With Thanksgiving just around the corner, kitchens across the country will soon be alive with the sights, smells and sounds of cooking. But what if we dove deeper into those recipe books and looked beyond the instructions? You might find you’re more than just a cook; you’re quite the chemist!
Inspired by the popular show Lessons in Chemistry, an adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’s bestselling novel, cooking is presented as applied science, encouraging viewers to think critically about their cooking and the chemical reactions that create the flavors and textures they love. In this blog, we’ll explore the chemistry behind Thanksgiving cooking, revealing how different techniques bring out the best in each dish.
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The study, made available online ahead of publication (1), found that from a very early age, people associate sweeten drinks with salty and higher fat foods such as pizza and French fries (or chips). Perhaps partly as a result of this association, young people (ages 19–23 years) viewed unfavorably the pairing of a sweetened drink with raw or cooked vegetables. The test subjects showed strong reactions (either positive or negative) to the pairing of sweetened drinks with certain foods. In contrast, water didn’t evoke strong any reactions indicating that it was viewed as reasonable complement to most food. 