BCBT 100 – Exam 4 Practice Questions {Bodwin – Fall 2012}

BCBT 100 – Exam 4 Practice Questions {Bodwin – Fall 2012}

Describe and identify the components of a seed.

Describe the difference between monocot and dicot seeds. Give examples of each.

What are some similarities and differences between grains, legumes, and nuts? How do they grow, what food molecules do they contain, etc

How is flour made? (from the McGee book)

What is “leavening”?

Describe the process and chemical reaction of chemical leavening.

What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder? Why are BOTH sometimes called for?

What is gluten? How is gluten formed? What type of interactions between molecules are present in gluten?

How does kneading encourage gluten formation?

Describe the ways in which gluten can be modified when making a dough. What physical or chemical steps can be taken to increase gluten formation? What physical or chemical steps can be taken to decrease gluten formation?

In aerobic metabolism of sugars, what are the products of the chemical reaction?

What are the products of the chemical reaction when yeast metabolizes sugars?

Describe the differences between yeast-leavening and chemical-leavening. What are some advantages of each?

What is Charles’ Law?

If the absolute temperature of 6.0L of a gas is tripled, what is the new volume of the gas?

What role does starch play in the structure of baking bread?

Why is it important that the bubbles in baking bread merge and pop during the baking process?

What are some of the results/effects of having a lot of steam present when baking breads?

What does it mean for a bread to become “stale”? How can staleness be prevented? Reversed?

How does the protein content of different types of flour affect the bread made from those flours?

What food molecules must be present for Maillard browning to occur?

What property/properties do aldehydes contribute to foods?

Above what temperature does significant Maillard browning take place?

What cooking conditions encourage Maillard browning? What cooking conditions inhibit Maillard browning?

Above what temperature does significant caramelization take place?

What chemical reaction is catalyzed by phenol oxidase?

What molecular changes take place that cause enzymatic browning?

What conditions would encourage more sugar browning/caramelization when cooking?

What role does water play in most browning reactions?

Where is chocolate grown?

Describe the process of making chocolate from the tree to the finished bar.

What type(s) of browning is/are responsible for the brown color of chocolate?

Which type of chocolate plant has the most delicate flavors?

What is the purpose of “Dutch processing” of cocoa powder?

Describe the molecular changes that take place when chocolate is tempered.

If a chocolate bar is not stored properly it can have a “dusty” appearance. Describe what has happened.

What causes chocolate to “seize”?

What are the advantages of letting chocolate melt in your mouth when tasting it?

Looks like Fruit & Veg!

But don't worry, we'll also do breads in a couple weeks.

On the fruit & veg side of things... We'll very likely do some tasting in the coming week or so. Are there any fruits or vegetables that you have never tried that you're curious about? Some vegetables that might be a bit less common (but I know I can get pretty easily...) might be some of the root vegetables (rutabaga, parsnip, turnip), or some different varieties of potato, or some different types of greens... On the fruit side, some of the less-typical citrus fruits, or unique berries...
Basically, if there's a fruit or vegetable (broadly defined) that you've always wondered about, let me know, we might use that as part of an in-class tasting, and you can have a new and exciting experience.

Next topics...

Fruits and Vegetables are winning in the early returns, but the polls are still open in the rural areas. Vote early, and in this case you can even vote often.

Exam #2 Practice Problems

#.     What is cheese? – Milk that has been curdled by acid and rennet that has had most of the water removed

#.     What is the primary role of salt in cheese? – Preservative

#.     Some enzymes used in cheesemaking hydrolyse fats and proteins during the aging process. How does this affect the final cheese? – Hydrolyzed fats and proteins usually lead to smaller molecules that contribute flavor and aroma. They can also tweak the texture.

#.     Why is it important to get chymosin (rennet) from young calves rather than adult cows? – Cows only produce chymosin while they are feeding on milk, once they’re off the milk, chymosin production drops off very quickly

#.     How was rennet “discovered? – It was a happy accident. When calf stomachs were used as waterproof bags for milk storage and transportation, the rennet curdled the milk into cheese

#.     What specific protein does chymosin (rennet) react with during cheesemaking? – Chymosin reacts with the kappa-casein proteins that coat casein micelles… This lets the “gooey” inner caseins to stick together and form a network of casein micelle chains

