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Pizza is, without a doubt, the food of the gods.
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Whether you keep it simple with a New York-style
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slice of cheese or go for Chicago deep dish
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loaded with ingredients, all pizzas deliver divine,
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rich, cheesy, mouth-watering experiences that
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hustle your brain’s pleasure centers into overdrive.
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Although the ingredients may change,
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all pizza tastes delicious thanks to a complex
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chemical symphony of flavor and texture.
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Today on Reactions, we want to give you lesson
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in chemistry to help better explain the profound
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beauty found deep within your favorite pie.
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So let’s start with the dough.
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Pizza dough is pretty easy to make and has the base
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ingredients of flour, salt, yeast, and warm water.
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The yeast is actually a living, single celled fungus
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that you buy at the store in a dormant state.
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It’s normally just called baker’s yeast, but that’s
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just laymen’s speak for saccharomyces cerevisiae.
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When all of these ingredients are mixed together,
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and the yeast is hit with warm water,
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it wakes right on up and starts to break down complex
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sugars found in the flour, spitting out carbon dioxide
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in return, and ultimately making the dough rise.
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Once the dough is fully risen and formed into
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a pizza shape, the sauce is then added.
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Of course, there are all kinds of sauces but all
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tomato-based ones have one thing in common – acidity.
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Tomatoes are naturally between 4.0 and 4.6 on
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the pH scale, but canned tomatoes can be even lower.
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This is why some people out there end up getting
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acid reflux from overconsumption of pizza.
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To balance out an overly acidic pizza sauce,
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some people add a tiny pinch of baking soda,
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which is basic, making it an antacid
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which helps neutralize the acid burn.
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On the topic of acids, let’s get to cheese.
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Cheese is basically a byproduct of adding acid to milk.
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Milk is made up of proteins called casein and whey, as well as fats.
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When acids are added, the casein coagulates to
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form cheese, and separates from the whey protein.
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To make the cheese stronger, cheese makers
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add rennin which helps to keep the casein
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molecules bound tightly together.
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Cheese has historically been used as a way
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to preserve dairy, but what makes the pizza
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maker cheese of choice - mozzarella - different
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is that it’s best eaten freshly made.
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It is a super moist, soft cheese, which basically
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means that when it’s heated up, it gets really
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stretchy and adds in awesome texture
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and mouth feel to your pie.
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With the basics of pizza down, any pizza maestro
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can finish their symphony off with their own
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personalized mix of toppings. Different folks,
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different strokes, but the final step and
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most important is what goes on in the oven,
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the place where all toppings become equals.
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The first thing to be affected is the cheese.
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When cheese meets heat, the fats in the cheese
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change from solid to liquid, mozzarella stays
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nice and stringy, because calcium ions help
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to hold all of the casein proteins together.
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Calcium, good for your bones and good for your mozzarella.
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Then, when the pizza starts to properly cook,
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the holy grail of culinary chemical reactions
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begins: the maillard reaction.
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At temperatures above 140°C, sugars react with
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amino acids to create flavor compounds that give
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food that distinct, bold, cooked flavor.
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It also is known as the browning reaction
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and it happens on the crust, toppings and cheese,
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but to add to pizza’s complexity,
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under the sauce and toppings, the dough is left
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very soft and moist to give every bite
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an interesting mixed texture.
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Obviously, you’ve all the sudden got
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the taste for pizza, so get your phone out
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and dial the nearest pizza maestro,
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but before you do that don’t forget
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to hit the subscribe button there!