Questions tagged [food-science]
All about the scientific theories behind food. Cooking myths debunked here.
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Could it be possible to make lactose free yogurt with just baking soda and possibly a pH meter?
Yogurt is known to have lactose consuming bacteria (lactic acid bacteria/LAB), which consume lactose, break it down to glucose and galactose and produce lactic acid from the glucose and release the ...
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How can I alter this brownie recipe to make it chewier and more moist?
I started with the original recipe on the back of the All Bran box:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Kellogg's® All-Bran® Buds cereal
1 ...
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Food tracking and nutrient differences in "as packaged" vs "as prepared" meal kits
Quick Summary
I'm logging what I eat and gamifying it to some degree.
Why do carbs and protein in "as prepared" meal kits consistently get reduced from "as packaged" in the ...
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A definitive physicochemical guide to smoke points of cooking oils?
I've seen many charts of Smoke Point charts for cooking oils online. And, there all slightly different if not very different. Even MasterClass and SeriousEats seems to have their own versions (butter ...
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Why would a 4 layer cake fall over?
It should have been perfect. A 6 inch white birthday cake. 4 layers, fully/correctly cooked, domes sliced off. It was encased in a correct Italian buttercream (sugar cooked to 248°F) with a strawberry ...
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Fermenting lactose water solution as if it were milk with lactic acid bacteria
I have been fermenting milk for the last 10 years and used various commercial lactic acid bacteria cultures and starters.
I am well aware that there are thermophilic and mesophilic cultures and ...
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How to keep cream soup warm for restaurant/cafe?
I want to start a soup restaurant/cafe. And I want to keep my soup and cream soup (more thicker and creamy) warm or hot if it can. But I'm not sure how to do that. What is the equipment that I need to ...
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Why doesn't clabbered raw milk become lactose free when left to ferment for a few days?
We know that in yogurt fermentation, not all of the lactose is consumed by the lactic acid bacteria (primarily Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus) fermenting the milk, though the ...
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When you caramelise an onion are you really caramelising the sugars?
Similar questions have been asked previously, although none have specifically answered the question of whether true caramelisation really happens when 'caramelising' onions (sucrose & glucose ...
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Browning non-meat protein sources as the basis for pasta alla genovese
I am making a vegetarian pasta alla genovese. The sauce is made by first browning sofrito and tough meats, then braising for several hours with an abundance of onions until those onions carmelize.
The ...
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How can I separate starches from plant based milk (lentil milk)
I made decanted plant-based milk using lentils (nut milk bag), I'd like to remove the starches from the milk. I have tried several methods so far and a couple I have not tried such as enzymatic ...
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Looking for technical information for direct/reverse spherification with alcohol
I am trying to create alcohol spheres ranging in ABV from 10% to 40%. Reverse spherification seems like the ideal option because I want the spheres to have that pop feeling and have the liquid come ...
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Can you do the Maillard reaction in bulk, and store the result for later use?
The Maillard reaction is crucial to much cookery, in particular the browning of meat prior to cooking stews such as beef bourguignon. This reaction is described science of cooking:
The Maillard ...
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How do I know if my homemade natto is successful? Smells like ammonia
If my natto smells like ammonia is it bad/safe to eat? It has strings and bubbles when I mix it, but is a bit soggy. I think I left too much liquid in after the boiling.
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Eggless milk 'mayonnaise' - how do milk and oil emulsify without lecithin? What's the science behind it?
The recipe:
Ingedients:
100 ml milk
200 ml oil
Lemon juice
Salt
Instructions:
Whiz 100 ml milk up - 30 secs
Slowly add 200 ml oil
Move the blender up and down to help emulsify
Flavour with salt and ...
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What is the science behind skyr setting without rennet
I've read from multiple sources that rennet used to be one of the ingredients in making skyr but it's not used anymore outside of traditional recipes. I do understand that acid + heat causes milk to ...
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How to properly season or marinate steamed potatoes?
When boiling potatoes, most guidance is to heavily salt the water which in turn internally seasons the potatoes.
When it comes to steamed potatoes, I’ve achieved fine results salting after they’ve ...
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Fat and gluten development - Salt Fat Acid Heat
I am reading Salt Fat Acid Heat. I am still in the beginning but it has changed my approach to cooking, it is much more fun now.
Nevertheless, there is something I am not getting when it comes to fat ...
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Why does baking cooked rice not overcook it?
Many recipes like stuffed peppers call for baking already fully cooked rice for upwards of an hour at ~375 F. I’m surprised the grains come out intact and texturally not that different than before ...
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Are these different ways to soften legumes chemically?
When I cook dried legumes (Like beans,chickpea, fava) and trying to soften them in a reasonable amount of time I think about three options, or mixing the three:
Soaking
Long time cooking or pressure ...
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What does salt do in bread dough?
I'm making a bare-bones bread recipe, but I was wondering what the salt does. It looks like it helps it rise, but how does it compare to sugar? How do they interact with each other?
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US food label of organic lemon juice
100% Juice 59 servings 1 tsp per serving (5ml) Ingredients: Organic Lemon Juice
Calories zero, everything is zero on the nutrition facts and nothing mentioning sugar.
Is only organic maple syrup ...
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Bananas have blue/green spots - Are these safe?
In all my years of buying bananas, I have never seen this. In this case, the bananas are organic and sourced from Peru (no idea if that makes a difference or not).
I bought the bananas when they were ...
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Natural alkaline foods [duplicate]
Is there any naturally occuring food which is alkaline?
Searching the internet for this seems to be futile as every search result talks about alkaline diets, i.e. things that generate an alkaline ...