#.     When chymosin (rennet) reacts with protein during cheesemaking, what happens on a molecular level? – Rennet “shaves” some of the kappa-casein off the outside of the casein micelles and they stick together

#.     When acid reacts with protein during cheesemaking, what happens on a molecular level? – Acid denatures the casein proteins much more completely, allowing the individual casein protein strings to interact

#.     What are the main roles of propionibacteria in cheesemaking? – This is the hole-making bacteria

#.     Brevibacterium linens mainly contributes what to cheese? – This is the “stinky cheese” bacteria

#.     What are the properties of Penicillium roqueforti and other “blue molds” used in cheesemaking? – Can survive low oxygen, found inside the cheese, digests fats, contributes sharp/peppery flavor

#.     How are the “white molds” used in cheesemaking different from the blue molds? – Surface molds, digest proteins, make creamy texture

#.     When slowly adding heat to try and melt cheese, what component (food molecule) is affected first? Second? – Fats melt first, proteins denature next, water starts to boil/evaporate off, fat/protein start to brown/burn, things start on fire, chaos ensues

#.     In dishes that contain melted cheese, what causes “stringiness”? – Too many protein-protein interactions, lots of stirring

#.     Where is most of the fat found in eggs? - Yolks

#.     What does the color of the shell of a chicken egg tell you? – It can indicate the breed of chicken, but not much more

#.     What does amylase (an enzyme found in egg yolks) do? – We talked about this one in the food molecules section, amylase digests (hydrolyzes) amylose, that’s starch

#.     After water, what is the largest component (food molecule) of egg white? – Albumen proteins

#.     What happens on a molecular level when eggs are cooked “hard”? – Proteins denature and get all tangled up

#.     Describe the molecular changes that take place when egg whites are whipped. – Mechanical shearing/denaturing  of proteins, proteins stretch and tangle, capture air bubbles

#.     What role does cream of tartar serve in whipped egg whites? – It’s an acid, it prevents the formation of too many disulfide bonds

#.     Why are very strong interactions, like disulfide bonds, unfavorable in whipped egg whites? – Very strong interactions tend to squeeze water out and limit the ability of the protein chains to slide by each other while the meringue is forming/building

#.     How does heat affect an albumen foam (a meringue)? – Heat dehydrates the meringue, also denatures additional proteins (ovalbumen) to form more network connections, if there’s sugar present the heat will also dehydrate and form a bit of a sugar-strand network

#.     What component of an egg preparation has a very high heat capacity? - Water

#.     What component of an egg preparation is an excellent heat insulator? - Air

#.     What component of an egg preparation can melt, solidify or separate depending on temperature? - Fats

#.     What component of an egg preparation affects the structure and texture of the final dish depending upon whether it has been denatured or not? - Proteins

#.     What is “candling” and why is it done? – Shining light through an egg to see the yolk and determine the egg’s grade

#.     Describe the different grades of eggs. – AA = thicker albumen, prominent chalazae; A = less thick, weaker chalazae; B = industrial eggs, yolk swirls around inside the shell

#.     What is specific heat capacity? – The amount of heat/energy required to raise a given amount of a substance by a given temperature. Usually calories per gram-degree-Celcius

#.     If the specific heat capacity of water is 1 calorie per gram-degree-Celcius (1cal/g•°C), adding 100.0 calories of heat to 20.0g of liquid water at 17°C should {increase/decrease} the temperature to _______°C. – This should increase the temperature by 5°C to 22°C. 

(100.0calories) / (1cal/g°C) = 100 g°C

(100 g°C) / (20.0g) = 5°C.

#.     What role does the water bath play when cooking/baking a custard? – Even heating, slows down and evens out the denaturing of proteins in the custard, manages heat transfer

#.     Why is tempering important? – Tempering evens out the denaturing of proteins. If hot and cold were just dumped together all at once, some proteins would denature quickly where the solution was hot and the result would be a clumpy mixture

Exam 2 Format

Exam 2 (and all of your exams in BCBT 100) will be a multiple choice exam. The practice questions I posted do not have "multiple choice" answers included with them because when you are studying for the exam I want you to be thinking about the substance of the questions and topics, not just picking the correct answer out of a list of 4 or 5 options. Good luck and let me know if you have other questions.

(I'll post answer to the practice questions some time late today or tomorrow, make sure you look at the questions and try to formulate a response BEFORE you check the answers.)

You're the expert!

