Questions tagged [food-chemistry]
For questions related to the chemistry of food.
75
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Mysterious violet-purple compound in "Gerber Method" & "Banana oil synthesis"
During the determination of fat in milk (Gerber method), in a milk butyrometer are mixed milk + $\ce{H2SO4}$ 90% w/w + isoamyl alcohol (isopentyl alcohol) and heating.
The acidic mixture separates ...
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Why does a dough with margarine absorb more oil than one with butter?
My family makes deep-fried cakes. Normally, we use butter in the dough and fry it in canola oil. Recently though, we tried using margarine instead of butter and the cakes absorbed much more of the ...
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Slow acidification process
I'm trying to find a substitute of Glucono delta-lactone (GDL). This food additive is usually used to produce silk tofu. Because of its slow hydrolysis the pH decreases very smoothly, which results in ...
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What do we know about the structure of the amylopectin iodine complex?
I am studying a method of finding the ratio between amylose and amylopectin using the difference in color of the amylose-iodine complex(blue) and the amylopectin-iodine complex (red/brown).
Through ...
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Dilution of whisky – the molecular perspective
Not a chemist. I'm trying to understand this abstract. In particular:
We found that guaiacol is preferentially associated with ethanol, and, therefore, primarily found at the liquid-air interface ...
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How to maximize shelf-life of freeze-dried food beyond 25 years? Can this exceed 100 years?
Many manufacturers will sell and advertise emergency preparedness food packs to still taste "great" 25-30 years into the future (or at least maintain a consistent taste over this period). ...
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Why dried, closed coconuts go through carbonation?
Some dried, closed coconuts go through carbonation:
The white meat of the coconut becomes disintegrated and smeary
The liquid becomes carbonated with a bit sour-salty tasted coconut water (which ...
user61828
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Why does chewing gum get hardened after drinking water?
Why does chewing gum get hardened after drinking water? This is a basic question, but please don't say temperature change, because I've tried that, and it never gets back to same elasticity. There ...
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Why do certain mixtures foam and others don't? How to predict if a mixture will yield a foam?
I recently acquainted myself with the skill of whipping a mixture of sugar, fresh brewed/ hydrated instant coffee into a pale, fluffy, stiff and stable foam. This, as some might know, is known as Café ...
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Heat and Sugar Syrup Consistency
I make my own sugar syrups and have been observing how heating the syrup to different degrees results in syrups of radically different consistencies, I wonder why. Heating up syrups (4:3 Sugar:Water) ...
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How to measure the amount of lactose in milk/dairy using high school lab equipment?
I am currently a high school student doing their Biology IB IA. For those who don't know, an IA is, in simple terms, an experiment that you design and execute yourself. My topic is "The effect of ...
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What happens to the nitrous oxide in the whipped cream when it is on your food?
Nitrous oxide is used to create whipped cream but there is no information available on what happens to that gas when you eat it in the cream.
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What can cause the biuret test to produce an orange colored solution?
What can cause the biuret test to produce an orange colored solution?
I did the biuret test to a few number of foods in a school lab assignment. The test with tofu turned orange. I wonder why, since ...
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How to make a placebo drink taste convincing?
I'm trying to make a placebo alcoholic drink - something strong (cognac, whiskey or vodka). Is it possible to make a drink containing absolutely no alcohol taste like it's got 30 or 40% alcohol? What ...
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How to measure the content of sugar, proteins and fat in meat?
I do a research project for Science Symposium and I need to measure a content of proteins, sugar and fat in a meat. Unfortunately, I have found only the methods that require specials apparatus/device ...
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Are there super(calorie-)dense foods?
It’s commonly reported that there are 9 kilocalories per gram of fat, 7 per gram of alcohol, and 4 per gram of carbohydrates or protein. But these figures (with the exception of that for alcohol, ...
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Why does olive oil make 90 degree grids on a nonstick pan?
