Baking nature

Compounded Flavors. Liquid or dry blends of natural or synthetic flavor compounds are called compounded flavors. Most commercial preparations are available as water- and oil-soluble Hquids, spray-dried and plated powders, emulsions, and carbohydrate-, protein-, and fat-based pastes. Compounded flavors are used throughout the food industry in confections, baked goods, snack foods, carbonated beverages, and processed foods (53). 

Flour Bleaching Agents and Bread Improvers. Freshly milled flour contains carotenoid pigments that cause the flour to have a yellow color. In addition, when the flour is made into dough the product is sticky and unmanageable. As the flour ages, a natural process takes place which turns the flour white and improves its baking qualities. Because the natural process takes quite a bit of time, additives are used to speed up the process. 

Clove bud oil is frequendy used iu perfumery for its natural sweet-spicy note but the greatest appHcation is iu the davor area iu a large variety of food products, including spice blends, seasoniugs, piddes, canned meats, baked goods, ready-made mixes, etc. As iu the case of cinnamon bark oil, its well-known antiseptic properties make it ideal for appHcation iu mouth washes, gargles, dentifrices, and pharmaceutical and dental preparations. Candy, particulady chewing gum, is also davored with clove bud oil iu combination with other essential oils. 

Substituted heat-reactive resins are most widely used in contact-adhesive appHcations and, to a lesser extent, in coatings (77,78) -butylphenol, cresol, and nonylphenol are most frequendy used. The alkyl group increases compatibiHty with oleoresinous varnishes and alkyds. In combination with these resins, phenoHcs reduce water sensitivity. Common appHcations include baked-on and electrical insulation varnishes, and as modifiers for baking alkyds, rosin, and ester gum systems. Substituted heat-reactive resins are not used for air-dry coatings because of theh soft, tacky nature in the uncured state substituted nonheat-reactive phenoHcs are the modifying resin of choice in this case. 

The colorant is used at 2—50 ppm as pure color to shade margarine, shortening, butter, cheese (4 ), baked goods, confections, ice cream, eggnog, macaroni products, soups, juices, and beverages (58). Its chief advantages over other colorants are its nutritional value and its abiUty to dupHcate natural yellow to orange shades. 

The yellow dye curcumin, [458-37-7] (Cl Natural Ye//oii> 3 Cl 75300) (41), also known as tumeric, occurs in the roots of the plant Curcuma tinctoria found growing wild in Asia. The dye was well known to the ancient Romans and Greeks who used it to dye wool, cotton, and silk. The dye is an oil-soluble bright yellow material, and is the only natural yellow dye that requires no mordant. It finds use as a colorant for baked goods such as cakes. 

Cork, a natural material - the bark of the Mediterranean cork oak tree. It is largely air cells and the fibrous cell walls have a high resin content. When baked, the resin softens and welds the pieces of bark into a comparatively homogeneous mass, which is sliced into blocks, commonly 50, 75 and 100 mm thick. 

In inner layers, changes are much the same as during boiling. Tocopherols and tocotrienols present in wheat and rye are partially destroyed during baking. In ordinary wheat bread, losses of a-tocopherol amount to about 25%, but in the case of rye bread, prepared by traditional technology, a loss of about 50% was reported (Piironen et al, 1987). Losses of natural antioxidants in coffee brews and tomato puree were also observed (Nicoli et al, 1997). 

Ammonia, another well known cleaner, is also used to manufacture fertilizers, nitric acid, sodium carbonate (washing soda), explosives, nylon, and baking soda. Ammonia is produced by combining nitrogen gas (obtained from the air) and hydrogen gas (obtained from natural gas) in a process called the Haber-Bosch process ... 

The non-break down of physically inaccessible starch explains why wheat is ground into flour in the first place. This may also explain the claims that modern flour with its very small particle size is less healthy than the sort of flour produced by ancient wind and water mills. The resistant nature of ungelatinised starch also explains why starch-based foods were baked in the first place. 

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