One of the nice things about a science class based on food and cooking is that in some cases YOU have real first-hand experience with the topics we're discussing. That means that sometimes (maybe even quite often), you will have experience or insight that is beyond what I have. I like that! It means that I can learn something too, and I always try to learn at least 1 new thing every day.
Related to this, someone pointed out a pronunciation I slipped up on in class yesterday... I have a very basic understanding of German, and in reading what was written on my slide while I was talking and thinking about what was coming up, I did a really bad job on the word "kuchen". It is absolutely NOT pronounced "koo-chin"... The typical American English "ch" pronunciation is generated almost entirely in the front of the mouth with the tongue and the teeth (it's a more "dental" sound), whereas the "ch" in "kuchen" is generated in the back of the mouth and throat, almost as if you're pronouncing a "hard c" and an "h" at the same time, a little like the "ch" in "chalazae" or "Bach". When this German "ch" is in the middle of a word, it is often pronounced almost like a "g", but a little farther back in the mouth/throat.
The biomechanics of linguistics is really pretty fascinating, and if you think about just how the sound of different letters and words are produced in the mouth, it's fun to experiment. Most people don't think about the way tongue, teeth, lips, cheeks, throat and lungs interact to do something as "simple" as speaking, if this is something you're really interested in you should check out the Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences department at MSUM.

Practice questions

Exam #2 is coming up on Tuesday... I've posted some practice questions {http://www.drbodwin.com/teaching/scicook/bcbt100aexam2practice.pdf}, take a look at them. I posted them in a little more open-ended format to encourage you to think about the question a little more rather than just ferret out which answer is correct. I'll post answers some time over the weekend, make sure you look at and think about the questions before you look at the answers. Good luck.

Spatulas

The word “perfect” has a lot to live up to, and although the truly “perfect” spatula may not exist, I think there are a few that come close. The criteria I use to evaluate spatulas are pretty simple.

1. Material – At this point in time, I really don't see any good reason to buy a spatula that is not heat-resistant. A good silicone spatula is flexible, durable, stable, stain resistant, and should be heat resistant to 600ºF or more. Although a good new rubber spatula might have a few advantages, rubber spatulas are not heat resistant, prone to stains, and can get a bit “gummy” over time. If I had an active enough kitchen that I could take advantage of a wide variety of spatulas, I might be willing to stock a few silicone spatulas and a few rubber spatulas, each for their own unique purpose, but personally, I would greatly prefer to have consistent spatulas that are all good (or at least good enough) for any application

2. Construction – Spatulas (and many other kitchen tools) have the potential to be fertile grounds for contamination and bacteria or mold growth. The best way to prevent this is to clean utensils well, and this is infinitely easier if there are fewer gaps and seams and joints. That means any spatula that is a single piece will be much easier to clean and keep clean. One-piece construction also means that the head of the spatula will never fall off or slip from the handle. There are very few rubber spatulas that offer 1-piece construction, so once again, silicone offers a distinct advantage. Having 1-piece, all-silicone construction also means that when using the spatula for “hot” applications, you never have to worry about melting or scorching the handle of a silicone-headed 2-piece spatula.

3. Price – This is, honestly, a minor consideration. A good quality $10 spatula will usually be much more durable than a $2 spatula, but the difference in price between a “good” spatula and a “cheap” spatula isn't really that significant. With some kitchen tool, the price range is pretty broad. For example, frying pans can range from $10 to $200+, but even a very high quality spatula with a prestigious brand name probably won't cost more than $25-30, and a good quality tool can be found quite easily for $10-15.

My favorite spatula is a Chef'n brand 1-piece silicone model similar to this one {http://www.target.com/p/vibe-switchit-spatula/-/A-13385306#prodSlot=medium_1_1 }, although my specific spatula is not colored.

This has been a wonderful tool in my kitchen for quite a few years, but has picked up a couple small nicks and dings, so I'm probably in need of a new one. I'll probably wander through local stores for a new spatula, but I'd be pretty happy if I could either find the exact same model or perhaps something like this one {http://www.chefn.com/Product.aspx?id=143 }

I would be perfectly content to use a brand other than Chef'n, but my current Chef'n spatula has been a wonderful tool so I'd be happy to display some brand loyalty.

Do I really put this much thought into something as pedestrian and work-a-day as a spatula? Well, yes, but it's almost by accident. As with many kitchen tools and other things, you don't really think about preferences or quality until you accidentally buy something that has some very obvious advantages. That was the case with this spatula.

