Bringing food chemistry to life

Once again food gums come to the rescue of our building project. This time – sodium alginate. Here an I applying a slurry of a 2% (w/w) alginate solution containing peat moss, compost, and grass seeds to a newly exposed cut at the back of our driveway. The alginate forms a gel slowly in-situ using [...]

Can’t show the students for administrative reasons, but we had a good and educational time once again. Bringing you highlights from the second iteration of  ”BRINGING FOOD CHEMISTRY TO LIFE”. >>><<< DISPERSED SYSTEMS: Mayonnaise and egg white foams, and ways of messing them up that were instructive for the chemistry lesson. POLYMERS 101: Using the [...]

So far this summer I have given two short workshops using wheat, flour, bread,  and baking as a way of bringing food chemistry to life. The First group was the Oregon Farm Bureau’s  Summer Agriculture Institute on the theme of Grain-Gluten-and Great bread. And started with the quote from Henri Fabre a 19th C French [...]

We use silly putty in class, both the Food Systems Chem and my graduate Food Polymer Science classes,  to get a handle [literally] on aspects of non-linear visco-elasticity of materials. Mike the Mad Biologist at ScienceBlogs linked to this video story at 30threads. It pays to know your raw materials Don’t mix up your mung [...]

There are many elements needed to create a good and compelling class – good material, a willing instructor, but the essential element is enthusiastic and dedicated students.  It is a circular argument: enthusiastic students generate enthusiasm in the instructor, which generates enthusiasm in the students, and around we go again. I was privileged to have [...]