Crystals crystals everywhere

[cdh]

Tempering chocolate is all about crystallizing it right... sugar + corn syrup to prevent crystallization... sea salt vs. kosher salt vs. table salt...

All of these food elements that like to form crystals if treated right brings the question to mind-- How much control can a home cook have over the crystals in their kitchen?

Is there a table of all the common food chemicals that crystallize and how to make them do it right, and how to prevent it if you don't want it to happen?

Are there any flavors or aromas that are affected by the state of the crystallization of a substance?

[Harold McGee]

Cooks can control crystallization and thereby texture pretty well—ice creams, sorbets, candies, chocolate . . . I’m not aware of a treatment of culinary crystallizations as you describe. Flavor probably is affected by nature and proportions of crystals, because they affect the release of the flavors to our palate. For example, flavor molecules that are evenly mixed in a glassy (noncrystalline) candy are more segregated in a crystalline one—pure sugar in the solid crystals that need to dissolve before we can taste it, some sugar plus all the other ingredients concentrated in the syrup surrounding the crystals.