Whenever I add olive oil to my cold nonstick pan and try to swirl it, it ends up making these 90-degree grids. Is this something to do with the oil, the pan, or the interaction between the two? I find ...
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How does heat and/or boiling remove vitamin C?
The www is full of crackpot claims about how various food treatments alter their nutrition content and it makes finding actual science very difficult.
I am specifically interested in the vitamin C ...
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Reduction of gingerol content in ginger using kitchen equipment
The single topic that this question focuses on is - how to remove gingerol and only gingerol from a piece of ginger in a manner that it remains safe to eat using equipment found in a well stocked ...
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2
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357
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Rotten chicken smell
My boyfriend and I have a camper and he forgot to take a package of chicken out of the refrigerator before parking it. The chicken sat in the fridge which was off in the heat for a few months. We ...
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Is there any way to measure or otherwise quantify the extent of caramelization experimentally?
I've been trying to design an experiment where I want to compare the efficacy of caramelization of a monosaccharide under different pH conditions (the sugar would be placed in buffers of varying pH). ...
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Is there a known value for the molar extinction (absorption) coefficient for amylose and amylopectin iodine complexes?
I am doing a colorimetry experiment with starch, and have a theoretical model based on Beer's law. To solve it, I need a known value for the molar extinction coefficients of amylose and amylopectin ...
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How does iodine react with amylose and amylopectin, and can iodine colorimetry be used to determine the ratio between the two starches?
Based on some of the methods of studying starches in rice I looked at, I found that there are two general distinctions:
ones that focus on the ratio between amylose and amylopectin
ones that focus ...
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Why does sodium citrate in water turn black when blueberries are added?
I recently started making oral rehydration therapy for someone I'm taking care of who developed POTS after COVID-19 infection. (ORT was recommended by their doctor.) I use the standard ingredients of ...
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Is there an edible version of nylon string?
I'm working on a project where I have to check the feasibility for product ideas. It has to connect other parts and float on the water's surface.
My friend thought that maybe glass noodles would be ...
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What kind of chemical reaction happens when combining Tahini and Date syrup?
While both Tahini and Date syrup are quite thin, when mixed together they form a paste-like substance that is very delicious, and quite thick. But what kind of chemical reaction leads to such sudden ...
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Formation of caffeidine in Noon Chai
Noon Chai (as described in this question) from Kashmir is prepared by adding common salt and sodium bicarbonate to green tea and cooking it for quite some time (~ 30 minutes).
Noon Chai is also ...
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Why do gnocchi float when they are cooked?
Gnocchi is a kind of pasta made with flour, potatoes and eggs. They are cooked in boiling water and when they are ready to be eaten they float.
Why do they float when they are cooked?
I found two ...
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777
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Unknown white stuff from eggshell reaction with acids and bases
I have just finished some experiment at home using tea eggs.
First I peel off the shell of the tea egg and place it in a bowl of white vinegar (of course, I consumed the rest of the egg). Not ...
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490
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determination of glucose syrup in sugar product
I work with a sugar product that contains saccharose (approx. 70 %), glucose syrup (approx. 15 %), glycerine (approx. 3 %) and some other ingedrients, e.g. water. Glucose syrup consists of 5 % glucose ...
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Is vegetable shortening a fully hydrogenated product or is it partially hydrogenated?
Have the oils used to make vegetable shortening been fully hydrogenated or have they been only partially hydrogenated?
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What chemical measurements are related to the degree of flavor extracted by alcohol?
A recent project of mine includes making infusions of various ingredients to make liqueurs and bitters. Infusions, I've learned, vary widely in the amount of flavor extracted from an ingredient. ...
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How can I keep milk from spoiling and/or turning yellow?
I am trying to find a way to keep milk from spoiling and/or turning yellow.
Apparently there is a process for achieving this, and I am aware that there is a lady who creates milk beads for resin ...
