When you bake a potato, the starch granules absorb the moisture within the potato. Within the confines of the potato skin, moisture soon turns to steam that expands with great force, separating the starch granules and making a fluffy baked potato.
Is cooking a potato a chemical reaction?
Chemical reactions don't just happen once a potato is heated. During storage various chemical reactions take place. For instance, it is well known that storing a potato in the fridge results in starches breaking down into sugars.
What is the chemistry of a potato?
By weight, the average russet potato is about 78.3 percent water. After water, starches and sugars compose the bulk of the potato's chemical content at about 18 percent. Non-digestible carbohydrates--or fiber--in the form of cellulose and pectin make up another 0.4 percent of the potato.
How can we say that a cooked potato is a chemical change?
When potato is cooked, changes happen in the cell wall of potato cells. Therefore cooking is a chemical change.
What happens to potato cells when boiled?
As the potato is cooked the cell membrane ruptures; the membrane around the vacuole breaks; the membrane around the starch grain breaks and the starch grain swells up, although it initially remains intact; the cell wall breaks down and the contents, including the starch, begin to disperse.
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