All Wet!

Most food is made up largely of water, even stuff that is "dried" or "dehydrated" often will have more water in it than meets the eye.  Water is the solvent in which most food reactions take place and is a good place to start our explorations into what really happens when food is "cooking" (a fairly ambiguous word that could mean any number of chemical reactions that take place from the time that cells start forming until after you swallow, but generally accepted to mean an application of heat to the food).  There are so many things to talk about with water, most of you probably already know that it is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded together with an oxygen atom.

I think I'm going to start there anyway because the nature of these atoms account for a lot of the coolest properties that water has.  I warn you now that the next few posts may be filled with "boring science", but I think it is absolutely awesome and will try and convince you that it is awesome too.  So stay tuned! 

Questions!!

Hello all you folks following my blog...not that many yet, but I'll pretend.

I want all of you to ask the burning questions you've always had about food!  Anything you want to know, just ask and I'll find an answer for you.  I must warn you that I will geek out about any subject relating to food and may give you more answer than you really wanted, but whatever, just bear with it. :)  Food is awesome.  I'll try to warn you when the nerdy science content is coming so you can skip it if you don't want to read it, and I'll sum up what I'm going to write beforehand so you don't have to read all of the nitty gritty of the science if you don't want to.  (I would encourage you to read it all though, but I understand that not everyone gets as excited about microbes, maillard browning, and microcrystalline cellulose as I do).

What's this all about?

Well, I was a bit bored at school one day and my mind began to wander. I thought about ice cream, I thought about bread...I thought about food, my ultimate obsession. So much so, that I study it for my academic major. At this point you may have made some assumptions about what that means. To clarify:

No, I'm not a chef. (They are the artists of the food world. Some are amazing, like Masaharu Morimoto, others less so.)

No, I'm not a nutritionist. (Though it is a fascinating and important part of eating.)

No, I'm not a dietician. (These are the good folks that take what nutritionists find out and help you figure out what you need to eat.)

I study food. Period. I find out why an egg white turns solid when you cook it. I learn why milk becomes cheese. And yes, I can tell you what all those long words on your food label really mean.

The Not So Big Bang

All matter was not contained in a single infinitesimal point that exploded outwards to create billions upon billions of stars, planets, bacteria, animals of all sorts, and ultimately humans. But, in the dark recesses of my imagination (limitless or not I'll leave up to you to decide) a small idea exploded forth, causing a cascade of chemical reactions that altered membrane potentials in my neurons, ultimately ending in the creation of these few words. And the morning and the evening were the first day, and I looked upon this blog and decided it was okay.

Let the Blogging begin!