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Why does sugar make dough turn to liquid
While making dango with a friend we decided to try to make the dough a bit sweeter. We already had a large firm lump of dough (rice flour, glutinous rice flour and water) so we sprinkled a bit of ...
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What equation can be used to determine the mass of water evaporation over time, when cooking?
When baking, cooking or writing recipes, it would be useful to have a ballpark estimate of evaporation rates. This question asks about water, although the answer would ideally include an ...
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Properties of glyceral with respect to cooking/baking?
Out of curiosity I went looking for information or videos of people taste-testing monosaccharides and I came away surprised that I could find this for virtually every sugar except for the simplest (...
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how to keep kappa-carrageenan lasting at room temperature for weeks or months? (art project)
I'm helping an artist make an outdoor gelly structure (not for eating) and we want to keep it from molding. The temperatures are around 10-30 degrees celsius and it's in Copenhagen, Denmark in ...
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Buffer when testing soda with DCPIP
We are testing a range of sugary drinks (coca cola, orange juice, and chocolate milk) with DCPIP to detect vitamin C. The coca cola has given a false positive and we were wondering if this is due to ...
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What is the difference between milk and cream that causes disparate result when freezing and thawing?
If you freeze milk and then let it thaw/melt again you just need to shake and it is more or less indistinguishable from unfrozen milk. That is not true for cream - after letting frozen cream (40 % fat)...
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Will a liquid-liquid emulsion and the separated emulsion have same volume?
Let's assume that there is no dispersed gas (bubbles). Not sure about dissolved gas; maybe you can tell me if that matters. Ordinary liquids (aqueous solution and biological oil). Surfactants are ...
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Understanding the pH scale for edible food!
I'm working on a website where I want to provide the pH level of plants! Although i don't even know what this is (I have zero knowledge in chemistry), I have to provide it! What I want to do is ...
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How to extract limonene from the orange peels?
What is a reasonable procedure to extract the orange essential oil from the rinds? I thought this would be a common experiment.
Here's what Wikipedia had to say, they identify the essential oil as ...
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Does fractionation use enough heat to destroy nutrients in Coconut Oils when seperating the MCT oils?
We have recently been giving MCT (medium-chain triglyceride) oil to our dogs in place of Coconut Oil as from what I understand the majority of the benefits of Coconut Oil comes from the MCT's ...
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Why does coconut oil spoil much faster than groundnut oil?
I have observed that various foods cooked using coconut oil spoil much faster than foods cooked using groundnut oil. One good example is Asian coconut milk curry. Even with proper refrigeration, this ...
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Are alkaline conditions required for Maillard reaction?
The Maillard reaction, a form of non-enzymatic browning, refers to a cascade of chemical reactions that frequently occurs in the cooking of foods (e.g. baking of pastries, roasting of meats). It ...
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How does alcohol infusion (maceration) work chemically?
To make liqueurs (e.g. lemon liqueur) you take some fruit and/or plant and let them macerate in pure alcohol to make the alcohol have the fragrance and color of the original ingredient.
How does it ...
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Why do frozen whipped cream remain "frozen" when thawed?
I froze some pastry with whipped cream on the other day (by mistake, I placed it on my balcony and expected it to be a few degrees above zero, but it wasn't). When I unfroze it again I was expecting ...
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Is Jell-O flavored plastic?
Per this article, "Gelatin is a thermoreversible, cold-setting polymer." Further, Jell-O is flavored gelatin.
Is the phrase "thermoreversible, cold-setting polymer" equivalent to the term "plastic?"
...
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Calculating amount of alkali additions to get desired pH in (hard) cider
This is linked to my question over on the HomeBrew SE site: https://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/18837/reduce-acidity-of-hard-cider
I haven't done chemistry since I was 17/18 but I remember ...
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Caffeine extraction
I'm working on a caffeine extraction experiment, using dichloromethane and instant coffee. I am testing how the amount of caffeine extracted from coffee will be affected when different concentrations ...
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