Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

The Science of Puddings ..understanding your taste buds’ temptations

A YPS “York Food and Science Festival” event  

Professor Paul Walton, Department of Chemistry, University of York

YPS is pleased to be hosting one of the “York Food and Science Festival” events on September 24th.

Professor Paul Walton revealed the secrets of Chocolate to a fascinated Café Scientifique audience in 2012. Now he expands on the chocolate theme to include more ingredients of your favourite puddings in this lecture on the “Science of Puddings”.

Professor Walton heads a research lab which focuses, amongst other things, on cellulose degradation for biofuels and anti-cancer agents. He is a recipient of the Royal Society’s Higher Education Teaching Award and has chaired the editorial board of the Dalton Transactions Journal.

Report

Not so much a lecture, more a bravura performance with audience participation. Prof Walton first distributed strawberries and blueberries throughout the hall, for us to try his pinched-nose experiment showing the chemistry behind our sense of taste. Then, with assistant Dr Emma Dux, an array of culinary equipment, volunteer tasters and clouds of liquid nitrogen, he demonstrated in minutes why meringues work or don’t, ice cream is deliciously smooth or unpleasantly gritty, and chocolate is creamy or claggy. Essentially, good cooks use the right amount of energy to activate the molecules to make puddings taste better. Removing shoe and sock and rolling up his trouser leg, one moment he stamped hard on a bowl of custard that resisted like concrete, the next he slowly inserted his bare foot messily into it. Hardly improving its flavour, but indicative of the verve, humour and dash of an enthralling hour packed with science.

Bob Hale