ABSTRACT
By providing answers to simple questions, such as why certain apples turn brown once bitten, to more complex questions, such as the advantages of sous vide cooking, molecular gastronomy provides a motivating reason for learning the underlying chemical, biological, and physical properties. In this chapter, the authors show how foundational topics in acid-base chemistry, redox chemistry, enzyme kinetics, and elasticity can be explored through topics in food science. Each topic is developed alongside lab exercises in which students test hypotheses about molecular behavior using the scientific method. When students can observe, taste, feel, and smell differences for themselves, molecular changes become more meaningful. Many food scientists focus on how to predict, measure, and control the flavor development paths and consider the molecular transformations, the redox chemistry, that transforms an odorless and rather tasteless mixture into a griller’s delight.
