If you’ve ever tried your hand at jam-making, you’ll know that it’s something of a tricky process. A number of factors need to be just right to achieve a perfectly set jam – and chemistry can help explain why. There are three key chemical entities that go into jam-making: sugar, pectin, and acids. Here, we’ll look at each in turn, and how they help jam achieve its eventual consistency.
Raspberries, like all fruits, contain a complex mix of organic compounds. Unlike many fruits, however, raspberries have the less common distinction of lending their name to the compound that is a major contributor to their aroma – and one of the compounds that contributes to their flavour has also been detected in the centre of our galaxy. So, does the centre of the galaxy taste faintly of raspberries?
Honey is something of an oddity, in that, unlike most foods, it doesn’t spoil over time. In fact, the oldest known sample of honey, found in an Ancient Egyptian tomb and dated to approximately 3000 years ago, was still perfectly edible (supposedly*). What is it, then, that gives honey this unusual property?
Anyone who’s ever purchased an avocado will testify that, after taking several days to reach the point of perfect ripeness, they remain at that point for an incredibly short amount of time before morphing into a brown, sludgy mess. As if to confound this problem, if you do catch them at the optimum ripeness, they turn brown incredibly quickly after being cut open if not eaten straight away. As always, chemical processes at work are to blame for this occurrence.
The latest food chemistry graphic looks at garlic and a couple of its well known effects. Garlic is frequently used in cooking, but its use comes with the unwanted accompaniment of ‘garlic breath’. On the more beneficial side of things, it can also have antibacterial properties. This post examines the chemical compounds behind these two phenomena.
With Easter upcoming, here’s another graphic on chocolate to go with the previous food chemistry graphic which looked at some of the chemicals it contains. This one examines the different structures of chocolate, why the tempering process is important to produce the highest quality chocolate – and why you shouldn’t leave your Easter chocolate lying around for months before eating it.