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 bacteria and fungi. And unlike in a laboratory, you can eat your experiments to verify your hypotheses.

In Culinary Reactions, author Simon Quellen Field turns measuring cups, stovetop burners, and mixing bowls into graduated cylinders, Bunsen burners, and beakers. 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 gle; Lemonade with Chameleon Eggs--an acid indicator; and more!

Author: Simon Quellen Field
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 11/01/2011
Pages: 288
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 8.97h x 6.06w x 0.61d
ISBN: 9781569767061


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 11/01/2011 pg. 101
Entertainment Weekly 11/25/2011 pg. 78

About the Author
Simon Field is the author of Why There's Antifreeze in Your Toothpaste, Gonzo Gizmos, and The Return of Gonzo Gizmos, and is the creator of the popular Web site www.scitoys.com.