Doing kitchen science: Part 3, cooking and baking

Of all the ways to do kitchen science (see non-edible messy and measured versions, too), attending to a bit of science while cooking or baking fits most seamlessly into routines. And of course, eating your “experiments” is part of the fun! Plus the grandkids enjoy cooking and baking, and their skills and independence with doing it develop with age and practice. The natural appeal of cooking and baking means that if you have a little science background, you can sneak in a few lessons while you’re cooking or baking anything with the grandkids, just by asking your own questions or discussing your grandkids’ questions.

Adult-style leading questions might include:

• Hey, look! Why does the pizza dough get stretchy when you knead it? 

• Funny—how come there are bubbles after I proof this yeast? 

• Huh…the cookies were pale when they went in the oven. How did they turn brown?

Asking and discussing questions like this can help kids learn some basics about the science of cooking as you work together. (Not to mention encouraging observation and asking questions, also great goals!)

More interesting, though, are the grandkids’ unrehearsed questions. One grandchild and I were baking a cake together when he asked, “Why does the cake batter get hard in the oven?” My immediate thought was evaporation. Which is very partially right, it turns out. Our deeper dive taught us that cake batter firms up via a complicated mix of physical and chemical processes, including gluten formation, protein denaturation, gelatinization, and more. And that it’s really interesting the way this phenomenon contrasts with heating other things, which typically get softer, not harder: solder melts, ice thaws, water evaporates.

If you don’t have much science background—or if  you just want some ideas to get you started—another approach is to work from a kids’ recipe book that highlights the science. The grandkids and I have tried a few “experiments” (aka recipes) from Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: Edible Edition by Liz Lee Heinecke, subtitled “52 Mouth-Watering Recipes and the Everyday Science that Makes Them Taste Amazing.” One drawback of this book it that about half of it is devoted to sweets, which may not suit your health-conscious sensibilities—or those of the parents. (If your grandkids are anything like mine, they won’t mind!). But the book does do a lot well:

• The featured foods/recipes are likely to appeal to kids, and so motivate them to get into the kitchen.

• The recipes and instructions are very detailed, complete with photos showing many of the steps.

• Recipes are rated on a challenge level of 1-4 toque icons (easiest to hardest). 

• Highlighted hints provide extra suggestions, like not using used iodized salt for pickling, and not overbeating egg whites. 

• Highlighted safety tips alert kids and adults when a recipe or technique presents particular hazards, like how very hot a fruit/sugar mix needs to be to make syrup (burn risk), and how tricky it is to cut carrot sticks (laceration risk). Risks of kitchen standards like hot ovens and blender blades are assumed, so adults do need to be present with young kids.

• For each recipe, a box explains the basics of the science behind the food. For example, in a recipe for panir (a soft, fresh, delicious Indian cheese; challenge level 2), after some explanation of the chemical makeup of milk and the basics of cheese making, the text explains, “Acidifying the milk with lemon juice changes the chemistry, destroying the emulsion, which causes the fats and casein to clump together in curds. The leftover whey contains some proteins and most of the water.” That’ll be enough for a lot of kids and grandparents. Kudos to the ones who ask, “Changes the chemistry how??”

With one of the grandkids, visiting because he was too sick to go to school and too well to lie around, we first tried the pizza recipe (challenge level 2). The pizza science lesson focused on the gluten in the crust. We then moved on to the tie-dye roll cake (challenge level 3; I would have rated it 4), complete with whipped cream filling and frosting. Including cooling stages, the cake was a half-day project, but with impressive and delicious results. The science lesson explained the spongy nature of the cake, and also what made it possible to roll the cake without breaking it. We also learned about the roles of air, fat, cold, and sugar in stabilizing the whipped cream bubbles.

So there’s a lot to explore and learn by following these recipes! And, as a bonus typical of science, you get to learn from mistakes. Another grandson and I opted to make the challenge-level 4 “Perfect Layer Cake” with chocolate ganache. The cake turned out fine, despite our “veganizing” it by using vegan butter and flax eggs. But the ganache? Lesson 1: Follow the instructions, Grandma! Lesson 2: Oh, yeah, vegan butter is liquid at room temperature. Chocolate syrup for your ice cream, anyone?