The Science of Cooking
How many times have you automatically added a spoonful of olive oil and some salt to your boiling pasta pot or wondered why you heat the oil in a pan before adding that pile of minced garlic and string beans? There are many rituals we practice in our kitchens that were either handed down when we learned to cook or we read about in an article or heard on the tube.
A couple days ago Kenneth Chang of the New York Times delved into the reasons we do these things in an article. Yes, science. That's what all these actions break down to. There are reasons to add the salt, sugar or oil.
Chang interviewed a few writers, such as biochemist Shirley O. Corriher, author of Cookwise and Bakewise, two books that look into the science of how food cooks and how it can improve your skills; and Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, who talks about how cooking beans with sugar actually changes the beans' chemistry.
Not noted in the article is the 2002 book What Einstein Told His Cook by Robert L. Wolke, which outlines this subject in great detail.
Are there any scientific food rituals you find yourself doing?
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8 Comments:
Don't add oil to your pasta water. The sauce won't adhere to the pasta properly.
bobbob at 3:26PM on 01/07/09
Good article. I just love Shirley. She totally reminds me of my Mom. Both in looks and mannerisms.
I also agree with bobbob. I think it was Mario Batali that I heard say never add oil to pasta water. #1, it doesn't prevent the pasta from sticking together & #2 it coats it with oil when you take it out of the water.
You should add salt to the water however, but you need to add much more than most people think. A pinch of salt won't do squat. A couple of tablespoons in a full pot will help to season the pasta. Also, contrary to popular opinion, adding salt to the water will not increase the boiling point of the water significantly enough to really do anything. To increase the boiling point of 6 qts of water by approx 1 deg Fahrenheit, you will need to add 18 tablespoons of salt! (58 grams of salt/kilogram of water = +.5 deg C increase in boiling point.)
FullOn at 3:59PM on 01/07/09
I'm sure everyone that reads this site knows this, but if this stuff interests you, you have to watch Good Eats (on Food Network) with Alton Brown. It's basically stuff from the Corriher and McGee books, but in an amusing tv show.
It's by far my favorite show on that channel.
jumpyfroggy at 4:13PM on 01/07/09
@jumpyfroggy -- many of us here are Alton lovers. He's my foodie science hottie fantasy man.
As for food science rituals, I'm not sure if this counts, but I love how anything room temp liquid added to a searing hot pan full of crusty bits makes a delightful pan sauce and gets all of those bits up off the bottom...especially wine or sherry....added at juuuust the right moment. Science? Perhaps not. Amazing? Absolutely.
juliebugsmama at 4:19PM on 01/07/09
I love gelatin filtration for making consommé. I have used transglutaminase a few times for bonding meat. Making pearls using sodium alginate and calcium lactate is a lot of fun. Foaming stuff with xanthan gum is cool. On a simpler level, I used to be a pan shaker and would get annoyed that stuff didn't brown, so learning about the maillard process was a revelation. Using baking soda to increase pH speeds up the maillard process, which is a neat trick I've picked up and it makes a huge difference when roasting a chicken (crispy skin.) Understanding how emulsions work is also key for making sauces and dressings. Using sugar, salt and/or acid to cook without heat is also pretty great... Lots of stuff to learn and do!
simon at 4:37PM on 01/07/09
I wonder (without judgment) how many reiterations of this article we will need before these myths are sufficiently debunked.
To most of us here who are into cooking and reading about cooking, this is old news (and for a smaller subsection of us, making foams and pearls is also old news).
But I wonder what and how long it will take for "don't put oil in the pasta water" to be as obvious as "don't scramble eggs in a stainless steel pan."
renzata at 9:15PM on 01/07/09
I was listening to Shirley on NPR over the holiday break. She was talking about the chemistry involved in baking cookies. Fascinating stuff, and of course, I would love to read a copy of her book, Bakewise. I remember learning how to cook muffins and how you had to do certain things to avoid getting tunnels and peaks. I wish I remembered. Some things you want tunnels in - like english muffins, but a true muffin like banana, oat bran, or blueberry, you want to try not to have any tunnels. Also, you don't want the tops of the muffins too pointy. Ok, now I'm thinking of an old Seinfeld episode where Elaine was selling muffin tops and didn't know what to do with the rest of the muffin...but I digress. Thanks for the great article.
jaywarner at 6:48PM on 01/10/09
Interesting! Love learning new things.....
veginbk at 2:37PM on 01/14/09