the CHEMISTRY of food project
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1. In what way(s) is cooking like doing science and in what way(s) are they different? How are a cook and a food scientist similar or different?
Cooking is a science in itself, the way the chemical bonds change and the way everything reacts to make the tasty food you eat. Cooking is also similar to a science experiment in that you go through a lot of trial and error to find the best tasting recipe. In both a science experiment and cooking you are creating something, you have a goal of what you are trying to create in the end. They are both big projects that you try to perfect and fail and repeating trying again and again. They can also be different though, other than the obvious in food you are working with safe edible ingredients, with other science experiments you could potentially be working with harmful chemicals and need to take extra precautions, they are different in that once you find the perfect recipe you stop and just recite that one recipe overtime you make it from that point on. Science is always changing and always making or trying to make advances. Science is always trying to create new things or find new reactions that people can use to better their lives, for example medicine. There is so much research and science involved in trying to create another cure for another disease that is harming people. There is also the fact that a science experiment is very sensitive in some cases, if you add too much of a substance you could ruin the whole experiment and have to start over. With something like a quesadilla if you add too much cheese you're just going to have a really cheesy meal. These are ways food and science and relate but also go different paths. 2. How can we measure the qualities and desirability of a finished recipe both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to determine the success of our recipe experimentation? A situation you would use a quantitative test for would be if you wanted to measure how many people liked the finished recipe. This would be something such as a survey on the food. You would use the results to make a graph or chart to show your results. For example, when we wanted to know how desirable a quesadilla is that my group made, we had people taste test it and fill out a survey. The results from this survey helped us produce a few graphs on different subjects to present how desirable our recipe was. When measuring the quality of the finished recipe, you would create a scale from 1-100% and have people taste test your recipe. If they really enjoyed it but felt that it could be improved they could rate it an 80%, or however they pleased and felt was right for the food they ate. If they loved it and thought it tasted like heaven on their tongue, they would rate it a 100%. And if they thought the recipe was horrible they would rate how they felt fit, which would probably be a 1-5% in this case. This would be a way to show the quality of your final recipe. |