Others Like “Temper, Temper, Temper! The Science of Tempering Chocolate” (top 20 results)
If you like to bake, this might be an interesting project for you. When you're following a recipe, do you ever wonder why certain ingredients keep showing up time after time (e.g., baking powder in quick breads)? Do you notice that certain ingredients tend to occur in a particular ratio to one another (e.g., amount of shortening and sugar, or amount of shortening and flour, or number of eggs and amount of flour)? What happens if you use more or less of an ingredient than the recipe calls…
Read more
Whipped egg whites are used in many sweet and savory recipes. They are used to add air into cake batters, meringues, and soufflés. Egg whites, also known as albumin are 15 percent protein dissolved into water. When egg whites are beaten or whipped, the protein chains unravel. This is called denaturation. The process of whipping egg whites adds air to the mixture, in addition to denaturing the proteins. The denatured proteins create bonds with each other and trap air bubbles within…
Read more
Who doesn't love soaking up the last bit of gravy on Thanksgiving? Or dipping a crusty cube of bread into a cheese fondue? Or scooping up the thick juices from a fruit pie? Sauces make eating a joy! They provide concentrated flavor in a thickened liquid form, with a pleasing texture and consistency that carries or compliments the flavor of the rest of the food. No matter if they're salty, spicy, savory, or sweet, sauces make foods richer and more special.
There are many ways to thicken sauces,…
Read more
Have you ever bitten into a beautiful golden-brown cookie only to realize in dismay that the bottom is burned and black? What causes that uneven baking? Can it be prevented? You can discover the answer by conducting a science fair project to determine whether different types of cookie sheets result in noticeably different cookies. First you'll need to do some background research to figure out what kinds of baking sheets you can buy. For example, there are aluminum, steel, insulated, and…
Read more
What is cooking? Cooking is applying heat to food in order to help make it taste good. But the decision to cook your food doesn't end there. Do you want to cook it at a low temperature for a long time or do you want to apply high heat and cook or sear it right away? You might think that a pot is just something in which to cook your food, but it is also a cooking tool. Pots and pans are made from different kinds of materials, such as aluminum, stainless steel, iron, and ceramics. Each of these…
Read more
Here's a project idea for all of you bakers out there. What happens if you try your favorite muffin recipe with different types of flour (e.g., white, whole wheat, rye, soy, etc.)? Think of ways you can measure the results. How would you measure the density of a muffin? A kitchen scale would definitely be useful for this project, both for measuring the results and for portioning out the batter for equal-sized muffins. What other measures might be of interest? (Nakajima, 2005)
Read more
Did you know that your body has a built-in cooler? And it might not be what you think! Sweat is produced when you are hot, but its purpose is actually to cool your body as the water in it evaporates from your skin. In this science fair project, you'll use the energy produced when water evaporates to cool down chocolate-covered candy so it doesn't melt.
Music has many mathematical elements in it: rhythm, pitch, scale, frequency, interval, and ratio. There are many ways to turn these elements into a science fair project. You can investigate how the scale is based upon a special type of number sequence called a Harmonic Series. Another scale used by Bach, called the "Well-Tempered-Scale" or the "Equal-Tempered-Scale", is based upon a series. How are these mathematical series and ratios related to notes, chords, intervals, and octaves? You can…
Read more
If you've ever been on a long hike, you probably already know how hungry all that walking can make you. But if you're going a long distance, the last thing you want is a heavy pack of snacks on your back. So what can you bring along for a healthy, hunger-satisfying, lightweight snack? How about dried foods, like banana chips or beef jerky? Many foods have high water content. The drying process removes much of the water from the food, leaving behind a lighter, but equally nutritious snack. Just…
Read more
When you take medicine, it needs to dissolve in order to be passed into your bloodstream to have an effect. On the other hand, the drug needs to be packed into a small, dense pill to make it easier to swallow. How does the delivery method of a drug change how quickly it enters the bloodstream? Compare different brands of a drug to find out which brands dissolve the quickest. Does the pH of the stomach (which is usually between 1 and 2) matter? Compare coated to uncoated pills: does the coating…
|
Explore Our Science Videos
Fire Snake Experiment
How Train Wheels Stay On Track - STEM activity
Finding Pi Using Everyday Objects