(incomplete) notes from the Food Pairing seminar held in Brugge 2008.01.05 > http://www.theflemishprimitives.com/

  • cooking as a src of inspiration fr the physical sciences
  • importance of 'questions of why?'
  • cooking pots → ceramics → materials science
  • boiling pot → steam engine
  • split between science and cookery ~1900
  • rewoven with n.kurit ~1960
  • vegetables & salt
    • myth of 'keeping greens green'
    • myths of boiling point changes
  • heat & meat
    • heat denatures protein in meat and softens connective tissue
    • possible to establish a series of temperature intervals for optimal cooking
  • gels
    • what can be used beyond pectin & 'jelly'?
    • currently 15-30 known gelling agents that are edible, with various characteristics
  • glass
    • anything 'crisp' or 'crunchy' eg. toffee, isomalt(?)
  • ice cream
    • what makes it taste creamy or smooth?
    • extremely small particles (less than 0.1mm)
    • can be made by very rapid (eg. liquid nitrogen icecream, or very even cooling (traditional)
  • what is flavour?
    • flavour is a mental construct, composed of sensory input from ALL senses as well as memory
    • sight, esp. colour affects flavour →
      • eg. adding 'tasteless' red/blue food colouring to white wine & compare with uncoloured sample of same wine.
    • sound →
      • affects the 'mechanical' actions and perceived texture of what we are eating
      • 'crunchy' sounds will cause slower, more careful mastication, louder noises will increase 'crunchiness'
      • people tend to chew in time with music
      • experiments with playback (& amplification,damping and delay) of eating noises while eating. (x.ref)
    • touch →
      • what we are touching while we eat, as well as the textures of the food affects what we taste.
      • eg. feeling sand paper while eating crème brûlée
  • the_flemish_primitives.txt
  • Last modified: 2009-01-23 09:52
  • by nik