New culinary chemistry class excites McNicholas students about cooking

This year a new elective, Culinary Chemistry, has started with science teacher, Jessica Boese. In this class, students learn about basic cooking skills including measuring skills, cookware, acids and bases, and the chemical reactions between different ingredients.

Boese stated, “in this class, you will learn very practical knowledge about cooking and chemistry.” Students gain the skills of cooking a meal for family or friends and knowing what groceries you need to buy in order to have a pantry stocked.

These basics help to know the key components of the chemistry behind the reactions to see how different ingredients can be helpful to students when they are adults. Boese stated, “chemistry is helpful to the real world.”

There are also different professions that students could go into using this information learned. “There is a real industry that you can go into” Boese stated. For example, food chemist studies food to make different products taste better.

These interactions between ingredients that may go unnoticed are key to this course. Boese stated “flour is not edible and it tastes nasty by itself and is full of bacteria. But, when you put it in something, you get to have a chemical reaction and all of a sudden it’s something that is tasty and edible.”

*Students review test taken last week about measuring.*

To learn this skill, all the students taking this class enjoyed making mug cakes. Boese stated, “students should have good measuring skills and have a general idea about chemical reactions between different ingredients.” The chemistry of flour and successful measuring skills determined how delicious the student’s mug cakes were.

Not only are students learning a lot, but they are having a lot of fun doing it. Student Lilly Crooker stated, “there is a difference between measuring liquids and solids, and I didn’t know that before.”

Kelly Carville, senior, stated “I don’t know how to cook at all, and this class is showing me some of those basic skills.” This class is a way for students to see the real-world application of chemistry in their daily lives.