WEBVTT - Molecularly Gastronomical 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.520 stuff dot com. Taylor, everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.799 I've jobbed in strict list. We have a podcast for 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:22.479 you that I'll give you a little food for thought. Yes, 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.000 the tech of food, food, tech and science. And it's 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:29.120 all gonna be science, tech and food. And unfortunately both 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:31.400 Lauren and I have already eaten before we gave in 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.600 today podcast room or else it would also become an 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.760 episode where we just say, I'm really hungry now knowledge 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:43.599 of cannibalism, I would totally eat Jonathan's eyeball. Yeah, yeah, 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.440 I don't even have my glasses to protect me right now. So, 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:52.239 you know, back in the day, the day, like way 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:54.760 back in the day, like like like the cave day. Yeah, 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:59.200 even before I was born, Lauren. Back in that day, 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:04.720 food science was essentially all about sending out an unlucky 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:08.360 gave man to try and eat a particular mushroom and 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.200 find out if that's going to make if it's for 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:16.640 recreation or for nutrition or for dying dying one or 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.560 the three right if if if if he comes back 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:21.959 and talks about how the dinosaurs were jamming out to 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.640 uh to fish, then obviously that would have been in 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.960 the recreation category. If he said that was very tasty, 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.120 that would clearly be food. And if he didn't come 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.640 back at all, well it could be one of several things, 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:39.120 but possibly means probably we shouldn't eat. Yeah, so today 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.080 food sciences is more about well, it's still about safety, 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.240 but it's also about nutrition. It's about the taste of food. 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:52.200 It's about the presentation, preparation and preservation of food, keeping 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.480 it fresher longer to right, and food science really right 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.600 now when we when we use that term, it tends 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:04.200 to be used in relation to keeping food fresh and 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.520 safe longer so that we can get it from and 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.519 one massive quantities right in an industrial sense, is usually 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:13.720 what food science means, although we wanted to point out 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.000 that all cooking is really technically food science because it's 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:19.880 physics and chemistry is what makes it go. In fact, 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.240 one of the shows that we talked about before we 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.600 came in Here to podcast was Alton Brown's Good Eats, 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:29.640 which really he focused very much on the science angle 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.680 of cooking and explained what the food was going through 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.000 when you would actually cook to explain, you know, why 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.360 food comes out a certain way when you prepare it 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.200 one way versus another, right right kind of kind of 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.280 You know, if you've never seen the show a go 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:46.400 go find it. It's terrific. But you know it's it's 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:50.639 very Mr Wizard and Mr Wizard meets Julia Child, It's 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.200 it's great, it's great, and that I mean that completely. 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.280 Brown is more of a scientist than a culinarian, and um, 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.440 you know self admittedly he's learned about cooking through his 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.440 love of science and so as books are very much 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:09.200 the same way. So you know, it's all about chemistry, biology, physics, engineering. 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:13.400 It's all about making sure that the processes you are 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.760 going through are keeping the food in its most nutritional, 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.360 tasty and safe format as possible. But we've kind of 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:24.120 developed beyond that, I mean, beyond just the here's what 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:29.560 happens when you introduce eggs to a hot surface. You know, 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.120 we've gotten to a point now where we've got some 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:37.280 mad scientists getting involved in the preparation of food like crazy. 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.080 I just imagined these guys in in their kitchens which 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.600 look a lot like Dr Evil's laboratory, and just cackling 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:49.960 as they as they move one molecule of substance into 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.920 a vast vat of boiling liquid and it just the 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.280 smoke comes up and then you you know, it's one 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:57.840 of those things where if you get a whiff of it, 0:03:57.840 --> 0:03:59.839 you do that little cartoon thing where you float through 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:04.120 the air following the odor. Yeah, that's kind of what 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.680 always goes through my mind. But I don't think that's 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.680 exactly what happens. But but but there are some really 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:12.840 cool things being done in UH in A and food 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:17.320 science UH and be in molecular astronomy, right, Like, like 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:19.200 one of the things we talked about in food science, 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.480 one of the things that perplexes us is the whole 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.480 cake mixing, right, cake mix It's science, cake guys. The 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:29.120 fact that you can take this this box of questionable 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:34.160 carbohydrate and flavoring substance and add like oil and then 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.159 it's cake. I don't I don't think that that I 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.320 this this is something that I'm not positive that we 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.040 should be eating as human people. I'm not sure if 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.280 it counts as food, But the fact that it exists 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:47.560 is some kind of feat of chemistry that I do 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:49.800 not personally understand. When you think about when you think 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.600 about the