Whether you keep it simple with a New York-style slice of cheese or go for Chicago deep dish loaded with ingredients, all pizzas deliver divine, rich, cheesy, mouth-watering experiences that hustle your brain’s pleasure centers into overdrive.

不管你喜歡的是簡單的紐約風格起司披薩，或是滿滿餡料的芝加哥深盤披薩，所有披薩都能帶來非凡、濃郁、充滿起司、令人垂涎的體驗，刺激大腦的愉悅中心。

Although the ingredients may change, all pizza tastes delicious thanks to a complex chemical symphony of flavor and texture.

雖然食材有些不同，但是所有披薩美味無比的的味道和口感都得歸功於複雜而美妙的化學交響曲。

Today on Reactions, we want to give you lesson in chemistry to help better explain the profound beauty found deep within your favorite pie.

在今天的「化學反應」節目中，我們要教你一些化學原理，讓你能更加瞭解你最愛的派的深奧與美好。

So let’s start with the dough.

我們就先從麵團開始吧。

Pizza dough is pretty easy to make and has the base ingredients of flour, salt, yeast, and warm water.

披薩麵團很容易製作，材料相當單純：麵粉、鹽、酵母和溫水。

The yeast is actually a living, single celled fungus that you buy at the store in a dormant state.

酵母其實是活的、單細胞的菌類，而當你在商店裡購買時它們正處於休眠狀態。

It’s normally just called baker’s yeast, but that’s just layman’s speak for saccharomyces cerevisiae.

通常俗稱為麵包酵母，但其實是出芽酵母的通俗說法。

When all of these ingredients are mixed together, and the yeast is hit with warm water, it wakes right on up and starts to break down complex sugars found in the flour, spitting out carbon dioxide in return, and ultimately making the dough rise.

當所有材料混合在一起時，酵母再受到溫水的刺激後活躍了起來，開始分解麵粉中複雜的醣類並釋放出二氧化碳，使麵糰膨脹起來。

Once the dough is fully risen and formed into a pizza shape, the sauce is then added.

等到麵團發酵完畢、揉成披薩的形狀之後，接下來就該加上醬料了。

Of course, there are all kinds of sauces but all tomato-based ones have one thing in common – acidity.

當然，市面上有很多不同的醬料，但是所有以番茄作為基底的醬料都有共通的元素：酸。

Tomatoes are naturally between 4.0 and 4.6 on the pH scale, but canned tomatoes can be even lower.

番茄自然的 pH 值介於 4.0 和 4.6 之間，但罐頭番茄甚至能到更低。

This is why some people out there end up getting acid reflux from overconsumption of pizza.

這就是有些人吃太多披薩後會胃食道逆流的原因。

To balance out an overly acidic pizza sauce, some people add a tiny pinch of baking soda, which is basic, making it an antacid which helps neutralize the acid burn.

為了平衡披薩醬料中的酸，有些人會加入一小撮鹼性的小蘇打粉來當作酸鹼中和劑，來中和酸性造成的灼燒感。

On the topic of acids, let’s get to cheese.

既然提到了酸，我們接下來就來談談起司吧。

Cheese is basically a byproduct of adding acid to milk.

起司其實是在牛奶中加入酸後所形成的副產品。

Milk is made up of proteins called casein and whey, as well as fats.

牛奶是由酪蛋白、乳清蛋白和脂肪所構成。

When acids are added, the casein coagulates to form cheese, and separates from the whey protein.

當加入酸之後，酪蛋白便凝結形成起司，與乳清蛋白分離。

To make the cheese stronger, cheese makers add rennin which helps to keep the casein molecules bound tightly together.

為了讓起司更扎實，在製作起司時會加入凝乳酶，使酪蛋白結合得更堅固。

Cheese has historically been used as a way to preserve dairy, but what makes the pizza maker cheese of choice — mozzarella — different is that it’s best eaten freshly made.

起司從過去就常被作為保存乳製品的手段，但是最適合拿來做披薩的起司：莫札瑞拉起司與其他起司不同的是，它比較適合新鮮的時候吃。

It's a super moist, soft cheese, which basically means that when it’s heated up, it gets really stretchy and adds in awesome texture and mouth feel to your pie.

這種起司非常濕潤且柔軟，也就表示它在受熱時會變得十分有延展性，為披薩增加口感。

With the basics of pizza down, any pizza maestro can finish their symphony off with their own personalized mix of toppings.

完成披薩的基本要素後，任何披薩狂都能為在披薩上撒上自己喜歡的配料。

Different folks, different strokes, but the final step and most important is what goes on in the oven, the place where all toppings become equals.

不同的人有不同的風格，但是最重要的最後一個步驟便是放入烤箱內烘烤，而所有餡料都將經歷一樣的過程。

The first thing to be affected is the cheese.

最先起變化的是起司。

When cheese meets heat, the fats in the cheese change from solid to liquid, mozzarella stays nice and stringy, because calcium ions help to hold all of the casein proteins together.

當起司受熱時，其中的脂肪便由固態轉為液態，而莫札瑞拉起司則由於裡面富含的鈣離子能夠將酪蛋白抓住，所以仍保持彈性。

Calcium, good for your bones and good for your mozzarella.

鈣質，對你的骨頭以及莫札瑞拉起司都很有幫助。

Then, when the pizza starts to properly cook, the holy grail of culinary chemical reactions begins: the Maillard reaction.

接著，當披薩開始烤熟時，烹飪中最神聖的化學反應開始了： 梅納反應。

At temperatures above 140°C, sugars react with amino acids to create flavor compounds that give food that distinct, bold, cooked flavor.

當溫度超過 140°C 後，醣會開始與胺基酸反應，產生食物中獨特、強烈、烤熟的混合氣味。

It also is known as the browning reaction and it happens on the crust, toppings and cheese, but to add to pizza’s complexity, under the sauce and toppings, the dough is left very soft and moist to give every bite an interesting mixed texture.

這就是所謂的褐變反應，餅皮、餡料、起司都會發生這種反應，但是醬料與餡料下的麵團仍保持柔軟、濕潤，讓每一口披薩都有特殊的多重口感。

Now obviously, you’ve all the sudden got the taste for pizza, so get your phone out and dial the nearest pizza maestro, but before you do that, don’t forget to hit the subscribe button there!

很顯然的，你現在肯定突然對披薩嘴饞了，所以快點拿出電話，打到最近的披薩店吧！但是在這麼做之前，別忘了按下訂閱按鈕！