Chemistry – it’s the way the ingredients interact with each other as a result of the cooking processes.

I KNEW this was a boring question! But it’s better than washing shower curtains, hey!

Are you saying that my answer was boring? Why I ougta….

It’s more like grilling the bread than toasting it I’ll bet. I have to try that.( I also need a membership in fluther anon. )

Wait wait @janbb! I’ll wash your shower curtains for you!!!

@Adirondackwannabe Or baking it…?

Either way sounds good.

In the case of toasting things, it’s the Maillard reaction.

When you toast butter, the milk solids in the butter acquire a nice hazelnutty flavor (the French call this beurre noisette). This is probably what’s adding the extra flavor dimension.

Thanks for the simple explanation @thorninmud~ and @crisw Thanks for the link. Maybe this wasn’t such a boring question after all. Anybody else need their shower curtains cleaned?

@Dutchess_III I learned a couple of new things. And, do you do shower doors?

Me too! Glad I asked this question. It makes me want to research a little when I decide to invent some new dish.

Sure I do shower doors. But that’s extra and you have to provide the toothbrush.

Actually, I took a nutrition class this last semester and, for the most part, it was very boring but there were some parts where we talked about the chemical reactions involved in preparing food. It is extremely fascinating I think. For example, did you know that we have to cook potatoes to eat them because in their raw form, potatoes contain strings of carbohydrates too long for us to digest? Cooking them breaks down these carbs into something much more manageable for our digestion.

Anyhoo, @janbb said it more succinctly than I did. It’s chemistry. :)

Hey, my kid gave a good answer. Will you wash my shower curtains?

No, but I will wash @KatawaGrey‘s shower curtain! For shame! Riding on the coattails of your kid!

I have a question though, @KatawaGrey…are the carbs in a raw potato too hard for our “civilized” digestive system to process? In other words, BF (before fire) we ate raw potatoes. Do you think we processed them OK then?

@KatawaGrey I eat raw potatoes all the time. I haven’t noticed any ill affects. Should I be concerned and not do it?
@Dutchess_III More learning! GQ

I don’t think @KatawaGrey was saying they’ll make you ill….she’s just saying we don’t digest it as well as cooked. I hand raw potato pieces to the little kids all the time just to shut them up! It’s gotta be better than a cookie, don’t you think? We also don’t process corn very well. It pretty much goes straight through (if you haven’t noticed)! I wonder if it’s the same for carrots and cauliflower and stuff?

This WAS a GQ, wasn’t it! Who’d a thunk! :)

@Dutchess_III I eat a lot from time to time. I love raw poatoes. I would think if they didn’t get digested I would notice. Corn kernels have a waxy layer surronding each kernel, which has to be damaged before the digestive juice gets in. The other stuff is cut up.

I think it is an interesting question. I’ve noticed this mostly with grilled cheese – oven toasted and pan-made taste completely different.

Raw potatoes with salt are yummy and, apparently, a good way for my grandmother to distract me.~

Any carbohydrates that can’t be absorbed in the intestinal tract will end up feeding the bacteria that live in the gut. An unfortunate by-product of that bacterial feeding frenzy is methane gas.

@thorninmud Welcome to fluther. I didn’t notice anything different. Maybe my friends did.:)

@Adirondackwannabe: Maybe you’re the next stage in human evolution! :)

@Dutchess_III: Did humans eat potatoes before we had fire? I honestly didn’t know that. Maybe the ones who didn’t eat them had fewer digestive issues. :) I bet it is similar with other raw vegetables. I mean, I love snacking on raw carrots but I think they are easier both to eat and to digest when cooked, though that may be a peculiarity singular to me.

Well, we at least ate the tubers that gave rise to our modern, domesticated potatoes (if they were available in our area) I’m sure! I just hadn’t thought about it before. All I’ve ever heard is that cooking veggies causes them to lose a lot of their vitamins…

@KatawaGrey Or maybe I don’t have any friends. :) Someone had to figure out they needed to cover the potato with something to prevent the toxicity, so most likely fire came before people were eating the tubers. I eat most of my veggies, other than corn raw. I don’t like them cooked.

@Dutchess_III

We actually digest corn pretty darn well. What you have ‘noticed’ is simply the hull of the kernel. The kernel itself is a very nutritious food for humans.

That’s just what my doctor said. I never examined it from the other side, though!!!