There are a few places where chemistry does impact cooking, mostly with fat/water emulsions:
The takeaway here is that if you don’t have enough fat coating the noodles when you mix in the cheese, instead of just having less-fatty sauce, your cheese will clump up into giant blobs of parmesan instead of becoming a cheese sauce that covers the pasta.
I also recently substituted 2% milk instead of whole in a pasta sauce; instead of mixing together and becoming a beautiful light pink sauce, the milk curdled in the acidity of the tomatoes without the right amount of fat.
There are a few places where chemistry does impact cooking, mostly with fat/water emulsions:
The takeaway here is that if you don’t have enough fat coating the noodles when you mix in the cheese, instead of just having less-fatty sauce, your cheese will clump up into giant blobs of parmesan instead of becoming a cheese sauce that covers the pasta.
I also recently substituted 2% milk instead of whole in a pasta sauce; instead of mixing together and becoming a beautiful light pink sauce, the milk curdled in the acidity of the tomatoes without the right amount of fat.