actual you know, making cake from scratch, right 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:55.960 if you were to do it yourself. A lot of 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:59.679 that includes a large number of dry materials, right, flour 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.520 and in that kind of it's a basic flour and 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:07.039 leavening agent. Really, the the leavening agent and the protein 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.520 and the facts that go into a traditional buy hand 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.640 cake are what is going to make these chemical reactions 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.640 to make something rise, right, Right, So, so when you 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.240 think about it that way, putting all of it in 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.600 a box, is it quite as mysterious. Although you might say, 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.600 like what about the eggs, and uh yeah, a lot 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.120 of these these cake mixes that don't require you to 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.560 add eggs have dried eggs in them, in fact, to 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.120 the point or some other kind of powdered protein site 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.720 that will have a similar effect, right, you know, some 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.320 some mixes require you to add fresh eggs and some 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:45.520 do not. And there were lots of interesting theories on 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.680 why the kind that did not require you to add 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.720 eggs didn't sell so well. One of the theories, which 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.680 I think is or maybe I should say hypotheses, which 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.400 I think is a little apocryphal, is that in the 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.600 nineteen forties, when cake mixes were first being introduced. By 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.920 the way, this is all based upon the theory and hypothesis. 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.360 I it's gonna start sounding really misogynist, and I want 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:16.120 to apologize, but cast yourself back into nineteen forties America 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.800 and here's how it goes. The thought process was the housewife, 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.960 she needs her her world to be efficient so that 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.160 she can do the most with the least amount of 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.120 time because she's caring for a busy family. Her kids 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:31.640 are in school, and her hubby is off bringing home 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:38.560 the bacon exactly. Um, So the you know cake mixes 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:40.880 were thought of as being this great time saver. However, 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.040 there was this you know, the hypothesis was that women 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.479 did not want to buy the cake mixes that didn't 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:50.080 require you to add eggs, not because of anything different, 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:54.320 any kind of perceivable change in quality, but because they 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:58.000 felt like they weren't doing enough work. So they had 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.919 cake guilt. Yeah, like, this isn't real food because it 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.599 didn't require any real effort on my part. Therefore, this 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:09.400 is bad food. That was the hypothesis. Now, from what 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:11.880 I've read, it seems like that's kind of apocryphal because 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:14.960 the sales don't really reflect that, and also that a 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.000 lot of the the the ones that didn't require you 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.600 to add eggs into the mix had dried egg in them, 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:25.280 which meant that the taste was a little eggy. So 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.560 maybe that is an apocryphal story. But anyway, it's interesting 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.600 to me to think that we could make creating a 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.440 meal so easy that we would feel guilty about how 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:38.440 little effort it required on our part. Me. Man, I 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.680 don't care if I opened up the fridge and there's 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:45.160 a full meal there. I'm just like bonus. I think 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.640 I think that that that translates into you know, um 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:49.760 with with frozen meals and stuff like that. I think 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:54.360 that some people feel bad serving those. I mean there's 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.040 there's a nutrition issue in that. I mean, if you're 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.400 serving cake, it's cake. You know, no one's really eating 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:00.400 that for the nutritional value at least I hope not. 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.040 Guys don't do that because the cake is a lie. Yeah, 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.080 so let's talk about molecular astronomy. Now, Now where did 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.560 this idea come from? All? Right? So there were these 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:14.679 there were these two dudes. Um, I'm sorry, molecular astronomy people. 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.840 These these people were, um it was. It was a 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.800 physical chemist named her Vates and a professor of physics 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:26.000 named Nicholas Curtie who got together and they had separately 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.800 been experimenting with food and things for years and years 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.720 and years. Curtie was a Jewish physicist who left Europe 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:34.640 back in the nineteen thirties during the rise of the 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:37.840 Nazi movement and came to the US to work on 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:42.840 the nuclear weapons projects at Los Alamos. Yeah, so from 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.840 there to molecular gastronomy, huh. But he but he got 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.640 interested after after the project was over. The story goes that, 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.680 um that he, like many of his other colleagues, wound 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:56.360 up really wanting to get into something more creative and 0:08:56.360 --> 0:09:00.520 and so he he started getting into it. And one time, 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.280 supposedly he was demoing how to make a sou fla 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:06.880 at the Royal Institution in London, which is which is 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.079 a scientific institution. Um, this was, this was in the 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:12.520 night sometimes and he said, I think it's a sad 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:15.240 reflection on our civilization that while we can and do 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.720 measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus, we don't 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:25.320 know what goes on inside our sou flays. Wow, okay, Um. 