My name is Sally Mitchell, a high school chemistry teacher and current
Albert Einstein Fellow at DOE's Office of Science. Ask me anything about
kitchen chemistry hacks for Thanksgiving
Abstract
Hi Reddit! I am a James Bryant Conant Award recipient in Teaching
Chemistry and a nationally recognized leader in STEM education. I am
certified to teach chemistry, biology, physics, general science,
mathematics, college level forensics and general chemistry, but have a
passion for food chemistry. I recently presented at the national
conference of the American Chemical Society (ACS) on the Chemistry of
Cooking: A look at Solution Chemistry. I am usually in Syracuse, New
York—I have a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry and
chemical education from Syracuse University. Right now, I am in
Washington, D.C. at the Department of Energy’s Office of Science on a
year-long Albert Einstein Fellowship. I love food chemistry and cooking,
so I’m excited to be here on the week of Thanksgiving. Ask me anything
about kitchen and cooking chemistry tricks for Thanksgiving –
especially for desserts, my favorite. Some stuff I love talking about:
how to temper an egg for home-made chocolate crème pie, how to prevent
your gravy from being too oily or too clumpy, when to use baking soda
versus when to baking powder (it expires!), what can you use to
substitute for ingredients you realize you’re missing on Thanksgiving
morning, how to speed up that turkey defrosting, how to tweak the recipe
for a boxed cake mix to make a much better homemade cake just by using
some kitchen hacks, the timing of making mashed potatoes, and more. But
of course, I’m here for your questions, so ask away. I’ll be back at
Noon Tuesday ET (9 am PT, 5 pm UTC) to answer your questions! EDIT: I
worked on many questions tonight but there are so many more coming in as
I type. I will continue answering questions tomorrow and hopefully you
will get responses from me or other redditors.