Persistently Crisp Vegetables A few
underground stem vegetables are notable for
retaining some crunchiness after prolonged
cooking and even canning. These include the
Chinese water chestnut, lotus root, bamboo
shoots, and beets. Their textural robustness
comes from particular phenolic compounds in
their cell walls (ferulic acids) that form bonds
with the cell-wall carbohydrates and prevent
them from being dissolved away during
cooking.
Flavor The relatively mild flavor of most
vegetables and fruits is intensified by
cooking. Heating makes taste molecules —
sweet sugars, sour acids — more prominent
by breaking down cell walls and making it
easier for the cell contents to escape and reach
our taste buds. Carrots, for example, taste far
sweeter when cooked. Heat also makes the
food’s aromatic molecules more volatile and
so more noticeable, and it creates new