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Professor Vanessa McCaffrey The Science of Food and Cooking Food is one of the basic needs of all people. Not only must we eat in order to provide fuel for our bodies, but it is an integral part of our society. Everyone remembers Thanksgiving celebrations, with family and friends gathered in one place and wonderful smells emanating from the kitchen. You also remember the really bad meal that your roommate cooked the first night in the dorm. Both meals contained many of the same ingredients and were probably cooked in the same way. Why was one so good and the other so bad? The food that we eat is composed of invisibly small molecules. When we process food, either by storage or by cooking, we begin to effect how these molecules interact with each other. This class will begin to describe food and the transformations that take place in food in chemical and scientific terms. We will explore the molecular nature of the food that we eat. By readings and discussion, we will begin to understand how taste, smell and the nutritiousness of food are influenced by basic chemical properties. We will also spend some time exploring the impact that food has on other areas of our life. Gender has always played a large role in the preparation and consumption of food. Food is also one of the defining traits of a culture. We will use readings, class discussion and movies to explore these alternative roles of food. There will be a lab component of the class. In the lab, we explore some of the basic principles that are discussed in the class. Some representative labs will include: 1) determining the caloric contents of food Potential reading list: Excerpts from: Harold McGhee, The Curious Cook
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