Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Field, Simon (Simon Quellen)

Culinary reactions : the everyday chemistry of cooking / Simon Quellen Field.

p. cm.

Includes index.

Summary: “When you’re cooking, you’re a chemist! Every time you follow or modify a recipe, you are experimenting with acids and bases, emulsions and suspensions, gels and foams. In your kitchen you denature proteins, crystallize compounds, react enzymes with substrates, and nurture desired microbial life while suppressing harmful microbes. And unlike in a laboratory, you can eat your experiments to verify your hypotheses. In CULINARY REACTIONS, author Simon Field explores the chemistry behind the recipes you follow every day. How does altering the ratio of flour, sugar, yeast, salt, butter, and water affect how high bread rises? Why is whipped cream made with nitrous oxide rather than the more common carbon dioxide? And why does Hollandaise sauce call for “clarified” butter? This easy-to-follow primer even includes recipes to demonstrate the concepts being discussed, including Whipped Creamsicle Topping (a foam), Cherry Dream Cheese (a protein gel), and Lemonade with Chameleon Eggs (an acid indicator). It even shows you how to extract DNA from a Halloween pumpkin. You’ll never look at your graduated cylinders, Bunsen burners, and beakers—er, measuring cups, stovetop burners, and mixing bowls—the same way again”—Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-1-56976-706-1 (pbk.)

1. Food—Analysis. 2. Cooking. I. Title.

TX545.F46 2012

664’.07—dc23

2011029366

Cover design: John Yates at Stealworks.com

Cover photograph: Sabine Scheckel/Photodisc/Getty Images

Interior design: Scott Rattray

© 2012 by Simon Quellen Field

All rights reserved

Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-56976-706-1

Printed in the United States of America

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