Cooking With Living Organisms?

You might not know it, but every day, you are consuming millions of living organisms, sometimes in just a few bites! In yogurt, thickeners, and bread, there are tons and tons of microbes that all add to the independent flavors of each of the foods. This week, I read about the internal chemistry (science) behind multiple foods and how chefs and scientists use that chemistry to their advantage when making unique foods. Ea

ch type of bacteria is different and they all taste different, so when you let a certain bacteria ferment for hours or days, the environment completely changes how they look and how they taste. This certain aspect of cooking with chemistry is super intriguing to me because we consuming LIVING things every single day. To learn a little bit more about the microorganisms that change the way we eat and make food, I did a little bit of research on how Bacteria and food interacts and what the most popular bacteria (in food) is!

Bacteria are the most important microorganisms to the food processor. Most are harmless, many are highly beneficial, some indicate the probable presence of filth, disease organisms, spoilage and a few cause disease. There are thousands of species of bacteria, but all are single-celled and fall into three basic shapes: spherical, straight rods, and spiral rods. To see them, you need a microscope that magnifies about 1000-fold. All bacteria reproduce by dividing into two cells. The two cells then divide to become 4, 4 become 8, and so forth. Under ideal conditions, this doubling may occur as frequently as every 15 minutes, so that within 5 hours there will be more than a million cells from the original single cell. Some rod-shaped bacteria are capable of existing in two forms, dormant spores and active vegetative cells. Vegetative cells form spores under adverse conditions as a means of survival. Spore forms preserve the bacteria from starvation, drying, freezing, chemicals, and heat. When conditions become favorable, the spores germinate, with each spore again becoming a vegetative cell with the ability to reproduce. This sporulation creates an increase in flavor every time germination occurs.

Yeasts and Molds-Yeasts are oval-shaped and slightly larger than bacteria. They reproduce most often by budding. In budding each cell can produce several buds, or swellings, which break away to form new, fully formed daughter cells.Molds as found on bread, fruit, damp paper, or other surfaces are actually composed of millions of microscopic cells joined together to form chains. The chains usually have numerous branches, called hyphae. Molds can thrive in conditions too adverse for bacteria or yeasts. They reproduce by spores that are frequently present as green or black masses on the protruding hyphae.Yeasts and molds grow on most foods, on equipment, and building surfaces where there are small amounts of nutrient and moisture. Since bacteria grow faster, they greatly outnumber yeasts and molds in most foods. However, bacteria find conditions of low pH, moisture, or temperature and high salt or sugar unfavorable. In such environments, yeasts or molds predominate. Thus, they can be a problem in dry foods, salted fish, bread, pickles, fruits, jams, jellies, and similar commodities.

I believe that cooking with living organisms that add and work on the food automatically IS the future of cooking. Gastronomy might be now, with insane chemistry and expensive tools, but why do that when there are free small organisms that do the work for you? All while helping to keep your body healthy and functioning!