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Cooking Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [chemistry]

Questions about the chemical composition or properties of ingredients and dishes.

186 questions
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what makes red tomato sauce turn orange in colour?

I have noticed that tomato sauce (having started with deep red tomatoes) can turn orange. The colour change isn't from mixing in an ingredient of different colour such as cream. It seems to occur in these observed circumstances: Blended using a…
MandoMando
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Is there a way to dilute oil?

I like to drink protein shakes, but I find that it's very hard to dissolve the protein powder into water or milk. You get clumps, and unless you want to get your blender dirty or spend ten minutes whisking you're out of luck. Recently I've started…
A. Kriegman
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What determines the 'saltiness' of salt?

I've bought two brands of salt that are completely different in terms of 'salt' concentration(not sure if this is the correct terminology). I realized this because I needed three or four times more teaspoons of one brand in order to match the…
Kang Min Yoo
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Coffee foam vs. Tea foam

One sign of really good fresh well-roasted coffee beans is foam. When you pour hot water into the French press, it foams, often forming a head up to 2" high. And when you use an espresso machine, you get a nice foam called "crema". However, if you…
FuzzyChef
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Can any liquid food be beaten into a mousse?

Hervé This discovered that one can make chocolate mousse with chocolate and water only. This recipe is shown in this MasterChef video, and also detailed here. Essentially, one melts chocolate with water, then whisks it over an ice bath to…
user256872
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How does hydration of a sourdough affect baking features?

Looking at different recipes for sourdough starters, there's everything from a mix as dry as cookie dough to as wet as gruel. In this (danish) recipe from the acclaimed chef Claus Meyer of a pretty wet sourdough (1:1 water-flour-ratio by volume), it…
citizen
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What happens with bread at >= 94˚C/201˚F? Or: Is temperature a reliable indicator of doneness?

So I baked a rye bread last night (in a bread pan). It was a new recipe for me and I had to adjust some things in it due to missing ingredients, so I could not fully rely on the time and temperature recommendations. I therefore baked it until the…
citizen
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What factors affect collagen to gelatin conversion?

I have a bunch of oxtails I've been braising for hours in an adobo sauce and they remain awfully tough. What I'd love to see happen is for that abundant connective tissue to melt away and coat each fiber of meat with its succulent juices, but that…
Ray
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How does deglazing work?

If you put a steak or a chicken into a hot pan which is not completely non-stick, it is likely to stick to it a bit and leave a residue when you flip it. That is our fond. Later we deglaze the pan by adding some liquid which causes all of the small…
Ink blot
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How does sunlight degrade cooking oil?

Why exactly is it recommended to store cooking oil away from sunlight? How does sunlight accelerate spoilage?
Schamp
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Does mayo "break"/decompose if you stop whisking then whisk the other way?

Is is true or an urban legend that if you whisk the opposite way while making mayonnaise (after you've whisked in one direction for a while), the mixture will be "undone" into its components?
Dan Dascalescu
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Why do we dimple a focaccia?

When I was making a focaccia earlier today, I realised that I've never been told why we dimple them before baking. A quick Googling didn't reveal anything, so I'm asking here: why do we make dimples in a focaccia before baking? Is it strictly…
user141592
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Cooked meat diaper: toxic?

I accidentally left the meat diaper underneath my roast in a slow cooker. After 8 hours, the diaper is mostly disintegrated. I am able to fish out fragments, but big chunks seem to be missing. (For one thing, these sorry remains don't have any…
bongbang
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Why is it that veggies, fruit, and meat need to be salted or sugared when fermented to avoid pathogens, but milk and yogurt don't?

Haven't been able to find a clear enough explanation for this. When it comes to fermented milk products like clabber and milk kefir, you don't seem to need to do anything other than in the first case, let it sit at room temperature in a clean jar,…
FBHSIE
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Does the speed of opening of a bottle of wine influence its flavour?

While having a (good) bootle of wine at a friends place I've been told the following: The bottle should be uncorked slowly and silently, not to spoil its bouquet. This statement came as something completely new to me, and I do not understand what…
Giovanni De Gaetano
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