Science of Pickles: Fried Dill Pickles Recipe
While Northerners may giggle, fried dill pickles are a popular snack in the southern United States, where bars commonly serve them as appetizers and side dishes. Actually, they’re not the only fried pickle in the South—another favorite is ... [... more]
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Learn what happens to meat
Learn about the science behind barbecuing meat with fun online exhibits, articles, recipes, and activities. From felled mastodons to filet mignon, humans have been eating meat for some 2.5 million years. Once a catch-as-catch-can treat, meat is ... [... more]
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Science of Cooking: Bread
Learn about the science behind making bread with fun online exhibits, articles, and recipes and activities. Bread is the most basic of foods, but it’s also one of the most complex. Each time you bake bread, you choreograph a complex dance between ... [... more]
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Read more Cooks' Q & A
What causes the green ring that forms between the yolk and the egg white when you hard-boil an egg? Is there any way to remove it? When eggs are subjected to excessive heat, the sulfur and hydrogen in the egg white combine to form ... [... more]
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Dinner party fix-its
Learn about the science behind flavors and seasoning food with fun online exhibits, articles, recipes, and activities. We eat because we need food, but we cook because we love food. That love is fueled by the tangy heat of spices and nurtured by ... [... more]
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Science of Pickles: Korea's Kimchi Passion
Kimchi is a traditional spicy pickled vegetable dish in Korea. While it’s usually made with cabbage, there are more than a hundred kimchi varieties, using everything from cucumbers and radishes to eggplants and pumpkin blossoms. Most kimchi ... [... more]
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Science of Cooking: Pickles
Learn about the science behind pickling with fun online exhibits, articles, recipes, and activities. Pickling is the ancient culinary craft of preserving foods in salt brine or vinegar. Over millennia, cultures across the globe have tinkered with ... [... more]
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Science of Pickles: Sweet Pickles Recipe
This classic sweet-and-sour pickle is an example of a fresh pickle, which means that it’s preserved by vinegar. The high sugar content also helps retard bacterial growth. Fifty years ago, most cucumber pickles available in grocery stores were ... [... more]
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Science of Pickles: Kimchi Recipe
Koreans possess a passionate fondness for kimchi, serving this spicy fermented pickled vegetable dish at most meals. While many other types of pickles—such as store-bought cucumber dill pickles—are fermented in a prepared salty solution, kimchi ... [... more]
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Science of Pickles: Kosher Dill Current Activity
Fold a sheet of foil several times to make a thick aluminum strip (about 1 inch by 3 inches). Use a pocket knife to expose about 3/4 inch of graphite at the tip of the pencil, and about 1/2 inch of graphite at the middle. (For the middle part, ... [... more]
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Science of Pickles: Pickling Tips
This page has important tips on pickling safety, ingredients, and supplies. Altering quantities—especially those of vinegar, vegetables, and salt—can lead to the spread of spoilage-causing bacteria. Scrupulously clean all cooking utensils in hot, ... [... more]
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Science of Pickles: Fermentation and Food
What do pickles, bread, yogurt, wine, beer, and cheese have in common? All of these foods are made by fermentation. When you ferment a food, you encourage growth of "good" microorganisms in it, while preventing growth of spoilage-causing ... [... more]
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