--- title: Cooking is chemistry — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Cooking is chemistry», a lesson of the chemistry course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Every kitchen is a chemistry lab: heat, acid and water change food into new substances with new tastes, smells and textures. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Chemistry](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/) / Cooking is chemistry # Cooking is chemistry Lesson 10 of the chemistry course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/0/) — Every kitchen is a chemistry lab: heat, acid and water change food into new substances with new tastes, smells and textures. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/1/) — Fry a piece of meat and the outside turns brown and smells delicious, because sugars and proteins react and make hundreds of new flavour molecules. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/2/) — Some changes are about water: popcorn bursts when water inside turns to steam, and rice swells as it soaks water into its starch. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/3/) — Others are about proteins: boiling sets an egg, and even lemon juice can change the surface of meat or fish without any heat. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/4/) — Knowing the chemistry also keeps you safe: hot caramel, metal in the microwave and old rice all have rules for good reasons. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/5/) — Egg white sets at a lower temperature than the yolk, so a 4-minute egg has a runny yolk and a 10-minute egg a hard one. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/6/) — An over-boiled egg can get a greenish ring around the yolk, where iron from the yolk joins sulphur from the white. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/7/) — Browning of meat, toast and fried food is the Maillard reaction between sugars and proteins at high heat; boiled meat does not brown because water stays at about 100 °C. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/8/) — Caramel is sugar broken down by strong heat into new substances; hot caramel is much hotter than boiling water and sticks to skin. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/9/) — Popcorn pops because water inside each kernel turns to steam until the hard shell bursts; dried-out kernels pop badly. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/10/) — Jelly sets because gelatine molecules form a loose net that traps water; fresh pineapple contains a substance that cuts gelatine and stops it setting. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/11/) — Baking powder contains a dry acid and baking soda that react when wet and warm, making carbon dioxide bubbles; too much makes food taste soapy and bitter. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/12/) — Slow cooking breaks down the sharp chemicals in onions and lets their sugars brown, so they turn soft and sweet. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/13/) — The chemicals that make you cry are made only when an onion is cut. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/14/) — Acid such as lemon or lime juice unfolds proteins as heat does; fish soaked in lime juice turns white but has not been heated. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/15/) — Microwaves make water molecules wiggle very fast, which heats the food, often unevenly, so stirring halfway mixes hot and cooler parts; metal and foil must never go in a microwave because they can spark. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/16/) — Rice softens and swells as it soaks up water into its starch; leftover rice should be cooled quickly and kept in the fridge, because some germs grow in it fast at room temperature. - ← previous: [Changes you can undo and changes you can't](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/9-changes-you-can-and-cannot-undo/) - next →: [The candle and what burning is](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/11-the-candle-and-burning/) - ↑ back to [Chemistry](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/)