Why Is Mathematics Important in Culinary Arts?
- Measuring in the Kitchen. Measurement is an important math skill that significantly impacts the ability to cook properly. ...
- Temperature and Time. Telling time and adjusting temperature are important math skills that factor into the culinary arts.
- Fractions, Division and Geometry. An understanding of fractions is crucial to cooking. ...
- Nutritional Data. ...
What are some ways Math is used as a chef?
Trim & Waste
- Vegetable trim can be used in stocks
- Meat scraps can be used in ground meats or for stock preparation
- Oil and fat can be recycled
- Compost unusable vegetable trimmings
How does a chef use math on a daily basis?
- Pie dough: 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, and 1 part water
- Sausage: 3 parts meat to 1 part fat. Salt is 7 g (1 teaspoon table salt) per pound of sausage (meat+fat)
- Free-standing custard: 2 parts liquid to 1 part egg.
- Cookies: 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat and 3 parts flour
How do recipes relate to math?
Key Takeaways:
- Cooking together as a family can help young children learn early math skills.
- Talking about numbers while cooking doesn’t take a lot of extra time for busy families.
- We offer easy recipes that children can help make and suggestions for talking about math while families cook together.
How can math help you cook?
Using Cooking To Teach Math And Science {plus volume printable}
- Math Concepts Taught Through Cooking
- Science Concepts Taught Through Cooking. Now, let’s mix together these ideas and apply it practically to what you can do to teach math and science in your kitchen.
- States Of Matter. ...
- Learn How Temperature Affects Matter. ...
- Chemical Reactions. ...
- Learn About Volume And Measurements. ...
- Volume Printable. ...
What math skills are used in cooking?
Cooking reinforces math skills like fractions, unit conversions, estimating, measuring, planning and problem solving. You have to make dinner anyway, so you might as well turn the time into a fun and educational time with your children.
Does cooking need math?
Still, any kitchen worker needs to know some basic culinary math skills, which fall into these areas: Computation — For both whole numbers and decimals, you need addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, converting units, and ratios. Fractions — Multiplying and dividing fractions; dividing wholes into fractions.
What is the importance of math in baking?
Math is used in every step of baking. It is a helpful tool when preparing baked goods. Bakers need to use math when measuring and weighing ingredients ,changing recipes and temperatures. Even more in depth, people with specific diets need to understand the percentages and units of measurements on the nutrition facts.
How is statistics used in cooking?
After measuring the distance between two recipes on all dimensions, the sum of the differences can be taken to represent how similar all the ingredients in one recipe are to another. Lower totals suggest that recipes share common ingredients, and higher totals suggest that recipe ingredients are different.
Math & Science, Meet Kitchen
Chefs do so much more than simply combine ingredients to make appealing meals. In fact, a chef has a great deal in common with a mathematician or a scientist.
Chemistry is King
Cooking and baking are, for the most part, a series of chemical reactions.
Biology Abounds in the Kitchen
We know you dissected a frog in Grade 10 Biology class…that’s enough of that, thank you.
Weight & Volume Measurement
Professional kitchens commonly use weight as a measure for dry ingredients and volume measurement for liquids. Recipes geared towards home cooks use volume to measure both.
Standardized Recipes
Most kitchens use recipes to a certain extent, some more than others. Standardized recipes are important to foodservice operations because they provide consistency and uniformity. These recipes are usually developed, and food costs are calculated by the chef or culinary team, to suit the needs of the operation and to determine selling prices.
Recipe Conversion
Recipes often need to be increased or decreased in quantity for a specific production requirement. There are ways to increase a recipe by simple multiples, double or triple for example or to decrease a recipe by dividing in half.
Recipe Conversion Terminology
Although ingredients can be purchased for use in portion control applications, most ingredients need some processing and therefore require terminology to express their state of process. Fresh produce and meats are often referred to as-purchased (AP) or as-purchased quantity (APQ).
Measurement Conversion
Measurements often need converting back and forth from larger units to smaller ones when scaling recipes or when determining purchase quantities based on edible portion size. Remember it is easier working with smaller units than larger units.
Calculating Edible Portion (EP)
Edible portion is the yield after the product is trimmed for use. Begin by weighing the product before cleaning. Trim, fabricate and portion the product. Weigh the edible portion and divide it by the AP weight. This will give you a percentage.
Calculating the AP Quantity Based on EP Percentage
Food purchasing often requires AP calculations based on EP yield. If 80 - 4 oz. portions are desired with a product yield of 70% the formula would look like this:
1 Measuring in the Kitchen
Measurement is an important math skill that significantly impacts the ability to cook properly. Tools like a glass measuring cup with a spout for liquids and measuring cups for dry ingredients are needed in every kitchen. Measuring spoons for spices and a scale to measure the weights of different foods are also necessary.
2 Temperature and Time
Telling time and adjusting temperature are important math skills that factor into the culinary arts. Recipes require different amounts of time, so cooks need to set a timer and monitor food accordingly. Furthermore, temperature adjustment is also very important.
3 Fractions, Division and Geometry
An understanding of fractions is crucial to cooking. Aside from measuring in recipes, the use of fractions also impact serving size. For example, if a recipe claims to serve eight people, but you are only serving four, the cook must be able to divide the entire recipe in half.
4 Nutritional Data
Many cooks must take into consideration health and a balanced diet when cooking. As a result, knowledge of calories, fat, sugar and sodium are important for the everyday cook. Using the nutritional information on fresh and packaged foods will enable a cook to provide guests or family members with balanced meals that use a variety of food groups.
Counting
Very young children are often able to chant the numbers one to ten but can’t actually count numbers in a group. There are plenty of opportunities to practise this in the kitchen. Just make sure they point to each thing in the group as they are counting. Tell them when they have touched them all that that is the number in the group.
Addition and Subtraction
If children carry out addition and subtraction tasks with concrete material, their ability on paper will be greatly enhanced. Again, there are many opportunities in the kitchen to practise this. Remember to ask a variety of questions to extend their thinking.
Recognising Patterns and Shapes
Very young children gain a lot of early geometrical knowledge through playing with constructions material. Doing the things suggested below help them develop their thinking about and their language of shape and pattern.
Measurement
To fully understand what they are doing when they use standard measurement units like metres, grams, litres etc children need to develop lots of language around measurement. You can use lots of measurement language when talking to your children in the kitchen.
Understanding Time
As well as developing language around time – yesterday, next week, tomorrow, allowing children to understand what a period of time feels like is also important. Try these ideas below.
Recipe Cards
Although you don’t need special recipes to get talking about math in the kitchen, I have created 3 recipe cards, with questions you could ask, to help you get started.
