Sweet News

Scientists Isolate Molecules of Deliciousness in Chocolate and Bacon

Photo: iStockphoto.com

Two of our loves, chocolate and bacon, have drawn the attention of the science set. Yesterday a Harvard professor unveiled a chocolate inhaler, and today the Boston Globe reports on MIT’s Laboratory for Chocolate Science. Engineers, chemists, and math majors discuss topics like how heating “chocolate too quickly can separate its molecules and cause it to become gritty” in between organizing weird flavor tastings (Marmite?) for the public, according to the Globe. Also this week, British scientists attributed the appeal of bacon to the “Maillard reaction,” which is simply a chemical release of a “huge amount of smells and flavours,” according to the London Telegraph. We propose new research into the effects of chocolate on bacon.

At MIT, a hunger for chocolate knowledge [Boston Globe]

Scientists Isolate Molecules of Deliciousness in Chocolate and Bacon