moist, rich quality to many foods, and their
high boiling point makes them an ideal
cooking medium for the production of intense
browning-reaction flavors (p. 778).
Glycerol and Fatty Acids Though they
contain traces of other lipids, natural fats and
oils are triglycerides, a combination of three
fatty acid molecules with one molecule of
glycerol. Glycerol is a short 3-carbon chain
that acts as a common frame to which three
fatty acids can attach themselves. The fatty
acids are so named because they consist of a
long hydrocarbon chain with one end that has
an oxygen-hydrogen group and that can
release the hydrogen as a proton. It’s the
acidic group of the fatty acid that binds to the
glycerol frame to construct a glyceride:
glycerol plus one fatty acid makes a
monoglyceride, glycerol plus two fatty acids
makes a diglyceride, and glycerol plus three
fatty acids makes a triglyceride. Before it