Cooking For Engineers

Driechel · Joined: 16 Jul 2014 Posts: 1

Hey there. I just joined to ask if there were any recipes either on the site or off that would be simple for children (Aged 7-13), will taste alright even if they screw up, and has a...scientific point that can be discussed. Something basic, but not childish. I looked at the Peanut Brittle recipe already, and that looks good (both as an example, and as a food) but I was wondering if there were any others you could link me to, on the site or off. Thanks, take care!

Dilbert · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: central PA

things involving hot sugar are not too kid friendly - hot sugar makes for nasty burns....

pancakes
muffins
chocolate / oatmeal cookies
cornbread
"dump" cakes of every sort
-essentially anything with baking powder for the "science" bit
breads - for the 'yeast' bit - but yeast = extended times
but you could probably hold their attention with pizza dough

"protein conversion" as demonstrated by
cooking eggs - fried, soft/hard boiled
science of expanding air ala souffles
fish - acid and heat effects

.......thinking back to "cooking with my kids" - most of it involved the 'instant' results kind of thing like pancakes or cookies. toll house is a good start.
minute steaks

NevadaCook · Joined: 19 Jul 2014 Posts: 3 Location: Nevada

I cooked and baked quite a bit as a school teacher and parent. One simple project was squeezing oranges, lemons or grapefruit to make juice. Obviously the lemon juice and possibly the grapefruit juice would need some sugar. Many of my students didn't realize that the juice they drank from the carton or jar came from real fruit.
I also had them whip heavy cream to make whipped cream and also to make butter i.e. 2 separate experiences. I discussed the changing states of the substances.
Making pudding from scratch is also another project which is also doable for the older ones. My very young son helped me make instant pudding with cold milk and a hand egg beater.
To speed up the process of making yeast breads I used Quick Yeast which rises much faster than the traditional yeast.
Cooking and baking with children is messy so be sure to have them wear play clothes. It also involves a fair amount of patience.