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Syllabus for SP.287

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SP.287 Kitchen Chemistry Seminar at MIT -Syllabus for Spring 2009

Tuesday, February, 24th- Bread and Salt tasting

Weekly assignment

• Take a look at the recipe
• Reading assignment from the text (On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, Hardcover version (copywrite 2004) 515-550.
• Research papers.
  • on Bread: 1. A Kansas State researcher has identified what makes Gluten 2. A good review article on gluten from 1995. 3. take a look at this paper's introduction. It is a very detailed paper about wheat proteins.
  • On Salt: We will be having a salt tasting, so here is an example of a research paper on the exact topic.
    • Instructions for the salt tasting:
    1. onto a slice of bread (we will be using a baguette or unsalted soda cracker), put some unsalted butter
    2. sprinkle your salt of choice
    3. describe how it tastes
    4. rinse mouth with water
    5. repeat steps 1 to 4 with a different salt

Additional reading:

• Yeast:
• Learn what exactly yeast does in the bread
• Explore the science of yeast (through Red Star's company's eye) and also through Fleishmann's yeast.
• History of yeast
• Bread chemistry
• hints on breading bread
• Bread science 101
• the purpose of each of the ingredients in bread
• All About Gluten
• did you know that there is a International Gluten Workshop?(this year it is in Baltimore, Maryland in September)
• Information on Salt
  • Salt facts
  • this is what people who watch too much Food Network dream about! (and what we are going to be tasting in class)

FUN SITES

• Here is a restaurant dedicated to different types of salt.

Homework questions

Yeast Specific Questions:

1. What is yeast?
2. Who was the first scientist to identify how yeast works?
3. What is the different types of yeast available?
4. Why do you have to add sugar to the yeast?
5. What is the yeast's function in the bread?
6. What else is the major use of yeast in consumer products?

Bread specific questions:

1. Why do you have to let the bread rise twice?
2. Why do you knead bread dough?
3. Why do you brush the egg yolk on top of the bread before you bake it?
4. What chemical reaction causes the elastic bread dough to form?
5. Why happens if your body can't digest gluten?
6. What exactly is gluten?

Salt specific questions:

1. What is salt?
2. What is the purpose in the bread?
3. Did you taste a difference in the salts you tasted?
4. What was the most unusual tasting salt you had? What made it unusual for you?
5. What was the best salt you tasted?

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Last updated: December 28, 2008