On Food and Cooking

water. Visible and ultraviolet light is capable of altering the orbits of electrons bound in molecules, and so can ...

around us is emitting at least some infrared radiation all the time. The hotter an object gets, ...

shielding the food with reflective foil, which reduces it. Basic Methods of Heating Foods Pure examples of ...

The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. We use both microwave and infrared radiation to cook o ...

these techniques all emit visible light and so are also intense radiators of infrared energy. Glowing coals o ...

up with a steak that’s charred on the outside and cold at the center. The key to grilling and broiling is ...

and 40,000 cycles per second). The current causes the coil to generate a magnetic field that extends some ...

field. Baking: Air Convection and Radiation When we bake a food, we surround it with a hot enclosure, the o ...

pot (this is why we can reach into a hot oven without immediately burning our hand). Convection ovens increase ...

simmering and poaching, food is heated by the convection currents in hot water. The maximum temperature possible ...

and maintain a particular cooking temperature, and reproduce the same temperature reliably. Thermostats, ...

higher until the phase change from liquid to gas has been completed. The Boiling Point Depends on Elevation Th ...

The same principal is put to use to speed cooking in the pressure cooker. This appliance reduces cooking ...

by the dissolved particles, which interfere with the water molecules as they change phase from liquid ...

same temperature as someone in Boston would have to add more than half a pound of salt to that qu ...

Though it’s less dense than liquid water and so makes less frequent contact with the food, steam co ...

oil has several roles to play: it brings the uneven surface of the food into uniform contact with the heat ...

direct contact with high heat. Breadings and batters are such insulators. How far back frying goes is hard ...

employing enough oil to immerse the food altogether. As a technique, it resembles boiling more than pan frying, w ...

by microwaves. But the oven air, composed of nonpolar nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen molecules, and nonpolar ...