Better Cooking Through Chemistry

by nightshade
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Ever wonder why your cooking just doesnt taste like moms cooking? It may be that
youre missing an ingredient that triggers the necessary chemical reactions that yield
the compound commonly known as delicious.
From The New York Times:
At the tove! a "ash o# cience! a $inch o# Folklore
%y &E''E() *)A'+
$ublished: ,anuary -! .//0
1y mother! when she still cooked! always added a dash o# sugar to the vegetables she
stir2#ried. he said it preserved the bright green o# the greens. I always thought that
was hooey.
hirley 3. *orriher! a biochemist turned #olksy #ood scientist who was sitting at my
dining table! said she had not heard o# this 4 but added that sugar does do more to
#ruits and vegetables than add sweetness.
It also helps preserve their shape. )eat shrinks the plant cells and trans#orms
molecules in the cell walls into pectin! which dissolves. 5(he cells are #alling apart
and leaking!6 said 1s. *orriher! who dissected the science o# recipes in her books
5*ookwise6 and 5%akewise.6
5Its mass death and destruction when you heat a #ruit or vegetable!6 she said.
Adding sugar helps keep the glue between the cells intact! she said. 5Its preventing
the leaking o# the acid.6
I had invited 1s. *orriher and her husband! Arch! who were in 'ew 7ork #rom
Atlanta #or a visit! to dinner to help answer some kitchen curiosities. *ookbooks bark
out instructions like boot camp orders 4 Add oil to pasta water8 alt the eggplant8
%rown meat to seal in juices8 4 and legions o# home cooks obediently #ollow them.
I wondered how many o# these truisms had a scienti#ic underpinning and how many
were but myths. %rowning meat! #or instance! does not seal in juices. (he char adds
#lavor! though.
3n that evening! I cooked and 1s. *orriher criti9ued! telling me why I was doing
what I was doing or telling me that what I was doing was silly.
For a second opinion! I later called )arold 1c+ee! who is the author o# the #ood
science bible 53n Food and *ooking6 and who writes 5(he *urious *ook6 column in
(he (imess dining section.
1s. *orrihers answer about sugar and vegetables has a #actual basis. 5%eans are a
wonder#ul e:ample o# this!6 she said. 5I# you take beans! like 'avy beans! cook them
#or #our to si: hours! theyre mush re#ried beans. %ut i# you add sugar and molasses!
you can cook them #or days. (heyre %oston baked beans.6
1olasses has calcium! and %oston baked beans call #or prodigious 9uantities o# sugar
and molasses. (he sugar absorbs some o# the water! slowing how #ast the beans
dissolve! and the calcium molecules rein#orce the cell walls by linking together with
the pectin.
As I grilled shrimp and garlic in a hot cast2iron pan! I asked: should one heat the
cooking oil and pan at the same time or heat the pan be#ore adding oil?
)eat the empty pan and then add oil! 1s. *orriher said. And whatever you do! she
said! do not add the #ood when both the pan and oil are cold. (hat came #rom her
attempts to scramble eggs at a boarding school that she and her #irst husband ran in
the ;0</s. 5(hat li9uid protein was going down in any nook and cranny in the pan
and then you turned on the heat and literally you cooked the #ood into the pan!6 she
said. 5%ut i# you got a hot sur#ace! the #ood cooks on the sur#ace! not in the sur#ace.6
'e:t dish: roasted brussels sprouts with bacon! browned on the stove in a cast2iron
skillet and then roasted in the oven. (he dish turned out #ine! but I had unknowingly
and luckily avoided producing a rotten egg stink. %russels sprouts 4 and other
vegetables o# the %rassica #amily! including cabbage 4 release hydrogen sul#ide as
they cook! particularly when boiled #or too long.
5%etween #ive and seven minutes! they double in stinky hydrogen sul#ide gas
#ormed!6 1s. *orriher said. 1y browning o# the brussels sprouts on the stovetop was
shorter than that. In the oven! the trans#er o# heat #rom hot air to vegetable occurs
more slowly than immersion in boiling water.
