Brash, Lorna. Professor Cook’s Mind-Blowing Baking.

Brash, Lorna.  Professor Cook’s Mind-Blowing Baking.  Enslow      2013  32p   ISBN 978-0-7660-4303-9  elm/ms      E-BN  Nonfiction 

The kitchen is one of the best science labs in the world. We never think of it as science, but all the ingredients used in recipes cause reactions and change during the cooking stage when heat is applied.  This is also a basic fact of science experiments: when you mix chemicals together there are always reactions, and if you use heat, that can cause another reaction with quite different results.

The first example is the recipe for crimson velvet whoopie pies.  The whoopie pies use flour, butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, and other ingredients, but the red color in the pies comes from the food coloring agent cochineal, or red food coloring.  Cochineal is a chemical extract made from beetles!  However, this is too simply said; you must read the scientific explanation to truly understand how it works.

Each recipe has an interesting “science bit” that will catch children’s attention even as they prepare the recipe.  Who says science isn’t fun?  This book will prove that there is a lot of science in the kitchen.  The recipes are easy to follow, with plenty of pictures and directions as well as fun facts. There are eleven fun recipes to make with children and to use as science projects.

The book includes a glossary, an index and useful web sites.  This series will create an interest in science as children learn that science is all around us and that it can be fun to learn how it is used in the kitchen to make delicious food.  Other books in the series include Professor Cook’s Dynamite Dinners, Professor Cook’s Fruity Desserts, and Professor Cook’s Smashing Snacks.

Summary: Science in the kitchen is what this book is all about.  Every recipe has a “science bit” that connects the cooking with the basics of science.              

Cookbooks, Science                                                --Magna Diaz