Experimental Cookery from the Chemical and Physical Standpoint (Classic Reprint)

Experimental Cookery from the Chemical and Physical Standpoint (Classic Reprint) Synopsis

Excerpt from Experimental Cookery From the Chemical and Physical Standpoint

Many contradictory observations are often made in cookery. This is to be expected, particularly when the materials used are in a colloidal state. Unless the constituents of food products are present in the same amount, and, even if present in the same proportion, if the colloidal particles are not the same size, if the previous treatment, including the thermal and mechanical treatment and the time element, is not exactly duplicated, then even an elementary knowledge of colloid chemistry leads one to expect different results in finished products, because of variation of these different factors. It is not possible to control all these factors. For instance, the variation in ash content of flour, eggs, milk, meat, fruits, and vegetables is nearly always beyond our control. But the necessity for a detailed description of the technic and method followed in reporting results is obvious. Detailed directions in writing the laboratory outline are essential or the technics followed may vary so much that the results are worthless for comparisons. It is of course understood that adequate explanations cannot be offered for all cookery processes. In some instances it is necessary to determine the results time after time and let the theory fit the laboratory facts. In other cases the explanations offered will need to be changed, modified, or replaced by data obtained from future investi gations.

In starting the laboratory work the author asks her students to assume the attitude that every result obtained is right. If it is not as expected, what are the reasons? For example, a burned, charred product results from certain procedures. If, when students have used the same proportions, the same ingredients, and tried to follow the same technic, the individual results differ, what are the possible interpretations for the divergence? In the same manner the reported results of other investigators are taken as correct. If the students' laboratory results do not always agree with reported results, interest comes in comparing methods used, the ingredients used, their proportion, and the technic followed, to find explanations for agreement or disagreement.

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