A duck leg basted with a soy sauce2rice wine2garlic2ginger2honey sauce provided
another lesson in browning.
In addition to adding sweetness! the honey helped brown the duck skin! taking
advantage o# chemical reactions described by =ouis2*amille 1aillard a century ago.
In the 1aillard reaction! at high temperatures! #ructose and glucose in the honey
reacts with amino acids in the duck! producing a variety o# new molecules that add
#lavor and color.
1s. *orriher o##ers this advice #or imbuing roast turkey with a rich golden hue: baste
it with honey or corn syrup! which is also #ull o# #ructose and glucose. (hese are so2
called reducing sugars! which means they have a structure 4 5a #unny tail!6 1s.
*orriher called it 4 known as a carbonyl group that takes part in the 1aillard
reaction. >ucrose is not a reducing sugar! which is why sugar water does not brown
the same way.?
1aillard reactions also produced the dark char on the slab o# steak I turned to ne:t.
@heres the sugar in a steak? Animal cells contain glycogen! essentially the animal
version o# starch! which the cells use #or storing energy. A#ter the animal is killed!
glycogen #alls apart into glucose.
As I cooked! the smoke set o## the #ire alarm. 'o chemical mystery there: @here
theres #ire! theres smoke.
For a *hinese chili2braised #ish recipe! taken #rom 5=and o# $lenty6 by Fuchsia
"unlop! the #irst step calls #or marinating the #ish in rice wine #or several minutes.
(hat struck me as pointless. I# you are about to braise a #ish in tongue2searing chili
sauce! whats the point o# soaking it in wine? (he alcohol boils away! and the
spiciness ought to obliterate any taste o# the wine.
1s. *orriher had an e:planation. It was not the #lavor o# the wine that was important!
but what it did. Alcohol is a solvent. 5ome compounds dissolve in water!6 she said.
5ome dissolve in #at. %ut alcohol dissolves both #at2soluble compounds and water2
soluble compounds. 7oure pulling #lavor compounds out o# the #ish so that they can
contribute to the #lavor in the sauce.6
he recalled $atricia @ells! the $aris2based #ood writer! asking about the vodka in
penne alla vodka: 5he said! Ahirley! why is it that a little vodka in a tomato sauce
makes such a huge di##erence in the taste o# the sauce? I boil it a#ter the vodka is
added so most o# the vodka is gone. %ut theres obviously a compound in tomatoes
that alcohol dissolves and pulls out into the sauce. And then it doesnt matter what
happens to alcohol. Its done its job.6
1r. 1c+ee agreed with the wine2as2solvent hypothesis! but suspected it was used #or
the e:act opposite reason! to wash o##2#lavors o## the #ish. 5Its a kind o# post2washing
cleansing!6 he said.
>I e2mailed 1s. "unlop to ask the intended purpose o# the wine. 1r. 1c+ee was
correct. 5(he purpose o# marinating the #ish in salt and wine is to A9u :ing wei 4 to
dispel so2called A#ishy #lavors >:ing wei?!6 1s. "unlop wrote in an e2mail response.
5(his is a major preoccupation #or *hinese che#s and home cooks.6?
As #or the sugar in stir2#ried vegetables! 1s. *orriher decided a#ter some thought that
my mothers techni9ue might make some sense. I# the sugar slowed the release o#
acids! perhaps that would help preserve color as well as shape.
1r. 1c+ee disagreed. 5A #raction o# a teaspoon is a homeopathic dose!6 he said. %ut
he added! he did not know #or certain. *ooking is chemistry! and the only way to
know #or sure would be to employ the scienti#ic method.
5I# I had been her in your apartment! I would have said! A=ets do an e:periment! 6
1r. 1c+ee said. 5@e have di##erent interpretations! and an e:periment would clari#y
who was right.6