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:27.480 So so he was he was passionate about this. And 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:32.480 Tease was the sort of guy who reportedly used a 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.960 lab ultrasound box to emulsify his mayonnaise. So this is 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:40.080 the kind of people we're working with, right, Yeah, I 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.120 can just imagine you're walking. This makes me think of 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:47.280 any science fiction film where you walk into the engineer's 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.080 lab and there's this really advanced piece of equipment that 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.559 always turns out to be the thing that the engineers 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:54.920 using to make his coffee. Something along those lines. You 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:58.360 don't want to talk about stereotypical thing, No, absolutely, I 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.640 and so supposedly Teas got into uh got into food. 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.000 Like I said, he was a physical chemist after he 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.360 royally messed up a sufla recipe by adding all the 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:10.640 egg yolks at the same time, so to one at 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:12.080 a time to one at a time or two at 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:13.920 a time the way that the recipe books said. But 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.160 he was like whatever, physics and just did it and 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.080 and it it fails. So then he said, well why 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.360 is that, Why is it doing this thing? And how 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.280 can we determine what is the actual process that's going 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:27.480 on so that we can make food in a way 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:29.960 that is going to be superior the best way to 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.160 make whatever dish we want to make. And you know, 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.719 anyone who really enjoys food. I mean not not just 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:38.840 like I'm hungry, I need to eat, but someone who 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.160 really enjoys the experience of dining and they like that 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.319 experience to be rich and not necessarily the food is rich, 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:50.840 but they like it to be a really um uh 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:55.080 rewarding its rewarding experience. Yeah, then this is the sort 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:58.800 of stuff that they get really interested in. Uh, they 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.680 got interested in it on a molecular level, which is 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:04.280 you know, the molecular gastronomy is where that comes from. So, 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.240 first of all, to really understand this term, first we 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.040 got to talk about what is gastronomy. So gastronomy is 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:14.760 the art of selecting, preparing, serving, and enjoying fine food. 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.920 So a gastronomic experience would be one where you are 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.040 having this fine food that's been prepared in a specific way, 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.600 perhaps by an expert chef, and you know, it's it's 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.319 it's it becomes an event. It's not just a meal 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:34.080 or just nourishment. It's beyond that. There's there's also a 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.320 very classic cookbook, if you've never heard of it, is 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.800 called the The Larus Gastrono Meek, which was originally published 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.560 in ninety eight and is this kind of encyclopedia of 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.400 cooking technique. It's actually very dense to parts if you've 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.199 never if you're not really familiar with cooking, but it's 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.880 like a physics manual. And I find that fascinating that 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:55.720 this has gone back that long of people just describing 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.200 a method rather than the kind of breezy blog like 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:01.520 thing that we have going on in cookbooks today, which 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.800 is also fabulous and gets gets newcomers into the industry, 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:07.760 but right doesn't have the same level of precision. And 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:09.640 part of that is that, you know, preparing food is 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.840 a very it's very difficult to be precise because while 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.800 you can have certain materials and and have very specific 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:19.840 measurements like you could you could say, all right, add 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:25.600 x number, add sugar. When it comes to add one egg, 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.120 not all eggs are created equal. So even if you 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.800 are to follow the exact same recipe as closely as 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.079 you possibly can, if you have ingredients that fall into 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.280 that kind of category where the quality of the ingredient 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:39.800 itself is going to be a little different, every single 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:41.680 time they can do is go and yell at a chicken, 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:45.160 and really that chicken does not care. Trust me, I 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.120 have spent way too much time yelling at chickens. It 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:51.640 is a waste of time. They they find it confusing 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.800 and the eggs come out scrambled. So um. Yeah, it's 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.360 just it's just an odd thing. It's one of those 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.599 things about cooking is that even if you follow the 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.360 procedure exactly the same way two times in a row, 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:07.080 there are enough variables there depending upon what you're preparing, 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.880 that your outcome could be a little to a lot different. 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.800 But this was all about trying to really boil that down. 