Taste all the yummy science making your Thanksgiving dinner great
Happy Thanksgiving!
Before before you dig into all the delicious food and pass out on the couch (blame the turkey, right?), let’s talk science. Because, believe it or not, there’s a whole lot of fascinating science stuffed into this holiday just like that delicious stuffing in your turkey.
Turkey and the sleepy myth
Everyone blames the turkey for their post-dinner snooze.
“It’s the tryptophan!” they say. Well, not so fast.
Tryptophan, an amino acid found in turkey, is indeed a brain chemical that makes you feel good and relaxed. But turkey isn’t richer in tryptophan than other common meats.
The real culprit? It’s likely the mountain of carbs you just consumed. Your body's reaction to a big meal and a relaxed atmosphere is more to blame for your sleepiness than the turkey itself.
Cranberry science, fresh or canned
Cranberries are a staple at most Thanksgiving tables. But did you know that cranberries are one of the few fruits native to North America? That’s right, and they have some cool science to them.
In addition to being super sour (which is why we have to add tons of sugar to them), cranberries have pockets of air inside them, which is why they can bounce and float in water.
This unique feature is used by cranberry farmers during the harvest. They flood the fields, and the buoyant berries just float to the top.
If you enjoy the jiggly, canned cranberry sauce, you are enjoying even more science. This jellied treat is a classic example of the science of pectin. Pectin is a natural gelling agent found in fruits, especially high in cranberries. When cooked, pectin chains unravel and link back together, trapping water and forming a soft gel.
Pumpkin pie chemistry
Mix all the pumpkin pie ingredients together and it will taste nothing close to delicious.
What happens in the oven to transform the bland ingredients into something wonderful? The Maillard Reaction — a chemical reaction between amino acids and sugars that gives browned foods their distinctive flavor and aroma. So when you’re baking that pie, you’re not just cooking — you’re a chemist.
Mashed potatoes — a starch story
Mashed potatoes, smooth and creamy, are the ultimate comfort food. It's all about the starch.
Potatoes are packed with starch molecules, which are like tiny, microscopic balloons filled with water. When cooked, these balloons burst, releasing the water and making the potatoes soft.
The key is in the mashing. Gentle mashing releases just enough starch for a creamy texture. But overdo it and you’ll pop too many starch balloons, leading to a sticky, glue-like mess.
So, remember, go easy on that mashing.
Rolls — the yeast effect
No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without warm, fluffy rolls. The secret behind these favorite dinner sidekicks? Yeast.
Yeast is a tiny fungus that eats the sugars in the dough, producing carbon dioxide and alcohol in a process called fermentation. The carbon dioxide gets trapped in the dough, causing it to rise and create those light, airy pockets inside. The warmth and moisture wake up the yeast, leading to fermentation and rise.
A little added sugar will cause the yeast to feast and produce even more gas. It’s a wonderful mix of biology and chemistry.
Butter, on everything
There is so much butter on everything on the Thanksgiving table and it has its own creamy science. Butter is essentially an emulsion — a mixture of fat and water.
It starts as cream, which is full of tiny globules of fat suspended in water. When you churn cream, these fat globules stick together, separating from the liquid, a process known as emulsification.
The fat molecules in butter are fascinating; they can be both solid and liquid at room temperature, giving butter its spreadable, melt-in-your-mouth quality.
So there you have it! These scientific tidbits add an extra layer of wonder to your Thanksgiving feast. Or more realistically, when the table experiences an awkward lull, or one of your relatives decides it’s a good time to bring up politics, now you are armed with a set of conversation-changing science facts.
Mike Szydlowski is a science teacher and zoo facilitator at Jefferson STEAM School.
TIME FOR A POP QUIZ
What is the myth that always blames the turkey for post-Thanksgiving sleepiness?
What unique property do cranberries have that help in their harvest?
How does the jellied form of cranberry sauce get its consistency?
What chemical reaction is responsible for the transformation of pumpkin pie ingredients into a flavorful dish?
Why does over-mashing potatoes result in a sticky, glue-like consistency?
LAST WEEK'S QUIZ ANSWERS
What was the landscape of North America like before the Europeans came?
North America was mostly forest in the east, grasslands in the middle, and deserts and mountains in the west.
How did Native Americans interact with the land?
Native Americans actively managed and shaped the land. In the east, they used practices like controlled burns to manage forest density and health. In the west, they built complex irrigation systems.
How did the general climate zones of North America, pre-Europeans, compare to today?
The different climate zones existing when the Native Americans were alone in North America are pretty much exactly what we have now.
Native Americans insisted on using the land wisely and responsibly. Besides this being a core spiritual belief, why was this important to them?
Native Americans believed that the best way to sustain the future of their society was to make sure the land would continue to give them what they needed.
What misconception about pre-European North America is corrected by this article?
It is often believed that Native Americans hardly changed the land at all and that most of the land was simply a wilderness when the Europeans came. Indeed, Native Americans did shape the land, but in a vastly more sustainable way that the Europeans were used to.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Taste all the yummy science making your Thanksgiving dinner great
