The Food Chemistry Class

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TimH

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Hello all, I'm looking for ideas.

In my day job, I am a chemistry professor at a small liberal arts college in Grand Rapids, MI. We require students to take a physical science class with lab; our department offers a non-major's chemistry class (aka "Chemistry for Poets") for them to fulfill this requirement. In the past, I have taught this class as a watered-down version of the standard first semester chemistry class. This is a bad approach. I have found it nearly impossible to teach it so that the majority of students are challenged but not overwhelmed. It's a blow-off class for students who have some background, or it is demoralizing for students who don't. For the second group, the experience reinforces their impression that science sucks, and they suck at science, completely defeating the purpose of the physical science graduation requirement.

I'm planning (Spring semester of 2017) to offer a "Food Chemistry" version of the class. The class will have one 2 hour lab and two 1 hour lectures per week. Each week of the class will be devoted to a principle of chemistry that can be demonstrated though food and cooking. My hope is that scientific ideas can be communicated through food and that students will see that science might not suck. I also hope that the class could spark an interest in cooking as a way to build community, memories, and relationships.

A few current ideas for concepts and activities include:

Controlled Partial Oxidation of Sucrose (caramel making - bonding, valence electrons, chemical reactions)
Denaturation of Egg Proteins (various egg dishes - biochemistry, proteins)
Burning peanuts (thermochemistry, calorimetry, energy, energy units...nothing to eat here but important ideas, IMO)
Thermal energy transfer (sous vide NY Strip.....we can splurge at least once)

For resources I will have both a standard chemistry lab (nothing can be eaten in here) and another room with a sink and electrical supply at each of several tables (our kitchen). I will have some (as yet undefined) budget. I'm planning to buy several butane burners as a heat source and other kitchen supplies. I plan to supplement with equipment from my own kitchen; colleagues have also offered their home equipment for use on occasion, so it would be possible to rustle up several stand mixers, for example. There will likely be six lab groups of four students each. With luck, I will convince the administration that the class should be split into two lab sections....internal politics and costs at work here.... Unfortunately, ovens will not be available.

I'm wondering if you guys have some great ideas for activities and/or other resources that I could use. Any great web resources/videos out there? I have some ideas for texts that might be used, but haven't settled on anything. Any and all feedback welcome.
 
Makes me want to go back to school. Great idea Tim.

Just one idea pops into the noggin at the moment- the famous Maillard Reaction discussion. You could turn this into the physical reaction differences between searing (sweet) vs grilling (bitter). I'm definitely not a "science" guy, so please excuse the rudimentary offering here. Plus I suppose being able to grill might pose a bit of a problem.

But I really like where you're going with this class.

Just beware of the upset parents when they find out their little Johnny wants to become a chef after being inspired by your class.
 
I would do something with spherification. Those supplies are cheap and it would be really fun. May not apply to chemistry.

Check out www.chefsteps.com they have some web based classes you can take that could be used to gather ideas. Another cool thing to do would be using the whipping siphon, carbonated fruit. That might be getting a little to theoretical though and also may not apply to chemistry, you'd have to make that call.

I work in labs for my day job and people with science background find those two things pretty nifty.

Also as an additional bonus if you want you could do peanuts at different temperatures to bring in different rates, kinetics tie in. I am sure you could make some non burnt peanuts using this angle :).
 
What kind of scope are you covering?

Why not include some things about chirality and how it affects the way in which our senses interpret and interact with the molecule? It's a great lead in to bio-chemistry too as it helps to very clearly illustrate the "lock and key" explanation of enzymes, sensory receptors, neurotransmitters, etc. I think that a lot of people with a non-scientific background find this fascinating, the idea that the "handedness" of a molecule can be as important as it's physical structure (at least in it's interactions with biological systems). You could of course illustrate this by allowing them to smell oranges and lemons. It also leads nicely into molecular structure and lays the groundwork for why it is important and why they should care. From an equipment standpoint you'd only need an orange and a lemon.

Cis-trans isomerisation would also be an easy topic to lead into and you could give them an understanding of trans fats and why they present issues.

Are you looking to give them an overview of a number of basic concepts, a kind of Chemistry 101, or are you needing to drill down into a particular area?

I think that if have enough scope, widening it to include chirality (rather than only food based reactions) would be a good way to broaden their exposure.
 
Wow, thanks for all the ideas and encouragement. I haven't figured out how to quote multiple posts in the forum. I'll reply to all here.

"the famous Maillard Reaction discussion."

You're right. Grills won't be available for the comparison but the topic could be covered when searing after sous vide.

"I would do something with spherification."

That would be fun. In pondering this today, I'm thinking the class might take on an organic focus (vide infra). The spherification wouldn't have much of a chemistry focus, but we could do an ester synthesis lab (fun fruity aromas and chemistry content) and some fruit-based spherification/carbonation just for fun.

See here for a cool ester chart:

https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/infographic-table-of-esters-and-their-smells/

"Why not include some things about chirality."

Great idea. We could also isolate limonene from the two fruits. There is also the carvone carraway/spearmint example. Right now, there are no requirements for topics to cover, it's completely up to me. As I mentioned, an organic focus to the class is starting to make sense.

"I took this class online free from Harvard. A lot of ideas here"

Damn. The perfect resource for what I am trying to do. Many thanks!

"I'd go with an induction hob over Bunsen burners."

