A New Kind of Cooking Class

I'd heard previously about the wildly successful "Kitchen Chemistry" class taught at MIT and how it combined chemistry and kitchen skills into a class about cooking that was based in science (and counted for a science credit). It turns out that this class might be part of a larger trend towards teaching the science behind what's happening in the kitchen. Classes are cropping up at other universities around the country, according to Chemical and Engineering News.

That's good news for several reasons. First, I think any topic that relates science to everyday life helps to engage students with science and results in more overall science literacy, which is important for a well-informed populace. Second, I think educating people about food and cooking helps to make them more enthusiastic and confident cooks. This in turn helps people that eat better, healthier food, increasing health and quality of life in our society. Lastly, it's great for me, since I'm pretty sure I can't think of  job I'd enjoy more than teaching such a class.

(via BoingBoing)

Homemade Astronaut Ice Cream

One small step for man...

As a kid, after visiting almost any natural history or science museum, a package of freeze-dried "astronaut" ice cream was one of my favorite treats. I still like it today, actually, even though I think it's mostly the nostalgia and not the taste. Via BoingBoing, I found these instructions for making your own, homemade freeze-dried ice cream, assuming you have access to a vacuum pump and some laboratory glassware. Although it seems like a bit of work, the limitless flavor possibilities are intriguing. Also, I suppose you could use this setup to freeze-dry all sorts of foods, not just ice cream. Tasty.

(Image: astronaut ice cream, a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 image from Rakka's photostream)

Kitchen Science

I was tipped off (thanks, Emma!) to a cool post with 100 cool food science experiments that you can do in your kitchen at the Accredited Online Colleges blog. Most (if not all) of these use readily available materials to illustrate some basic science principles. They would be great for geeky cooks or anyone that wants to get kids interested in science.

They're taken from a variety of sources and provide quite a wide breadth of ease and level of serious science. Also included are a variety of DIY projects, like making your own yogurt, that illustrate some science principles but might also appeal to those of us who want to try to make home-made versions of things you'd normally buy at the grocery store.

They make me a little nostalgic, as I remember doing some basic kitchen science experiments as kid from Mr. Science experiments-for-kids type books.