Food as Science

One of the greatest things about food is that there is a LOT of fascinating science going on that can be explored by anyone. The conditions are (usually) safe, the ingredients can be pretty inexpensive (although some can be very expensive), and the result can (usually) be eaten. Take advantage of these things when it's time for a meal. Thinking about the science behind simple processes like whipping and baking and frying can dramatically improve the quality of the food you prepare.

Course grades...

A few people have asked "What was my grade on Exam 1?". I know I mentioned some estimated letter grade ranges in class, but you really have to be a little careful about thinking in letters. Think about your grade in numbers and the total points you have accumulated. I do not determine your final course grade by looking at the letters you may have earned on exams, I look at the numbers. Why is this an important distinction? Here are a couple examples. Let's say you are taking a class where your grade is determined by your score on 4 exams, and to make the math a little easier, let's say that each exam is worth 100 points and the class is using a typical 90/80/70 percent scale for A/B/C and there are no "+/-" grades.

Example 1: Your exam scores are 90, 91, 82, 92. If we assign letters to those individual exams, you got A, A, B, A. Three "A" grades sounds pretty good! What grade would you get for this course? You've earned 355 points out of 400 possible points, that's just under 89%. Look's like a B.

Example 2: Your exam scores are 78, 87, 79, 78. If we assign letters to those individual exams, you got C, B, C, C. Hmm, looks like a "C" is in your future. But wait! You've earned 322 points out of a possible 400 points, that's 80.5%. The result is a "B" and everyone cheers with delight!

This is why I'm always a little hesitant to assign grades to individual exams or assignments, it can lead to incorrect expectations.

Key and corrections posted...

I posted the answer key for those sample questions on my website (http://www.drbodwin.com/teaching/bcbt100.php). I also posted an updated version of the sample questions, I spotted a couple typos that have been corrected.

I have one other clarification from class today... Any topic that has been mentioned in class can appear on the exam. There are details within a topic that might have been part of your reading assignments that were not explicitly mentioned in class, but those may still appear on the exam. You are responsible for the reading assignments. The reason this came up in class is that someone specifically asked about ice cream... we didn't get into ice cream in class, but it was part of your reading assignment... that's a topic that we didn't mention in class, so I'm not including ice cream on the exam. Hmm, that may have been more confusing than the original confusion... OK, to be (hopefully) clear, ice cream specifically will not be on this exam. All the other parts of your reading and the things we did in class might be on the exam.

Review/Practice questions posted

I've posted some review/practice questions for our upcoming exam. Good luck and let me know if you have questions. http://www.drbodwin.com/teaching/scicook/bcbt100aexam1practice.pdf

Intermolecular Forces and Dissolving

Question from email------------------------------

I have a question in relation with our today's lecture, yogurt comes out from milk then why yogurt can not dissolve in water like milk, that completely mixes with water.

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The short answer is that yogurt contains networks of proteins that are solid enough to make yogurt thick, but not so solid that yogurt is just a big solid lump. To explain better, we need to think about why things dissolve. Let's start with a lump of sucrose (table sugar) and a glass of water. The sucrose is solid because the intermolecular forces between the sugar molecules are very strong. The water is liquid because the intermolecular forces are also quite strong, but the individual water molecules can slide past each other. When the lump of solid sugar is dropped into the glass of liquid water, the sugar dissolves. Energetically, we can think of this as a series of interactions being broken and formed, with the result being whatever state bring us to the lowest energy. If the sugar is going to dissolve in the water, we need to break sugar-sugar interaction (requires energy) and we need to break water-water interactions (requires energy). At the same time, we need to form water-sugar interactions, which liberates energy. If the energy we get back from forming water-sugar interactions is greater than the energy required to break the sugar-sugar and water-water interactions, then the sugar will dissolve in the water. This is the part of chemistry called thermodynamics, which looks at how changes in energy affect chemical reactions. Looking at the following figure:

Going from “A” to “B” represents breaking sugar-sugar and water-water interactions, both of which require energy to be added to the system, noted by the skinny red arrow. When water-sugar interactions are formed, energy is taken out of the system, represented by the skinny green arrows. If the amount of energy we get back from forming water-sugar interactions is relatively small (going from “B” to “C” in the figure), then the net change in energy for the whole process is positive, and the sugar will not dissolve. This overall change is represented by the fat red arrow. If, on the other hand, the amount of energy we get back from forming water-sugar interactions is relatively large (going from “B” to “D” in the figure), then the net change in energy for the whole process is negative (fat green arrow), and the sugar probably will dissolve.

