The Science of Ingredients
The science behind cooking: how proteins set, carbohydrates thicken and brown, fats trap air and hold mixtures together, and fruit and vegetables brown in the air.
Justify the choices, the way you are assessed
Free interactive practice on the decisions the assessment actually asks you to justify.
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The science of ingredients
Cooking changes ingredients in ways you can explain with science. Different food groups behave in their own ways: proteins set, carbohydrates thicken or brown, fats trap air or hold mixtures together, and fruit and vegetables can brown in the air. Knowing these functional properties lets a cook control the result.
Words for the science
Learn these four terms before you match each change to its food group.
Protein and carbohydrate
Two food groups change in clearly different ways.
Right process, right food group
To reach the top grades, name the correct process for the correct food group, such as coagulation for protein and gelatinisation for starch, rather than saying the food just changes when cooked.
Match the food group to a change
- protein
- carbohydrate
- fats and oils
- fruit and vegetables
- coagulates and sets solid when heated
- gelatinises to thicken a hot liquid
- emulsify to hold oil and water together
- undergo enzymic browning in the air
Match the term to its meaning
- denaturation
- caramelisation
- aeration
- oxidation
- when a protein loses its natural shape
- when sugar browns on heating
- when air is beaten into a mixture
- when a food reacts with oxygen in the air
What is coagulation?
What is coagulation?
- When a protein sets solid, as in a cooked egg.
- When starch thickens a sauce.
- When sugar browns on heating.
- When egg white traps air to make a foam.
Changes to carbohydrate
Select the TWO changes that happen to carbohydrates.
- Gelatinisation.
- Caramelisation.
- Coagulation.
- Emulsification.
Order the thickening
Put the steps of thickening a sauce in order, earliest first.
- Flour is mixed with a cold liquid
- The mixture is heated and stirred
- The starch granules swell and burst
- The sauce thickens by gelatinisation
Summarise the science
When an egg is cooked, the protein sets solid, called _____. When a sauce is heated, starch swells and thickens it, called _____. Sugar browns when heated, called _____. In a mixture, egg yolk holds oil and water together as an _____. A cut apple goes brown in the air, called enzymic _____.
Count the food groups
How many food groups have functional properties in this module: protein, carbohydrate, fats, and fruit and vegetables?
Spot the two protein changes
Tap the TWO changes that happen to protein.
- coagulation
- denaturation
- gelatinisation
- caramelisation
- emulsification
Which food group?
Decide which food group is changing in each case.
- An egg white turns solid as it cooks
- A white sauce thickens as it heats
- Butter is creamed with sugar to trap air
Explain gelatinisation
Explain how a sauce thickens when it is heated. Use the term gelatinisation, and describe what happens to the starch and the liquid.
- Explain what happens to the starch granules
- Explain the role of heat and liquid
- Name the process and its result