There’s one chemical reaction that, whether you have an interest in chemistry or not, we all carry out on a regular, maybe even daily, basis. That reaction? The Maillard Reaction. This is a process that takes place whenever you cook a range of foods – it’s responsible for the flavours in cooked meat, fried onions, roasted coffee, and toasted bread. The reaction’s name is a little deceptive, because it’s really an umbrella term for a number of reactions that can produce a complex range of products. The main stages, and some of the different classes of products, are summarised in this graphic.
Vitamins are an important part of our diet, but you probably haven’t given a great deal of thought to their chemical structures. This graphic shows chemical structures for all 13 vitamins; though there can be some variability in these structures in sources of the vitamins, these are generally representative. They perform a range of roles in the body; below is a brief discussion, and a look at the evidence for taking vitamin supplements.
There’s one vegetable at the Christmas dinner table that’s always bound to elicit strong and contrary opinions: brussels sprouts. Much like marmite, they seem to conjure up a ‘love it or hate it’ sentiment; however, if you fall into the latter camp, there may actually be a chemical and genetic reason why you can’t stand the taste. Sulforaphane is the featured molecule today in the Chemistry Advent Calendar, but here we take a closer look at the some of the other chemicals found in brussels sprouts.
Ginger is a spice commonly found in supermarkets and the kitchen, either as the fresh root or in dried, powdered form. It adds a strong, pungent flavour to dishes as a consequence of several chemical compounds it contains; additionally, these compounds are altered when the ginger is cooked or dried, producing alterations to its flavour. Some of these compounds have also been investigated for potential health benefits, including potential anti-tumour activity.
It’s currently National Chemistry Week in the US (apparently, we only get National Chemistry Week once every two years here in the UK), and the theme for this year is ‘The Sweet Side of Chemistry’. This seemed like as good an opportunity as any to look at some confectionary chemistry! In this graphic, we look at the amazing versatility of sucrose, and how (combined with other ingredients) it can make candies as hard as lollipops, or as soft as fudge.
You may have previously come across the advice that tomatoes shouldn’t be refrigerated, but should be stored at room temperature, in order to maximise their flavour. To understand the reasoning behind this, we need to take a look at the chemical compounds that give tomatoes their flavour, and the effect that refrigeration has on the production of these.