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.959 And in fact, there are some critics of molecular astronomy 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:19.720 who goes so far as to say that it takes 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:21.080 the fun out of it and to make it a 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:23.880 science instead of an art, or or that even or 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:28.240 even that it's it's largely meaningless because of situations like 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.079 this where you have ingredients that aren't always going to 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.040 be exactly the same. Like you know, when you're working 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:37.240 with chemistry, if you're if you're using pure chemicals, you're 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:41.920 going to get that same right right, you know you're 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:46.079 avoiding contaminants. Then every time you do the same experiment, 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:49.200 the same procedure, it should come out exactly the same 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:52.320 with cooking. It's a little different because it's not that exact, 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:54.840 and some people have argued that you've taken an art 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:57.800 and tried to turn it into a science, when really 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:02.239 it belongs somewhere in the middle. Now. Molecular gastronomy specifically 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.079 is the study of the actual physical and chemical processes 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:09.160 that food undergoes during preparation. So it was originally called 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.800 molecular and physical gastronomy or physical and molecular astronomy, essentially 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:18.800 shortened just to molecular. The coin the coin was termed, 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:23.280 the term was coined and abound eight or nine. I'm 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.680 having the same kind of day, Lauren, I really am. 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.800 Uh yeah, And and it's it's interesting because when it 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:36.360 was first developed, it was even more of a scientific approach, 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.080 like almost clinical. They were going super nerdy with it um, 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:42.800 which I love. I you know, I'm certainly not complaining 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.160 about that, but that they were really breaking things down 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.480 to their very physical chemistry elements and uh and being 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.120 extremely precise and doing things like like using laboral ultrasound 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:57.000 boxes to care multifications. And eventually they kind of loosened 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.960 that up a little bit and acknowledged that individual expression, 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.600 an artistic uh, an artistic merit play a part in 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.520 prepared preparing food. It's not just you know, let's down 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.360 the gloves and the goggles and get into the laboratory. 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.800 And also beyond that, you know, I was mentioning the 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.240 ingredients issue. Another issue is the equipment that you have 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:19.960 available to you right like, and we're gonna talk more 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.479 about the equipment in the second half of this podcast. 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:28.800 But for example, if you're very specific scientific procedure involves 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:33.000 heating a particular mixture to a very specific temperature and 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.720 keeping it there, that could be tricky with a lot 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.240 of kitchen equipment. It all depends on the kind of 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:41.640 cook surface you have. You know, whether or not you 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:43.560 can have that level of precision. You might be able 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.280 to get within a couple of degrees, and that can 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.720 mean the difference between success and failure. Yeah. By by 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:50.760 the way, speaking of this, if if you find that 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:52.640 things don't come out of your oven quite the way 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:56.120 that you think they should, most most home kitchen ovens 0:15:56.200 --> 0:16:00.400 are wildly inaccurate. So it's it's uh, it's it's very 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:04.920 worthwhile getting a probe thermometer or or other independent thermometer 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.920 to check out the temperature on that just kitchen tips 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.400 from Lauren. Yeah, that's a very good point. I mean 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:13.720 it's one of the things that Alton Brown and his 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:15.480 show always said was, you know, make sure you have 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:17.880 some sort of thermometer. He had. He had a lot 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.080 of infrared ones where you could just point it at 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:22.680 the food and find out what the temperature was, but 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.000 he had other ones to like probe thermometers as well 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.000 and everything to to kind of give you that that 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:30.760 idea so that you would know specifically what you're dealing with, 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:34.080 what you're dealing with, Yeah, because you know, like I said, 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.080 not an exact science. Unless you have someone coming in 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:41.200 and calibrating your cookware all the time, it's probably not 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:45.320 going to work out that way anyway. So what did 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:50.880 molecular gastronomy people what what are these gastronomers extraordinaire? What 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.920 did they concern themselves with? Well, they mostly concerned themselves 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.560 with the three main groups of materials that are in chemistry, 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:03.720 which are elements, compounds, and mixtures. Okay, so an element 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.879 is a fundamental element, right, that is the basic unit 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:12.560 there that can't be broken down. So for example, if I, 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:14.680 if I, you know, just an example of any kind 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.200 of element iron iron as an element, you don't break 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:22.040 iron down into something less than iron other than iron atoms, 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:23.959 and you could break atoms down, but then it's not 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:29.040 iron anymore. Um, then you have compounds. These are materials 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.920 that have properties that are distinct from the individual elements 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:36.000 that combine to make the compound. But those elements are combined, 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.280 they're locked together now. So this is sort of the 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:42.600 molecule levels of water. For example, exactly, water has different 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.600 properties than hydrogen and oxygen, which when they're combined make 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:51.199 water different properties there, And then you have mixtures. And 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:55.760 mixtures are a combination of substances that aren't held together chemically, 0:17:55.800 --> 0:18:00.000 so that means you could actually mechanically separate them. So again, 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.359 and let's say, um, let's say that you can have 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:04.399 a mixture that also has a compound in it. So 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:08.320 let's say for some reason you have iron filings and salt. 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:12.159 You can mechanically separate the iron filings from the salt. 