Boiling and freezing points of chocolate?!
My daughter has research questions to look up and we can't find the answers anywhere!. Water boils at 100 de cel!. and freezes at 0 de cel!. Chocolate doesnot!. but all we can find is that the boiling point is above 100 and the freezing point is lower than o!. We have seached for two days for the answer can anyone help with the correct answer or tell us where to find it!.Www@FoodAQ@Com
Answers:
April!. Good question!. Actually chocolate doesn't really have a true boiling or freezing point so whatever teacher assigned such research doesn't know anything about food science!. Here's why!.
Chocolate is mostly coco butter (fat) which has a melting "range" not a point!. Usually the range for a hard fat is fairly narrow (a few degrees) but is definitely not a single point!. For coco butter the melting range is just below human body temperature (98!.6 F : 37!.0 C) How convenient!. That's one of the reasons chocolate tastes so good, it has a perfect melting point (and that's how it's so easy to tell fake chocolate, it doesn't melt right)!.
As far as boiling!. If you define boiling as conversion of a liquid to a gas (the usual definition) then chocolate doesn't really boil either because fat generally doesn't' become a gas as you increase the temperature but rather just starts to smoke and then burns!. In fact scientists characterize fats by their melting range and their smoke point!. I suppose you could consider these the equivalent of freezing and boiling point!.
That's why you couldn't find an answer!. Hope this helps!.
PhD Food Chemistry and NutritionWww@FoodAQ@Com
Chocolate is mostly coco butter (fat) which has a melting "range" not a point!. Usually the range for a hard fat is fairly narrow (a few degrees) but is definitely not a single point!. For coco butter the melting range is just below human body temperature (98!.6 F : 37!.0 C) How convenient!. That's one of the reasons chocolate tastes so good, it has a perfect melting point (and that's how it's so easy to tell fake chocolate, it doesn't melt right)!.
As far as boiling!. If you define boiling as conversion of a liquid to a gas (the usual definition) then chocolate doesn't really boil either because fat generally doesn't' become a gas as you increase the temperature but rather just starts to smoke and then burns!. In fact scientists characterize fats by their melting range and their smoke point!. I suppose you could consider these the equivalent of freezing and boiling point!.
That's why you couldn't find an answer!. Hope this helps!.
PhD Food Chemistry and NutritionWww@FoodAQ@Com
Microwave- 10 seconds!. Freezer- i don't know, good luck!.Www@FoodAQ@Com
Well one big thing is that you don't want to boil or freeze chocholate except when you are making ice cream in which case you don't boil but you will eventually freeze, this is because chocholate has what is called a "temper" it is basically what is keeping the chocholate shinny & smooth tating!.Www@FoodAQ@Com
This site says it all :-)Www@FoodAQ@Com