3 replies to this topic

[chemmeee]

I was in class last week when my professor made the statement that "cooking is the oldest form of chemical engineering."

Do you guys agree with this statement or that cooking is chemical engineering. I never thought of it this way myself.

Thanks

[kkala]

I read an article (probably in Chemical Engineering magazine) around 1980, briefly saying that cooking is practical chemical engineering. I think it is so. I have just boiled eggs trying to be soft-boiled, which is a matter of heat transfer. Soups can be a result of solid-liquid extraction. Concentration is often realized through evaporation. If you make mayonnaise yourself, you try to avoid colloid coagulation, same for several sensitive sauces. Dehydration, salt adding, sugar adding promotes food conservation. Material mixing is widely applied. Also fermentation, when using brewery yeast. Distillation may be not applied in cooking (though widely used in alcoholic drink industry).
By the way, a colleague used to say that house is more dangerous than factory; all these operations are realized in a limited space and also need electricity, water, fuel. You have to think of safety too.

Edited by kkala, 14 January 2013 - 03:48 AM.

[gegio1960]

When I was 13, I wanted to go for a Cooking school/career.
My father discouraged me to follow that way and so I chosen Chemistry, and then Chemical Engineering and Process Design.
Today, 40 years later, I enjoy both my job, as Process Engineer, and my main hobby, in the kitchen!

[sanchez]

I read an article (probably in Chemical Engineering magazine) around 1980, briefly saying that cooking is practical chemical engineering. I think it is so. I have just boiled eggs trying to be soft-boiled, which is a matter of heat transfer. Soups can be a result of solid-liquid extraction. Concentration is often realized through evaporation. If you make mayonnaise yourself, you try to avoid colloid coagulation, same for several sensitive sauces. Dehydration, salt adding, sugar adding promotes food conservation. Material mixing is widely applied. Also fermentation, when using brewery yeast. Distillation may be not applied in cooking (though widely used in alcoholic drink industry).
By the way, a colleague used to say that house is more dangerous than factory; all these operations are realized in a limited space and also need electricity, water, fuel. You have to think of safety too.

true enough! its a small scale engineering process