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:16.159 That's a mixture there, it's not chemically bonded. Salt, by 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.280 the way, is a compound because that's sodium and chloride. 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:23.240 These are very different elements. Sodium, of course, is a 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:27.960 metal that can react very violently with water. Uh chloride 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:31.480 not the most lovely chemical to come into contact with. 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:33.840 It is quite toxic. But when they are bound together 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.600 into sodium chloride, that's table salts, super tasty. Yeah, makes 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:45.200 food better. So anyway, food dishes are colloidal systems. And 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.560 I know all of you out there know this. You're 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.520 all thinking, Jonathan, come on, this is cooking one oh one. 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.600 But I'm gonna go through it anyway. Now, Really, a 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.480 colloid is a material composed of tiny particles of one 0:18:56.520 --> 0:19:01.119 substance that are dispersed but not dissolved in an other substance. 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.679 So here are the different colloidal systems in food. Ready 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.199 write this down, there'll be a test leader. There's foam, 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:11.880 so all of our burrista is out there, no, this 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.919 one that's gas dispersed in a liquid, so cream whipped 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:20.679 cream exactly. Then there's solid foam that's gas dispersed in 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:25.119 a solid like a marshmallow, yep, marsh mellon as Spock 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.480 would say. There's gel which is a solid dispersed in 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.879 a liquid such as gelatin, So you know jello, that 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.600 kind of there's an emulsion, which is liquid dispersed in 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:39.960 another liquid. Mayonnaise be an example of an emulsion. And 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.160 then there's a solid emulsion, which is a liquid dispersed 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.639 in a solid, and that's like butter or cheese. Some 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:49.960 of the tastiest colloidal systems as far as I am concerned, 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:52.520 and in some food dishes, you're going to encounter more 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:55.400 than one colloidal system, which creates what is called a 0:19:55.440 --> 0:20:01.879 complex dispersed system or CDs, like ice cream, which is 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:06.560 has solids, liquids, and gases in at least two colloidal states. 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.760 So you've got uh and the solids you have, You've 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.639 got some fats, you've got some milk, proteins in the liquid, 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:14.879 you've got you know, the water, and the gases. You 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:17.280 have air and all of this comes together when you 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.800 mix it together to make a delicious frosty treat, which 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:25.840 is especially appreciated in the summer days in Atlanta. Ice 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:29.040 ice cream is actually really chemically complex. It's it's fascinating 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.560 that you know, with with four ingredients and a bag 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:36.119 of ice and salt, you can make some in your kitchen. So, guys, 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:38.480 the next time you are wandering around you see a 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.720 little kid enjoying ice cream on a hot summer day. 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:43.640 Walk up to that little kid, point at the little 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:49.320 kid and scream, you're eating science, and then tell them 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:51.320 that stuff you should know told you to do that 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:56.680 stuff you should know. Remember that it's really important. Okay. 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:02.560 Uh So the molecular gastronomy guys they started describing colloidal 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:09.480 systems using formulas like mathematical formulas and uh, you know, 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.719 like they could break down something like a sauce into 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.640 a specific formula and explain the molecular makeup and dispersion 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:21.159 processes to create that sauce. So you would take a 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:23.440 sauce and you would analyze it. You'd say, all right, well, 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:25.800 here are the molecules that go into this this is 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:30.560 these are the ingredients that make this sauce. Here's the ratio, 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:33.800 how many of one versus another. Here's what kind of 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.320 um of substance it was if it was a liquid 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:39.640 or a solid or a gas before it was put 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:42.800 together to make this sauce. Uh, and here's the order 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:44.600 it would go in. And you would break that down 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.080 into like it would look like something that came ryal 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.720 of an algebra book, I mean, or a trigonometry book. 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:51.040 You look at this and like it looks like a 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:54.240 proof or something. This is this geometry, And no, it 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:59.400 was cooking. Um And in fact, uh, there was one 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.720 of the one guy in molecular astronomy took a look 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:07.560 at all the sauces used in French cooking. Tea. There's 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:12.360 something like, oh, several hundred different sauces explained described within 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:16.600 French cooking. But Tease said that all classic sauces belong 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.600 to twenty three groups of colloidal processes, and that using 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:23.200 his system you could create new sauces that were never 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:28.119 recorded before just by adding in different colloidal processes while 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:30.880 making your sauce. So, in other words, first he said, 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:34.359 the French not that big. Those hundreds and hundreds of 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.320 sauces could be boiled down to twenty three. And then 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:39.800 not only that, but you can actually make a brand 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:44.679 new sauce using my method. It's in Yeah, well it's 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:47.879 technically the French boil it down to four sauce basses. 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:51.439 But yes, his twenty three is a little bit more precise. Yeah, yeah. 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.560 And then when you get down to the specific types 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:57.040 of sauces, that's when you get to the hundreds. So 0:22:57.080 --> 0:23:00.240