Kitchen Chemistry

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Kitchen Chemistry: Alive!

Find out why the bread we eat is actually alive!

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Most people have heard of yeast. It’s what makes bread rise.

But it’s not just an ingredient – it’s ALIVE! It’s a tiny little fungus and when mixed up with sugar and water – it’s dinner time!

If you look at a bowl of dough up close – the yeast eats the sugar in the mix and creates a gas called carbon dioxide – that gas pushes the stretchy dough into bubbles – and that’s where the holes in bread come from!

There are some other foods that are more alive than you probably realised like yoghurt and cheese!

They’re made with tiny living things called bacteria. Bacteria eat up the sugars in milk and this creates lactic acid – this makes milk get thicker and also changes the way it tastes … and smells!

And that’s why some stinky cheeses are so smelly!

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Kitchen Chemistry

Find out all about the chemistry of the kitchen

More From Kitchen Chemistry