To kick myself because I’ve only just realised this?!!

[MrsA2015]

So I could never work out why tomato sauce (when cooked) like on a pizza is HOT LIKE LAVA, or why melted sugar BURNS LIKE THE SUN. Obviously I haven’t put two and two together till now because obviously things have different boiling points. So now I know why I feel like I’m eating hot coals when I can’t wait to eat the pizza.

Thought I’d share my embarrassing realisation

P.s burning myself scoffing a cheese and onion pasty today brought on the hard thinking.

Well yes but

They're in the oven at the same temperature though. A pizza in a 230° oven isn't going to magically reach 350° just because there are some tomatoes involved.

I know latent heat is a thing but I think the science of pizza sauce taking off the roof of your mouth is going to have more to do with the insulating properties of bread and cheese than with relative boiling points.

Really?! I thought it was because of the natural sugars in the tomato sauce or usually added sugar?

I like your theory though, and now I fee extra stupid

Well sugar definitely has something to do with it but it will be to do with how it absorbs and conserves heat energy, which is (I think) only tangentially to do with melting and boiling point.

Do you mean that they don't look hot because they are solid so your daft brain thinks they are colder than they are so you eat them without waiting for them to cool down?

I think it's to do with how long they keep their heat. Some th8ngs cool quickly, some stay hot longer. Some also stick to the roof of your mouth!

I've yet to learn any of this and every time we eat pizza end up with a sore mouth because I shovel the whole slice in at once. So I'm even more stupid.

These are both good explanations - obviously the pizza problem troubles many

physics.stackexchange.com/questions/43722/why-does-pizza-cheese-seem-hotter-than-the-crust

cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/6287/why-do-tomatoes-get-so-hot

Do you mean that they don't look hot because they are solid so your daft brain thinks they are colder than they are so you eat them without waiting for them to cool down?

Now I think this has mileage

Full disclosure: I took a big gulp of scalding tea this morning. So bad I had to spit it out and still burned my tongue and the roof of my mouth so I haven't really tasted anything else all day

@TeenTimesTwo lol no I know it’s hot but couldn’t understand why it stays so boiling hot for so long! I totally understand the insulation part to it all now. Slowly starting to come together....at 26 I feel like it’s a new world

Some pizza sauces contain a little chilli maybe?
I just know that hot food only stays hot if I am ravenous, if I am not then it cools faster

Aha so I’m not the only one! Now how about vending machine hot chocolate? That’s always hotter than hot, sugar in the mix?😬😬😬

The roasting hot melted cheese sticking to the roof of your mouth whilst it's burning away probably doesn't help with the too hot pizza problem either. 🍕

I m going with the boiling point theory, boiling point isn't the same for everything so if the tomatoes boiling point is much lower than the bread and cheese it makes sense why it's bloody lava! It gets hotter quicker no matter what the temp is in the oven. Surely on mumsnet there must be a scientist who know the correct answer to this?

The specific heat capacities are different, so whilst the sauce and the pizza base are at the same temperature, they have absorbed different amounts of heat which is then released into the top of your mouth.

Lots of reasons, but not are boiling point issues. The boiling point is when a substance changes to vapour.

What's happening in food is that some substances retain heat for longer, and some also will stick to your skin (lips. tongue, mouth) and thus burn, whilst others will glide ride over and give a lesser sensation of heat because it's passing over your skin quickly.

The thing about boiling point being higher is really only that it can get hotter without turning to vapour, but everything on your pizza it's what's left after any evaporation.

The greater the mass of a material, to the greater its heat capacity. So something like a souffle will cool quickly because it's mostly air.

It’s not the boiling point of the tomato sauce that is key but the insulating effect of the cheese that leads to you burning the roof of your mouth. The cheese gets colder on top which fools you into thinking it’s safe to eat, but it’s hiding the lava like tomato sauce underneath.

Cheese insulation is the way forward.

I recall that the sea (water) around the country takes longer to heat up and stays warm for longer than the (solid) land.
Therefore wetter things hold more heat for longer? And wet things will stick to the roof of your mouth, and not drop off like solids?

I am going to patent the cheese duvet

Isit a case of insulation theory vs max heat temp? I think they go hand in hand, insulation makes sense to me. I’ve also noticed Chicago town mini pizzas get hotter than anything known to man so I’m guessing it’s the surface area too? Arrrrgh who knew something like this could cause such debate

Are Chicago Town the microwave ones? That's different again because vibrating water molecules rather than convection heating.

Physicist here.
Energy put in depends on temp change produced, depends on mass, SHC (Specific heat capacity relating to the material it is).

Jam in pop tarts is a bugger for example as most people think it will be the same temperature as toast -but obviously jam in a toaster will burn your mouth, when you take it out.

Basically it is down the the specific heat capacity of a substance (this then effects the amount of energy you need to put in to raise 1kg of the substance by 1 degree), and the thermal conductivity of the substance (how quickly heat energy can leave or enter a substance) but other factors such as insulation, convection, room temperature will play its part.
physics.stackexchange.com/questions/43722/why-does-pizza-cheese-seem-hotter-than-the-crust

To use a slightly dodgy analogy - think of the heat absorbed by something (specific heat capacity) as being like how much water a sponge will soak up, and the thermal conductivity as being how readily the water will sploosh back out again of your water filled sponge onto the middle of your bed when your toddler drops it on there.

Some things don't absorb as much water. Some things aren't as "good" at letting all the water they absorbed squish back out of them again. When you get a substance that's great at both... then you get lots of water absorbed, and it can release lots of water really quickly.

The cheese & tomato topping on pizza is to heat, the equivalent of what a bath sponge is to water.

You are correct. Whilst your oven will be heading the air to 230C the water in it physically cannot get above 100C without becoming steam. The impurities such as sugar will change the boiling point. Sugary substances and oily substances will have different boiling points too... so yes, oily stuff will get hotter. This is why the same cooker ring can heat oil to 180C and above but only heats water to 100C