Campus Life

Chemistry, Cooking, and Communications

Bridget Cain, Social Media Editor|December 15, 2016

I decided to take the Chemistry of Cooking course this semester because I thought it would be an easy class. I have an interest in cooking but was awful at chemistry in high school. Regardless, I wanted to see how it applies to cooking. This class was a lot harder than I anticipated. I learned a lot from it, like why you have to use baking powder instead of baking soda in certain recipes, and how cooking your food changes the flavor and makes it taste better.

The class was all online, and the professor was available through email or office hours. I never met my professor in person, but found she was very helpful. I always thought that I had been pretty good at cooking, but always wondered why each ingredient played a key role in making the whole dish good. I can follow a recipe fine, and most of the food we had to make turned out well for me. I learned why my bread rose in the oven, and the difference between natural and Dutch-processed cocoa, and why to use each.

While making the food I experienced frustration and excitement. The professor gave us recipes, with tips. Our last assignment we had to pick our own recipe that applied things we learned in the class. This was the most frustrating assignment of all. I didn’t have my professor’s help to go off of, and I was trying something out of my comfort zone. I knew it wouldn’t be perfect; however, I thought the previous assignments would turn out awful, only to be surprised in the end when they turned out great.

I decided to video of myself making that recipe I had found for myself as part of my final project for the class, which was to show how the class applies to your major. You can watch the video in this post!