Now back to the yogurt question. The intermolecular interactions we have to think about in yogurt are protein-protein, water-water, and protein-water. {Proteins make this a little trickier because proteins have portions that are more hydrophilic and portions that are more hydrophobic.} The protein-protein interactions in yogurt are pretty strong, so the proteins stick together to form nets, BUT there are also parts of the protein molecules that have fairly strong protein-water interactions. The proteins do not form a hard, compact, crystalline solid like a sucrose crystal because they can form a lot of protein-water interactions, but the parts of the protein molecules where the protein-protein interactions are strong prevent the whole molecule from dissolving in water.

The even deeper part of this question actually shows up in the words that were used. yogurt does not “dissolve” in water, but milk “completely mixes” with water. Remember, milk is an emulsion, so although it does mix with water, it's not really “dissolving”. In that sense, milk and yogurt are similar, the difference being that the parts of milk that do not dissolve are tiny little droplets and clusters that can freely float around in the aqueous part of the milk, while the part of yogurt that doesn't dissolve is a large, extended network of proteins that makes yogurt thick and clumpy. And delicious.

Carbs!!

Carbohydrates. Some people think they're the enemy, but they're really just an innocent little (or not so little) food molecule. Carbohydrates are a class of food molecules that consist of carbon (“carbo”) and hydrogen & oxygen (“hydrate”).

Monosaccharides

These are simple sugar molecules with a single ring. There are quite a few possibilities, but the 3 main monosaccharides in food are glucose, galactose and fructose.

Disaccharides

If two monosaccharides react to liberate a water molecule (a dehydration or condensation reaction), they form a disaccharide. There are many possible combinations of monosaccharides, but again, when we're looking at food and cooking, there are 3 main disaccharides: sucrose (table sugar, made from glucose-fructose), maltose (grain sugar, made from glucose-glucose) and lactose (milk sugar, made from glucose-galactose). To get the energy out of a disaccharide, it's usually necessary to break the two halves apart again by adding a water molecule (a hydrolysis reaction, the reverse of a dehydration reaction). This can be accomplished a couple different ways, one of which is by enzymes. The enzymes that break up disaccharides are named to reflect the disaccharide they hydrolyze: sucrase hydrolyzes sucrose, maltase hydrolyzes maltose, and guess what lactase hydrolyzes?

Starches

If many glucose molecules react to form a glucose polymer, one possible polymer is starch. There are 2 kinds of starch; amlyose is a single chain of glucose molecules that usually forms a helical structure, and amylopectin is a branched chain of glucose molecules. Both are present in plants, the relative amounts of amylose and amylopectin vary, although there's almost always more amylopectin than amylose. Amylose can by hydrolyzed by an enzyme called... amylase. Is there a pattern? I think so...

Glycogen

Plants make glucose polymers to store energy rather efficiently and compactly, so it would make sense that animals would also use a glucose polymer to store energy. The animal glucose polymer is called glycogen and is even more branched than amylopectin.

Cellulose

With a very small change in structure, alpha-glucose becomes beta-glucose. There's a very nice side-by-side animation of these two molecules at {http://www.biotopics.co.uk/JmolApplet/alphabetajglucose2.html}. Polymers of beta-glucose are called cellulose, and this tiny structural change means that it is MUCH more difficult to hydrolyze cellulose that polymers made of alpha-glucose. Cellulose is what is typically called “dietary fiber” and passed through the digestive tract relatively intact.

There are a LOT of fascinating details in the structure, function and reactivity of carbohydrates, this is just a little taste.

