One of my absolute favorite pastimes is baking, and I have recently started churning butter. I love sharing my baked goods with friends and family, and often spend my weekends in my kitchen. While studying abroad in France, I began to learn a great deal about the various types of butter and what distinguishes the classic Le Beurre Bordier French butter from the Irish Kerrygold butter. On my way home, I even had butter vacuum-sealed and frozen so I could bring it back as a souvenir for my friends (an absolutely ridiculous thing to do, looking back). Since being home, I’ve taken to churning my own butter with an old-fashioned mason jar churner. While we were in class learning about the structure of fatty acids and the differences between saturated and unsaturated fats, I’d started to realize I’d never looked into the chemical differences among various types of butter. I had no idea that the smell of butter comes from butyric acid, and that this is what gave butter its name. Although it was only a short part of class, it really made me think about the chemical differences among cooking fats, how they can affect flavor, and how they are broken down in the human body.
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- jyeo27 on Yinka Reflection #2
- jyeo27 on Reflection 2: “Good” versus “Bad” Cholesterol
- leyuan27 on Reflection #2: ETC
- cehayt26 on Reflection #2: ETC
- cehayt26 on reflection 2
Archives
Categories
Meta
I’m curious how the frozen butter held up in transit– was there any discernible change in scent or flavor over the transit? That aside, I cook as a hobby and sympathize with your experience– cooking and baking can both be rather fine sciences, but we tend not to realize it until we really start doing our research. I’d love to hear about some of your favorite recipes!
I can definitely relate to this experience. In the past, while cooking for siblings and family I would blindly follow family recipes with no concern for the biochemical outcomes of using certain ingredients over others. Now, for example, I can no longer thoughtlessly choose vegetable oil over olive oil considering their richness in saturated versus monosaturated or polyunsaturated fats. As another example, I’ve been vegan for as long as I can remember without thinking deeply about the consequence of not supplying myself with key nutrients like Vitamin B12. Now I try to consume eggs every once in a while!
I love how you are able to apply the content we learn in biochemistry into your hobbies and everyday life. Also, I think that it’s super interesting how so many people cook and bake without ever knowing the biochemistry behind what is happening to their food. Furthermore, I like how you took the initiative to investigate how different butters are chemically different from one another. Lastly, as someone who has been fortunate enough to taste your homemade butter, I appreciate the effort you put into churning the butter and I like how you experiment with different flavors of butter.