Chemistry of Food and Cooking “Easy, Breazy, Beautiful, Lemon Bars”
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There are a variety of different methods to measure the success of your recipe experimentation, but it depends on your recipe design and the variables you are testing. In my groups case, we attempted to change the acidity of lemon bars by making batches with some different concentrations of lemon juice and water. In addition to this test, we did a series of taste tests where we asked participants to determine which one was more sour, and which one was the best. We expected the results of each to positively correlate due to a study that we found dictating that acidity levels and sourness positively correlate, ergo validating our experiment.
This is a good way to acquire different types of data that support each other, and although the qualitative experiments differed depending on the food choice, as long as they validate the experiment by correlating to the taste test results or different outcomes, it can be a sound experiment. However a good taste test will have to have different scientific reactions of the food before testing to better understand why the results happened the way they did. We looked heavily into protein folding and unfolding and emulsion to understand how the different amounts of lemon juice could alter the experiment. The results showed that people liked the 50/50 better, and our investigation found that while in the oven proteins would begin to unfold due to the lemon juice General science and cooking are two realms in which you are combining substances as well as creating an environment in which a reaction can occur. This entails finding a recipe to follow in order to create the most efficient and balanced creation. With the different substances also comes different methods to mix or prepare them. In addition to this, there are studies sent out and surveys conducted to find the ideal experiment, and more often than not, both are conducted for monetary gain. We need food to survive and like to prepare it in various different ways and in fact are the only animals to do so in the history of this earth. We also need science as a way to objectively view the world and understand the nitty gritty details of our existence. However, these two realms of science do have some key differences, one being science takes more precision and is typically done using a smaller amount of ingredients which can produce potentially hazardous situations, requiring safety equipment to be used. In addition, cooking can be done almost anywhere nowadays and you don't need to be as exact with your measurements, and you can experiment with the recipe and add in different ingredients to yield different tastes. Either way you look at it, both cooking and general science have many similarities and clear differences. |