Atomic Structure - Nuclear Chemistry

From email:

I was reading a book of "on Food and Cooking" and i came up with the question that, why proton in an atom does not repeal each other or why electrons of same atom does not attract it's own proton? i have read it's answer also but i am still unclear. could you please explain this

Atoms are pretty amazing things for the exact reasons you point out. Protons are positively charged, so if like charges repel each other, the protons in an atom should be trying to get as far apart as possible. But all of the positively charged protons in an atom are crammed into the tiny space of the nucleus.This was pretty confusing to the scientists who originally discovered the structure of the atom, but their data was conclusive, so additional research was required to explain their observations.
There are four basic forces in the universe: gravitational forces, electromagnetic forces, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force. The strong nuclear force is extremely strong, but it only acts over a very small distance, probably about the size of a proton or neutron. When 2 protons are brought very close together, the strong nuclear force is able to act and stick the protons together to form a nucleus.
The electrostatic/electromagnetic forces that cause protons to repel each other ("like charges repel") can act over a much longer distance than the strong nuclear force. This is why atoms don't just melt into each other under normal conditions; when two nuclei approach one another, the repulsive force between these positive charges pushes the nuclei apart. If the two nuclei are smashed together hard enough, the protons can get close enough to allow the strong nuclear force to take over and the nuclei fuse together. This is what happens in the sun. The extremely high temperatures make nuclei move very fast and the high pressure leads to a lot of collisions, so nuclei smash together and undergo nuclear fusion. The reverse of this process, nuclear fission, is what provides the energy in nuclear power plants.
What about the electrons? Electrons have very little mass and are moving very fast. The negatively charged electrons are attracted to the positive charged protons in the nucleus, but are moving fast enough to prevent them from crashing into the nucleus. Because electrons are so small and moving so fast, their motion is a little more complicated (due to quantum effects, but that's a little beyond this course...), but in a very basic way it can almost be thought of as the way planets move around the sun. The planets are attracted to the sun by gravity, but the motion of the planets keeps them from crashing into the sun.
In almost all chemistry and physics, properties and behavior are determined by the balancing of force. The fascinating part of science is figuring out how those different forces interact with each other.

The Molecules of Food!

Today in class we started looking at the molecules (and ions) that make up food. We're going to spend a few days looking at these so we can relate the behavior of macroscopic foods to the microscopic molecular changes that take place during food preparation. We'll look at 4 main groups:

Water - Most food is mostly water. Most of life (as we know it) is mostly water. Water is a tiny molecule that is bent, so one end has a more negative local charge and the other end has a more positive local charge. {That last part's not a bad definition of "polar".} This makes water molecules stick together. (Opposites attract...) Water dissolves things that are charged or polar.

Inorganic components - salts, minerals, and a few other assorted bits.

Small organics - In this case, "organic" means "containing carbon-hydrogen bonds". The term has taken on a variety of other meanings in food, but we'll stick with the "C-H bonds" definition. These can include things like vitamins, metabolic products, and other bits & pieces.

BIG organics - Lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, DNA/RNA - These are all much bigger molecules.
Lipids - These are fats, mostly composed of triglycerides. The length and "saturation" of the long fatty acid chains in triglycerides define their properties. The longer and more saturated the chains are, the more effectively they can pack, meaning that they are often solids at room temperature. Unsaturation (double bonds) can put some "kinks" in these long chains that can significantly affect their properties.
Proteins - Proteins are polymers composed of amino acid monomers. The central carbon in an amino acid has an amine group (-NH₂), a carboxylic acid group (-COOH), a hydrogen (-H), and a 4th group that varies (the "sidechain"). The hydrophobicity of the sidechain determines the structure of a protein, and the structure of a protein determines the function of the protein. Proteins are the workhorses of biochemistry/biology.

We'll get to the others next week. Don't forget the quiz in D2L and enjoy your weekend.

Syllabus posted

The syllabus is posted:

http://www.drbodwin.com/teaching/syllabi/bcbt100asyl.pdf

The schedule of topics is not set in stone, so I have not included a lecture schedule on the printed syllabus. I hope to adjust the topics (somewhat) to match the interests of the people taking BCBT 100 this semester. I will put lecture schedule information up on my web page {http://www.drbodwin.com/teaching/bcbt100.php} for BCBT 100 with notes here. Is there an aspect of food and cooking that you have always been curious about? Let me know and we might be able to include it in class.

Textbook

We'll be using On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee (2004) as a text for this course. It's available at the MSUM bookstore, but it's also widely available online if you prefer to get your books that way. I found it on Amazon.com, Walmart.com, and a bunch of other sites for $26-30 as either a hardcover or an e-book. It's a nice book to have on your shelf even after this class.

Welcome to BCBT 100!

Welcome to the BCBT 100 - Science of Cooking class blog. I'll post class announcements and information here as well as answers to general questions I get by email. This blog allows anonymous comments.