Good idea. Only concern here is cost. (My institution spent 50 of it's first 100 years educating nuns who took vows of poverty....not the best strategy when it comes to building an endowment...my budget might be a bit modest.) Using induction would also open up some possible physics topics of magnetic fields, currents and resistance.

Is this what you have:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MVN1M6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Again, thanks for the feedback and ideas, all.
 
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Might be interesting to make some cheese for one of the classes. Something like ricotta where you basically just need milk and an acid (like vinegar or lemon juice) and some salt. You can make it in a pasta pot on an induction burner.
 
^ the maillard reaction is an extremely complex topic from the viewpoint of chemistry. there are entire tomes written simply describing the maillard reaction and much of the process is still not well understood. (this is all VERY contrary to what reading the wiki page on maillard reaction would have you believe :p )

I wanted to direct the original poster toward the work of Mr. Herve This which I think you will find almost directly relevant to what you're doing. His book note by note cuisine which is translated into english in america by columbia press university I understand is actually used as a text for certain courses in europe. He is a chemist retained by the French INRA institut national de la recherche agronomique (no need for me to translate right?) hes done alot of lectures at american universities which are available on youtube, but be warned he has a very thick (TICK) french accent.
 
^^^Yes, excellent suggestion. His book is one that I am considering for a required text, but I was unaware of the YouTube videos. Ill will check those out.
 
This is just a long shot as I am a musician not anything resembling a chemist but. What about whipping heavy cream to soft peaks, hard peaks and then, voila, butter!! Costco has whipping cream for less than $6 for a half gallon. That always fascinates me how that happens. Combine that with a discussion about yeast and bread (sorry about no ovens) - toast some bread and you have heaven!!
 
If you can get your hands on it you can do ice cream with liquid nitrogen and explain the rapid cooling helps prevent ice crystals forming
 
Tim,

Regarding the quotes, if you hit the button to the right of "reply with quote" it will copy the text and include it in your post as a quote. You can do this for as many as you like and they'll all be there.

I found this accidentally a few days ago, until then I'd been manually copy and pasting quotes.
 
Definitely have a class or section dealing with freezing. No better way to understand sublimation than to make ice cream with dry ice. I'm sure you have access to liquid nitrogen which could be fun too and bring a little excitement.
 
 
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But. But. But.... Cooking is physics. Not chemistry. I liked physics. Hated chem.

It's a great idea in all seriousness. Maybe have an Art prof do a lab on plating. A physics prof do a discussion on maillard. He was a bit goofy but I enjoyed Alton Brown's approach to science on "Good Eats"..
 
daveb said:
But. But. But.... Cooking is physics. Not chemistry. I liked physics. Hated chem.

It's a great idea in all seriousness. Maybe have an Art prof do a lab on plating. A physics prof do a discussion on maillard. He was a bit goofy but I enjoyed Alton Brown's approach to science on "Good Eats"..
Click to expand...

You're not thinking of all the fun stuff :D such as thermochemistry, chemical thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, etc.

I agree that this is a good idea, would hopefully encourage students to attend class
 
As a bit of an update, I should let you know that your (US) tax dollars will be supporting this idea. The NSF sponsors (i.e. covers all expenses) a bunch of summertime workshops for faculty to develop new ideas and curricula. I'm going to be attending the food chemistry workshop this summer. Hopefully I'll be able to develop a 16-week syllabus. Here's the link:

http://www.ccwcs.org/content/food-chemistry

Looks like I won't have to reinvent the wheel.
 
+1 sounds great

But are you trying to use food to teach Chemistry? Or are you trying to teach the chemistry of food?

In the instance of the former you can talk about H20 as the universal solvent (Bohr). Its strong ability to dissociate/extract and how heat and pressure can be used to speed up this reaction.

Personally I would use my scientific instruments then regular kitchen instruments ie. spectrometer, precise thermometer, glassware etc to be able to measure rather than observe. (empirical formula/Borr)

touching on Millard vs carmelization, polymerization, disassociation (H20) (Lewis), polarity (oil/vinegar/pepper or soap), thermal conductivity (different metals, and their ability to conduct well, why/how, and how then it applies to metallurgy and magnetism) (polarity)

maybe dip a toe in biochemisty (brine, marinade) maybe do an experiment how negative pressure is useless compared to positive pressure on seasoning meats vs negative pressure is better than positive pressure when extracting essence.
(also can involve temp/pressure math. Dalton)
temp conversion, sublimation (vaporizing liquid by creating a vaccum then pulling the cork)
 
DDPslice said:
+1 sounds great

But are you trying to use food to teach Chemistry? Or are you trying to teach the chemistry of food?

In the instance of the former you can talk about H20 as the universal solvent (Bohr). Its strong ability to dissociate/extract and how heat and pressure can be used to speed up this reaction.

Personally I would use my scientific instruments then regular kitchen instruments ie. spectrometer, precise thermometer, glassware etc to be able to measure rather than observe. (empirical formula/Borr)

touching on Millard vs carmelization, polymerization, disassociation (H20) (Lewis), polarity (oil/vinegar/pepper or soap), thermal conductivity (different metals, and their ability to conduct well, why/how, and how then it applies to metallurgy and magnetism) (polarity)

maybe dip a toe in biochemisty (brine, marinade) maybe do an experiment how negative pressure is useless compared to positive pressure on seasoning meats vs negative pressure is better than positive pressure when extracting essence.
(also can involve temp/pressure math. Dalton)
temp conversion, sublimation (vaporizing liquid by creating a vaccum then pulling the cork)
Click to expand...

Damn. You want fries with that?
 
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