Food Science

Cookery is simple applied organic chemistry.

there is some very interesting, and often difficult, chemistry around the science of food and its preparation.

Here are a few simple demonstrations that illustrate a few areas of food chemistry. More will follow.

(All except the ester formation are low hazard so no risk assessment is needed)

Changing chocolate – A demonstration of different crystal dructures of cocoa butter.

Esters – A quick synthesis of some esters found in pear drops.

Esters – risk assessment

Maillard reaction – A simple demonstration of one of the factors affecting Maillard reactions.

Structural Subtlety – Demonstration of how the human nose can distinguish enantiomers of carvone.

Taste and aroma – Simple demonstration of the importance of aroma in what we normally consider to be taste.

Taste and genetics – Using simple test papers to investigate the genetics of taste.

Toothpaste and orange juice – The chemistry and physiology explaining why orange juice tastes so horrible after you have brushed your teeth.