Flutterby™! : OChem? 2005-12-06 23:20:14.782903+00

OChem?

2005-12-06 23:20:14.782903+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

The playing about with food recently has reminded me that I never took an organic chemistry class, nor learned it through other means. Yes, I know, doing it right means about 2k rote memorizations, maybe I'll end up trying to database that portion of it. At any rate, can anyone recommend a good text on the topic? Does the VirtualText of Organic Chemistry look like a good place to start? The WikiBooks: Organic Chemistry looks pretty sparse, but maybe that's better for me.

If you are mostly interested in learning the chemistry you need for a food science/nutrition chemistry perspective, then the organic chemistry full-on approach might be the wrong way to go - it might be better to find a nutrition chemistry textbook and work from there. Mine was Understanding Nutrition, and unfortunately I can't quote you the authors because I seem to have lent the textbook to someone. It has a fair amount of stuff about caloric intake and digestion/metabolic processes (which I personally consider biochem), but also a great deal of real CHEMISTRY - molecular chemistry.

Also, do you own or have you read Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, revised edition? If not, put that on the top of your list.

I'm mostly interested in the chemistry from a flavor perspective but, obviously, there's a lot that'd be useful all the way around. My general feeling on the nutrition end of thing is that we've only just, in the past decade or so, started making any real understanding in the biological processes of nutrition, and the information underlying that is so politicized that until I see real science I'll stick to using foods that we've likely evolved to be able to live off of as my base materials.

My On Food and Cooking

is the 1984 text, not the revised edition. So I have a trip to the bookstore in my future.