How to Use Cooking to Enhance Your Child’s Understanding of Science
The Pizza Experiment for Dinner?
For most parents, the thought of putting kids, and the hot surfaces and sharp edges of cooking, in the same room is a nightmare. When safety is observed, the kitchen can be the best laboratory!
Teaching your kids good safety habits in your home will translate to safety in their science class. Show them how to be cautious around stove burners and a hot oven, and how to safely handle hot pots and pans with pot holders.
Younger kids will enjoy stirring, and finding ingredients in the refrigerator or cupboard while you cook. Older kids might enjoy helping to chop vegetables. Let them hold your hands as you chop at first, and as they get the hang of it, give them their own dull knife. With your constant supervision, kids can practice good safety and ensure less accidents at home and in science class as they get older.
Also talk about other safety issues like cross-contamination. Make sure to always use a separate cutting board and knife for raw meats and vegetables.
Explain to your kids that some bacteria in the meat can make us sick, but will burn away as the meat is cooked. If the harmful bacteria gets onto your knife, it can be passed to other surfaces and might make it into your mouth. Kids may even be able to find examples of harmful bacterias that live in our food in their science books.
Now that you’re all safe, try this fun pizza recipe! Kids love pizza, and science is hidden in every layer!
Part 1: The Pizza Dough
Basic Pizza Dough Recipe
Courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2004, Show: Emeril Live, Episode: Pizza with
Pizzazz
1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
1 (1/4-ounce) envelope active dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling the baking sheet
Procedure
- In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, honey, and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, stirring to combine. Let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.
- Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt, mixing by hand until it is all incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Continue adding the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, working the dough after each addition, until the dough is smooth but still slightly sticky. You might not need all of the flour.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth but still slightly tacky, 3 to 5 minutes. Oil a large mixing bowl with remaining olive oil.
- Place the dough in the bowl, turning to coat with the oil. Cover with plastic wrapand set in a warm place, free from drafts until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
Variations:
Parmesan Pizza Dough: Substitute 2 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup finelygrated Parmesan cheese for 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour. Use a pinch of salt instead of 1 teaspoon. Proceed
as directed above.
Oregano Pizza Dough: Stir 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano in with the flour and proceed as directed above.
Yeast is a great ingredient to teach kids about biology and chemistry! Yeast is actually a live microorganism, a tiny form of fungi. Yeast digests sugars like maltose (starch in flour), fructose and glucose (honey and fruits), and sucrose (cane sugar like granulated table sugar).
Kids will love seeing this science in action! As the yeast digests the sugars, it releases carbon dioxide gas which makes the mixture in the first step foamy. This is also what makes the dough rise as it sits in
the warm bowl.
While you’re waiting for the dough to rise, chop, dice and shred, all your favorite pizza toppings like meats (pre-cooked), cheese, and especially vegetables! Then, try showing kids some more chemistry by
making the sauce in Part 2!
Part 2: The Pizza Sauce
Basic Pizza Sauce Recipe
Courtesy Don Pintabona, Show: Cooking Live, Episode: Father Knows Food
1 can (28-ounces) whole peeled tomatoes, in juice
1 small white or sweet onion, finely diced and minced
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
3 to 4 fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Pinch salt
Pinch fresh ground black pepper
Pinch sugar, optional
2 tablespoons olive oil, to saute
Procedure
- Empty the contents of the tomato can in a mixing bowl and coarsely crush the tomatoes with a fork or your hands, leaving them just a little chunky.
- In a heavy bottom 2-quart sauce pot, add the olive oil, over a medium high flame and heat a little. Add the onions and saute until slightly translucent.
- Add the garlic and saute about a minute until golden. Quickly add the crushed tomatoes to the mix.
- Stir well and bring to a simmer.
- Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and add the fresh basil and oregano. You can add a touch of sugar if desired or if tomatoes are tart.
- Simmer on a low flame, stirring often for at least 15 minutes.
- If not using right away, cool down and store in airtight container in the refrigerator, up to 1 week.
Ask kids what kind of chemical mixture the sauce is. A solution is when a solute is completely dissolved in a solvent, like sugar in water or the molecules of air. A suspension is also two or more components, but while they can be mixed together manually, they will separate if left alone, just like oil and water.
The sauce is actually more like a colloidal dispersion. Fitting in between the others, a colloidal dispersion is components mixed together, but they do not separate when left to settle.
Also, notice that steam rises from the pot when simmering. That is exactly the culinary and scientific point of a simmer.
A “simmer” is the point just below a boil. Small bubbles may form in the liquid and steam will rise, but the temperature needed to maintain a simmer is much lower than that needed to maintain a boil.
This is good for cooking because it allows you to thicken sauces by turning water to steam without burning the other ingredients in the sauce! Ask your kids to talk to you about all three chemical phases of water, solid (ice), liquid, and gas (steam).
After the dough has risen and is ready to form, cut the dough into enough parts to give every family member a personal pizza. Let the kids dig into their science lesson by pushing and stretching the dough into
pizzas.
Not only will they love getting messy, but kids will appreciate picking out their own favorite toppings. Bake the pizzas in a medium-high oven, about 400° Fahrenheit, or BBQ Grill. It should only take 10-15 minutes
for the pizzas to cook.
Look for golden brown crust, bubbly sauce, and melted cheese. The center of the pizza should be hot to the touch. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
