“It’s not really about culinary excellence, the way someone who wanted to make better bread might experiment with floor tile and firebrick in their oven,” said Patrick Buckley, a mechanical engineer who has collected 20 food-science projects into a new book, “The Hungry Scientist Handbook” (Collins Living), with Lily Binns, a food writer. “It’s about seeing if something can be done. And even if you fail, you’ve learned something  just like in the lab.”

Image THINK, THEN EAT Malted milk ball eyes atop a noodle monster. Credit... Windell Oskay

Any cook who has pulled a fallen cake out of the oven or tried to speed-cook short ribs has encountered the immutable laws of food science. And among the most revered chefs working today are those who embrace the kitchen as a laboratory, like Heston Blumenthal, Ferran Adrià and Thomas Keller.

But some professional scientists (and a few amateur lab rats) are taking the research in a different direction. Rather than scenting mozzarella cheese with rose petals, they’re sticking metal forks into hot dogs and cooking them by electrocution. They’re using Play-Doh extruders to make pixelated sugar cookies.

More high-school science fair than hushed temple of flavor, this subculture embraces projects that are big, loud, dangerous, smoking, absurdly time-consuming and seemingly pointless  although the process is treated with great solemnity.

As a cook might taste a sauce and draw on a lifetime of flavor memory and experience to figure out what it needs  acid, sugar, salt, fat?  these scientists draw on laboratory experience and academic training to answer arcane questions such as: What is the best way to fling marshmallows over a long distance?