Tag: Food Science | Apartment Therapy

Food Science: Why Sweet Potatoes Are Sweet

Sweet potatoes are a vegetable-hater's dream: what could be better than a potato that tastes like candy? But sweet potatoes aren't that way to begin with. They need a little extra help to transform th...

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
Book Review 2009

If you're the type of cook who needs to know why onions make us cry and gets curious about the molecular structure of melting sugar, then this is definitely the book for you. It has become our #1 refe...

Can't Take the Heat? How to Eat Spicy Foods

Sweating, flushed face, light-headed, fiery mouth? Yup, you've been eating chili peppers! Here's how to eat spicy foods without going into complete shock - and even how you might build up your toleran...

What's In This Mushroom Casserole?
Anatomy of a Recipe

We all have those recipes that we go back to again and again. They're so good and satisfying, and they come out perfectly every single time. Ever wonder why? Today, we're taking a look at one of our f...

Why Spicy Foods Taste Hotter As You Eat
Food Science

The first bite of a spicy curry or extra-hot salsa never seems so bad. Neither does the second. But as we keep eating, that heat slowly builds and builds. It ends up being the last bite that just abou...

Tip for Better Chilled Dishes: Add More Flavor!

We've definitely been eating our fair share of cold soups, pasta salads, and chilled desserts these past few weeks. One trick to making these kinds of dishes satisfying is to give them a just a little...

Help! What To Do With an Over-Active Starter?
Good Questions

Q: About a month or so ago I decided my bread making skills had improved enough to try keeping a starter. I followed Alton Brown's starter recipe and put the whole thing in a mason jar in my fridge. W...

Food Science: The Best Eggs for Meringue and Why

When we talked about making pavlovas last week, one thing we didn't really get into was the best kind of egg whites to use for the meringue. Fresh or old, room-temperature or cold - does it make a dif...

Food Science: The Seasoning on Cast Iron Cookware

We've been cooking with a cast iron skillet for years now and we absolutely love it. We take care to clean it properly and are religious about keeping it seasoned. But in all these years, we've always...

Food Science: Why Salad Greens Wilt

On a hot summer evening, a big leafy salad for dinner sounds just about perfect. That is, until the greens start to wilt and the dressing gets all watery. We always figured this phenomenon had somethi...

Food Science: Why Carbonated Soda Explodes When Shaken

As kids, we always thought it was a pretty funny joke to shake up a bottle of soda and leave it for the next unsuspecting person. Our sense of humor has improved since then, happily - and we've gotten...

Food Science: Why Mashed Potatoes and Blenders Don't Mix

When we're making a big batch of mashed potatoes, it's awfully tempting to just throw them in the blender instead of going to the trouble of mashing them by hand. If you've ever actually done this, yo...

Food Science: Why Skin Forms on Milk

For us, the chewy skin that forms on the top of puddings has always been a special treat. It actually wasn't until culinary school that we learned it wasn't as universally desirable as we'd thought! W...

Cheese: On Melting
The Cheesemonger

When cooking with cheese, there's nothing much worse than choosing the wrong cheese for the wrong application. Mozzarella's not great as a finisher atop pasta in the same way that parmesan is, for exa...

Food Science: Why Lemon Makes Milk Curdle

When we first got curious about this question after making Jamie Oliver's chicken-in-milk recipe, we had no idea how complicated the answer would turn out to be. It definitely requires a trip back to ...

Good Question: How to Make Soft Hamburger Buns?

Andrea sent us this question about making soft bread – a good one for the picnic season! I know that crusty bread is all the rage but I sometimes I really just want to make soft burger buns/rolls ...

Food Science: Why Bread Crusts Crack

Far from being a bad thing, hairline cracks like those in the photo above are the sign of a fantastic, shatteringly-crisp crust. We've heard that this is something to which many bakers actually aspire...

Food Science: Why Bagels are Boiled

We grew up on bagels, and taking a bite of that warm, ultra-chewy bread is still one of our favorite food experiences. Ask any good bagel baker and they'll tell you that the key to that chewy crust an...

Food Science: How Freeze Drying Works

Remember astronaut ice cream? Ever wonder how they managed to convert a creamy melty treat into a crumbly ice-cream-flavored block? As kids, we called it magic and left it at that. As adults, we're cu...

Food Science: Egg Substitutions in Cookies and Brownies

We recently received a question in our Kitchn inbox about substituting yolks for whole eggs in a cookie recipe. Baking is often more chemistry than anything else, so we thought we'd take a look at thi...

Food Science: Why Vinaigrettes Separate

As we passed a jar of vinaigrette around the table at a recent dinner party, one of the other guests asked if we knew why homemade vinaigrettes separated while most store-bought vinaigrettes didn't. T...

Food Science: How Starch Thickens

With just a few teaspoons of any starch, we can thicken soups, sauces, and puddings to exactly the consistency we want. They go from loose and watery to thick and creamy right before our eyes! Here's ...

Kitchen Cure Download: Food Storage Safety
The Kitchen Cure Spring 2009

Here's one more Kitchen Cure download for you as you restock your fridge and think about cooking for the coming week. We swiped some basic, very conservative food safety guidelines off the FDA's websi...

Food Science: Why Bread Stales

Did you know that bread actually begins staling almost the minute it comes out of the oven? Yes, you can thank a little chemical process called "starch retrogradation" for this particular effect! Howe...

Food Science: What's the Deal with Ultra-Pasteurization?

Regular pasteurization we can understand and even get on board with to a certain extent. Since the vast majority of our milk is still pooled from several different sources, it makes sense to take some...

apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Posts tagged “Food Science”