CHEMISTRY AND COOKING

Cooking is really applied chemistry as readers of Vicki Cobb's Science Experiments You Can Eat (1972) already know. Carona conducts many of the same demonstrations--making sugar crystals, watching the action of yeast and baking powder, showing how heat changes protein, forming the classic emulsion we know as mayonnaise. But the accent here is more on the science side, with the chemical processes explained in slightly greater depth and a less creative use of the kitchen (the hard-boiled egg replaces the meringue as an example). And the orientation towards the food industry--beginning with a whirlwind tour of the Betty Crocker kitchens and ending with the prediction that food science's ingenious solutions to the problems of feeding astronauts will benefit the ""food programs in our own homes""--may lead some to question whether chemists should be allowed in kitchens at all. Cobb presents more of the kind of information likely to be digested at this level and remains a solid first choice.