I was having a discussion with a friend last night about the science of cooking and me arguing about why cooking is a science. I thought about it a little more today and am going to use cooking rice as an example of why science helps us. I think the debate stemmed from how much water one would add to rice. How much water depends on a number of variables :
a) what kind of rice are we cooking? Does it have an outer hull? Is it long grain or short grain? What kind of starch is the rice made up of?
b) what temperature are we cooking the rice? It seems to me that cooking rice in a rice cooker usually takes less water than cooking it over the stove. It's possible that less water evaporation occurs while using a rice cooker than with a stove due to lower cooking temperatures.
c) what is the desired end product - al dente, soft ?
The answers affect how long one would cook the rice and how much water the rice will absorb during cooking. With cooking there's also a certain margin of error allowed where we can add 1/4 cup of water here or leave out a couple of tablespoons there without making a significant difference to the final product. Practice (experimentation) allows us generate answers; however it's difficult to record answers without taking measurements in the first place. There's obviously a requirement for creativity in cooking to be in the realm of a being a good chef, but it always helps to know some of the science behind what we're doing so we're not left with guess work and mushy rice.
http://busycooks.about.com/library/lessons/blricesci.htm
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