Why do we cook food?
Heat's Magic Trick
Why do we cook food?
Raw potatoes taste like crunchy dirt. Raw chicken is slimy and dangerous. But bake them together and suddenly you've got dinner. What's the magic trick?
Heat does three big jobs when it touches food. First, it breaks things apart — long tangly molecules snap into smaller, softer pieces. A raw carrot's walls are tough chains holding hands; cooking breaks the handshake, and the carrot goes soft.
