Science & Tech

Think you understand kitchen science?

Illustrations by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff

Sy Boles

Harvard Staff Writer

September 25, 2025

1 min read

Our research-backed quiz will put your cooking knowledge to the test

You might look at cooking as the straightforward act of preparing food to eat, but there’s a lot more to it — and a lot of it is science. In “Science and Cooking: Physics Meets Food, From Homemade to Haute Cuisine,” Harvard chemist Pia Sörensen, applied mathematician Michael Brenner, and physicist David Weitz explore the molecular transformations that take place when we heat, cool, emulsify, and pickle our way to delicious flavors. Sörensen helped us develop this quiz so you can test your culinary know-how.

Step 1 of 10

10%

1. How much of a potato is actually water?

35%

55%

60%

80%

2. True or false: There is a single formula for the way heat travels through all food.

True

False

3. True or false: If you wear a blindfold and hold your nose, you can’t taste the difference between an apple and a piece of onion.

True

False

4. What was the unusual flavor ingredient in Catalan chef Jordi Roca’s Magdalena de Proust cookies?

Fountain pen ink

Dried flowers

Sesame and lilies

An old book

5. This device has found its way into many haute-cuisine kitchens in recent years. What does it do?

Evaporates water or other compounds at a lower temperature than usual

Caramelizes sugars without adding water or fats

Pickles any food

Turns any food into a cotton candy-like texture

6. What has been done to an egg that’s been heated to 134.5 degrees Fahrenheit in a water bath for two hours?

It’s been pasteurized

It’s been poached

It’s been shirred

It’s been separated

7. The traditional Nordic fish delicacy lutefisk takes weeks to fully prepare and involves an unusual cooking ingredient: sodium hydroxide, or lye. What does the lye do to transform the fish?

Dries it out

Makes it salty

Makes it gelatinous

Makes it buttery

8. Oil and water famously don’t mix, but any home chef can achieve a mixed effect by doing which of the following:

Mixing vigorously

Adding mustard and mixing vigorously

Putting them in the fridge

9. When is the earliest documented instance of humans fermenting things?

4,000 years ago

9,000 years ago

11,000 years ago

14,000 years ago

10. Which of the following is the odd one out?

Bleu cheese

Dill pickles

Soy sauce

Escargot

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