Professor Patrick Charbonneau has taken his knowledge of crystallization outside of the research lab and in to French-Canadian history. Charbonneau, an instructor of Chemistry 130L (The Chemistry and Physics of Cooking) has been using the example of fudge in his classes for several years to illustrate the polycrystalline structure of materials. It is when the time comes to find a source to explain the origin of the recipe that he runs into a problem: the available sources are "a bit of a mess," research hypotheses that are not supported by primary historical sources.
This is how he embarked on a research that went beyond his normal field of study. "I wanted to do something that historians would recognize as valid history," he explained.
Learn more about Prof. Charbonneau's fascination with sugars, cream fudge and crystallization in a Caribou magazine feature here.
