My essential question is pretty vague, and so from the outset my research I feel like I definitely that the answer would be entirely dependent on myself and the direction I decide to take the research in. In theory every recipe has a different combination of science behind it, so what “the science behind cooking” is depends entirely on the cooking I undertake. I think one outside source that really informed my understanding of my essential question was an article from the Duke University research blog entitled “looking at cooking at a science experiment.” The article talked about the similarities between making a recipe and conducting a chemistry experiment. It also highlighted how many cooking innovations in the past have come from or have been from the very beginning, scientific innovations. Tools like pressure cookers and other cooking appliances are created to control chemical reactions, the process of cooking in general is controlled chemical reactions.

There is a lot I don’t know about this topic, for many reasons but particularly for the reason I mentioned in the beginning, that the answers depend on what I choose. I think for the purposes of my project, being such a vast and variable topic depending on what level of detail you want to go into (surface-level, microbial, chemical composition?) and what you make, that I understand that by the end of the project there will still be a lot I don’t know. What’s important though, and what I think makes my project so interesting to me personally is that what I do know at the end will be entirely decided by my own curiosity. Throughout my project I have the freedom to answer questions as they arise, and address the things I’ve personally always wanted to know.