the olfactory receptors in the nose. When we eat food of the same aroma compounds, the same olfactory receptors are triggered which complements one another and these types of foods are matched perfectly using Gas Chromatography Coupled Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Using Gas Chromatography Coupled Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), scientists vaporizes food samples, separating the chemical component of the food after which the components are measured by mass to be able to identify which is responsible for flavor so chefs can be able to combine ingredients with similar aroma compounds together. Have you marveled at how cotton candies are made and how thing they look; well, you might be surprise if I tell you that it is made from the same sugar that you know but its making is all a work of science and not art. Sugar is the main ingredient and although it might contain coloring to give it the colors you like or flavors to help your olfactory and taste buds but it still remains sugar. To get it, Sucrose (Table sugar) is heated to about 1850C which is about its melting point causing the sugar crystal to break down and become individual sugar molecules causing the sugar mixture to liquefy into syrup form. Since Cotton candy are literally centrifuge machine with a hole in the middle, the liquid sugar is allowed to pass through the hole by outward inertia force into a collection area as strands of the sugar at about 50 micrometer in diameter which becomes cool immediately. Your stick in it along with a swirling will give you your sweet cotton candy. I might not be able to mention so many, but when next you see that chef of yours making steaks for you or doing any other food combination, I need you to be certain that Science is involved and in fact, everything is science. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep00196
wikimedia
https://food-hacks.wonderhowto.com/news/flash-freeze
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cryogenic-cooking/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemical-engineering/liquid-nitrogen
https://www.foodpairing.com/the-science-behind-great-ingredient-pairings/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/24684-taste-buds
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982213004181
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences
https://theraptorlab.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/the-science-of-cotton-candy/
https://www.acs.org/education/chemmatters/past-issues
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