Cloud eggs: It's not just Instagrammers who find them pretty. Chefs of the 17th century whipped them up, too. Then, as now, they were meant to impress. Maria Godoy/NPR hide caption
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NadaMoo!'s Birthday Cake Cookie Dough vegan frozen dessert uses coconut milk as its base. Because of its fat and sugar content, many vegan dairy producers say coconut is simply the easiest vegan platform to build a milk or cream out of. But almond milk is also a common choice, in part because it's so popular with consumers. Courtesy of NadaMoo! hide caption
Ever wonder how many different dyes are used to color Skittles? John W. Poole/NPR hide caption
Flour and water on the left; just starter on the right. Courtesy of Lea Shell/Sourdough Project hide caption
Flavor really does depend on how you slice it, experts tell us — though the reasons why are complicated. Paul Williams/Getty Images hide caption
Silicon Valley-based Impossible Foods has taken a high-tech approach to creating a plant-based burger that smells and tastes like real meat. At the company's headquarters in Redwood City, Calif., chef Traci Des Jardins served the Impossible Burger (pictured uncooked) with vegan mayo, Dijon mustard, mashed avocado, caramelized onions, chopped cornichon, tomato and lettuce on a pretzel bun. Maggie Carson Jurow hide caption
The John C. Sullenger Vineyard at Nickel & Nickel Winery, Napa Valley, Calif. Nickel & Nickel collaborated with scientists to collect wine samples and identify the bacteria and fungi in them by sequencing microbial DNA. Jason Tinacci/Courtesy of Nickel & Nickel hide caption
We used science to unlock the secrets of fried Oreos and other twice-fried foods. Morgan McCloy/NPR hide caption
Kenji Lopez-Alt is managing culinary director of Serious Eats, author of the James Beard Award-nominated column "The Food Lab," and a columnist for Cooking Light. His first book is The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. Robin Lubbock/WBUR hide caption
Modern, domesticated rice comes in a range of colors, usually described as white, red and black. But collectors have never found black grains in more than a thousand samples of wild rice stored in gene banks. Now geneticists have traced this rare grain's origin and spread. Courtesy of Takeshi Ebitani/Takuya Yamaguchi. hide caption