Are you hungry for some nitro-scrambled egg-and-bacon ice cream? Did you want a little fried mayo on that sandwich? Molecular gastronomy has cast cooking in a new light and created some seemingly bizarre, but shockingly delicious dishes.
" " HowStuffWorks Chemists classify all matter into three groups: elements, compounds and mixtures. An element, such as carbon, hydrogen or oxygen, can't be broken down into other substances. A compound happens when two or more elements join chemically in a definite proportion. Compounds — such as water, ammonia and table salt — have properties that are separate and distinct from their constituent elements. Finally, a mixture is a combination of substances that aren't held together chemically and, as a result, you can separate them by physical means, such as filtration or sedimentation. Advertisement All prepared food dishes are examples of a mixture known as a colloid. A colloid is a material composed of tiny particles of one substance that are dispersed, but not dissolved, in another substance. The mixture of the two substances is a colloidal dispersion or a colloidal system. The colloidal systems described above involve only two phases or states of matter — gas and liquid or solid and liquid. Sometimes, especially in food…