5.S15
Kitchen Chemistry
Spring 2009
This seminar is designed to be an experimental and hands-on approach to applied chemistry (as seen in cooking). Cooking may be the oldest and most widespread application of chemistry and recipes may be the oldest practical result of chemical research. We shall do some cooking experiments to illustrate some chemical principles, including extraction, denaturation, and phase changes.
Readings
- McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen . NewYork, NY: Scribner, 1997. ISBN: 9780684800011.
- McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen . Scribner, 2004. ISBN: 9780684800011.
- - Ashton, O. B. O., M. Wong, T. K. McGhie, R. Vather, Y. Wang, C. Requejo-Jackman, P. Ramankutt, and A. B. Woolf. “Pigments in Avocado Tissue and Oil.” J Agric Food Chem 54 (2006): 10151-8.
- - Garcés-Claver, A., M. S. Arnedo-Andrés, J. Abadía, R. Gil-Ortega, and A. Alvarez-Fernández. “Determination of Capsaicin and Dihydrocapsaicin in Capsicum Fruits by Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray/Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry.” J Agric Food Chem 54 (2006): 9303-11.
- - Scoville, W. L. “A Note on Capsicums.” J Am Pharmacists Assoc 1 (1912): 453-4.
- SES #: 13 · TOPICS: Peer teaching · READINGS: You are the teacher this week. You need to bring 1-3 friends to class to teach them some chemical/cooking principle. You can teach them one of the “experiments” we did in class, or pick one of your favorite recipes. The purpose of the class is to get your student(s) to think about cooking from a scientific point of view. Feel free to assign your student reading assignments, either in the book or on the Web.
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗Historical OpenCourseWare
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.