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Kitchen Chemistry: Mix of Mixtures

Ffnd out about the gases in our food

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Most recipes need you to join ingredients together, but different things combine in different ways and chemists have different names for these ways.

Mixtures are the most common way to get ingredients to join up – a cake and even a salad made of different vegetables, are mixtures.

But what about the dressing or mayonnaise to go with your salad? Those are a kind of mixture called ’emulsions’.

These are made when things are combined that don’t normally like mixing together – like vinegar and oil. If you leave some salad dressings, they’ll eventually separate back into different layers.

Another type of mixture is a ‘solution’. Solutions are made when two or more ingredients join so closely together that all the molecules are evenly spread – dissolving sugar in water will make a solution for example.

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Kitchen Chemistry

Find out all about the chemistry of the kitchen

More From Kitchen Chemistry
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