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Ruby chocolate explained
I have a problem understanding Ruby chocolate. It is still a mystery for me in many areas:
Why does Ruby chocolate have virtually no fiber in it? As I understand, it does contain some cocoa solids ...
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How do tamales cook?
We just steamed a couple dozen tamales and I'm entirely baffled by the idea that they cook over hours. How? Why? What's happening?
I initially figured I could check for doneness with a temperature ...
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Can I add thick cream to whipping cream to increase fat content and make the whipped cream more stable?
In the UK we have double cream which has about 42% fat and whips up beautifully so that its quite stable and can be piped on top of cupcakes and in between cake layers without being squeezed out by ...
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Is there any benefit in adding egg to a durum semolina pasta?
I'll be extruding pasta this weekend to use in a constructed food. I have good durum semolina but I'm wondering is whether adding egg will increase the overall strength of the macaroni and spaghetti. ...
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Botulism risk in garlic confit [duplicate]
I recently made garlic confit and left it at room temperature overnight to cool. I then looked up storage for the garlic confit and noticed that lots of articles say there's a high risk for botulism ...
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I accidentally sprayed bleach on some apples. Is this dangerous?
When I was bleaching towels, I accidentally sprayed some on apples nearby. The next day, to be safe, I washed these apples for about 15 seconds. Are these apples safe to eat Could someone get sick?
...
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What's the science behind citrate's emulsifying power in cheese sauces?
Given citric and tartaric acid can help make a good fondue, how on earth does the non-acidic citrate work? What's the exact science behind sodium citrate? Do they all work by removing the effects of ...
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How did replacing flour in muffins go so wrong?
I had a whole bag of Cocoa Puffs that had gone stale, and thought it would be fun to mess around and see if I could bake something with them. So I aimed for muffins. I more or less based it on a ...
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Why does adding salt to the water keep your eggs from exploding?
Why does adding salt to the water you boil your eggs in keeping them from bursting? Interested in the science behind this piece of culinary science
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Hot holding brisket elote/cream corn
So we serve on our food truck a awesome brisket elote cup creamed corn with a Mayo/sour cream base. On the truck we smoke the corn put a dollop of the dressing in the bottom of the cup top that with ...
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Resealing canned food in Aluminum bags?
I'm a person who goes on long outdoor expeditions and there are many canned foods that I would like to bring with me but the weight of the can is just too much. I would like to be able to open a can ...
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Waterbath canning chow chow
I waterbath canned some chow chow on Wednesday. It was cabbage, cauliflower, red pepper, green peppers, and (was suppose to add green tomatoes and forgot) can I open them, add tomatoes and can again?...
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Packaging/Bottling and Uncooked Hot Sauce
Forgive me for the post being long! I make a buffalo sauce/marinade that all my friends and family rave about. I’d love to be able to give some to them to keep in the pantry, especially the ones that ...
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salt added to fat acts as a binding agent?
I made maseca dumplings. Maseca is the flour obtained by soaking corn in lime. Maseca needs to be mixed with water to make a dough. The dumplings are added to gently boiling water. When I used only ...
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Should you stream sugar into French meringue?
I’ve heard several opinions on preparing French meringues:
stream sugar into fluffy egg whites
-or- combine sugar and egg whites ahead of time (e.g. the day before)
-or- dump all sugar into egg ...
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Trying to make my own gummy bears with monk fruit erythritol. Can I substitute a box of jello with plain gelatin powder?
I have a recipe for cannabis gummies that yields the perfect texture I am after (exactly like a maynards gummy bear and stays at room temperature).
I'd like to replicate that exact recipe and swap the ...
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How to remove skin from field corn
I'm trying to nixtamalize field corn. The kernels swell but the skins don't come off even with vigorous rubbing. What am I doing wrong?
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Alkaline foods with a pH higher than 8
I wonder if there is any common food with a pH higher than 8? Or is it simply that we humans don't eat anything alkaline because the taste would be soapy/bitter?
I searched around the Internet only to ...
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Why can I cook well but not identify flavours? [duplicate]
I'd like to say I'm good at cooking. I understand each element of the cooking process well, I can imagine flavours and how ingredients will alter the flavour of a dish. I believe I can put together ...
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what about peanuts that makes them more nut like than bean like?
As we all know, peanuts are actually legumes and not nuts. But they taste and function much more like nuts. They can be cooked quickly like nuts while beans take a long time to cook.
What about their ...
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Why does spatzle dissolve in water?
We've made spatzle a bunch of times with great success. Tonight, we put it in the boiling water like many times before, and it completely dissolved, resulting in cloudy water rather than anything ...
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How does bacterial contamination grow on food, and is the standard advice to cook your food to a high internal temperature wrong?
The standard advice, for both steak and fish is to cook them to an internal temperature of 160 degrees to kill any bacterial contamination. Is this overly simplistic advice that's mostly incorrect? ...
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Why is churro dough created with boiling water?
Every recipe I have found for making traditional Spanish churros or porras calls for adding the flour to boiling or near-boiling water (or, less commonly, milk).
These are very simple pastries, ...
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Are there other foods that are known to be not your taste based on genetics?
It is pretty widely known that cilantro tastes bad for some people only because of a gene that makes that herb taste like soap.
But are there other foods/herbs that are known to be your taste or not ...
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Why are halal carts so much more prevalent in nyc than taco carts? [closed]
I expressed surprise to a friend that halal carts are so prevalent in nyc, whereas taco carts seem nearly non-existent, and he confidently told me that this is due to the halal foods being easier to ...
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What is the methology for developing seasonings in the food industry?
I was wondering how large-scale snack food producers are coming up with ingredient proportions that have the desired flavour profiles.
I understand that developing a certain flavour profile is a ...
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