with can’t simply change from one phase to
another when heated. Instead, they react to
form entirely different kinds of molecules.
This is because food molecules are large, and
form so many weak bonds between molecules
that they’re in fact held very strongly
together. It takes as much energy to break
them apart from each other as it does to break
the molecules themselves apart: and so rather
than melting or evaporating, the molecules
become transformed. For example, sugar will
melt from a solid into a liquid, but rather than
then vaporize into a gas as water does, it
breaks apart and forms hundreds of new
compounds: a process we call caramelization.
Fats and oils melt, but break down and smoke
before they begin to boil. Starch, which is a
long chain of sugar molecules joined together,
won’t even melt: it and proteins, also very
large molecules, begin to break down as
solids.
Mixtures of Phases: Solutions, Suspensions, Emulsions,