How do they figure out what kind of vitamins and nutrients are in food? I understand how the figure out calories, but how did they ever figure out that a banana had potassium or oranges were full of vitamin C in the first place?
posted by Caravantea on Aug 24, 2009 - 7 answers

ChemistryFilter: What chemicals are out there that can stain a t-shirt, but then be quickly dissolved with a chemical? Bonus points: Chemicals are safe enough for compost heap, and won't dissolve in a washing machine. [more inside]
posted by mccarty.tim on Dec 3, 2007 - 8 answers

I just made instant pudding with lo-fat almond milk (it's what I had on hand) and it didn't work- it never thickened into pudding. Why didn't it work? What is it about dairy milk that makes instant pudding work properly? Would it work with soy milk?
posted by hyperfascinated on Apr 2, 2006 - 11 answers

Taming an uneven refrigerator? You know how one can increase the performance of an oven by leaving a pizza stone in it? I'm wondering if the same can be done with a fridge. [more inside]
posted by stet on Oct 23, 2005 - 19 answers

If you were a food scientist, and a chef at a restaurant handed you a bowl of mashed potatoes and challenged you to figure out how many potatoes were in there and what kind of potatoes they were, how would you go about it? (Bonus if you can do it without leaving the restaurant.)
posted by adrober on Jan 2, 2005 - 30 answers

My beloved fiancee is trying to improve her cooking, with a course and by diving into cooking books. As the guinea pig, it is in my interest to help her on her way. [more inside] [more inside]
posted by Frasermoo on Nov 17, 2004 - 18 answers

Any food scientists out there? I have a bag of Double Bubble bubble gum left over from Halloween. Each piece of gum has 19 calories. How many of those calories am I actually consuming when I chew a piece? (It makes sense to me that I'd actually have to swallow the gum to have consumed all 19 calories, but maybe I'm wrong...)
posted by jdroth on Nov 2, 2004 - 6 answers