why, when cooking a pizza, mozzarella melts but bread gets harder? What makes them react different to heat?
In: Chemistry
Every fat has a melting temperature. You may have noticed that coconut oil is solid at room temperature but melts if you scoop it into your hand. Olive oil is solid in a refrigerated salad dressing but liquid at room temp. Dairy fats in cheese melt under oven temperatures. As well, the heat breaks chemical bonds in the proteins of the cheese. Without the protein framework, the cheese loses what was holding it together in solid form.
Bread gets crispy primarily because moisture cooks out. That moisture came from water that was added to flour to form the original dough. Bread contains no to little fat. When it does have fat in it, it tends to be olive oil that was liquid at room temperature anyway. Unlike the proteins in dairy (casein), the protein in bread flour (gluten) does not break down until very high temperatures, around 260° C/500° F.
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