On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore or the Kitchen
This is not your typical cookbook. This is for lack of a better description a great how-to book and a culinary encyclopedia!
It is not something that you buy to set on a coffee table for guests to thumb through pictures for it only has drawings. I have never read a book on cooking that I refer back to as often as this one.
Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a kitchen classic.
Hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first
appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers; novice
and professionals turn for an unmatched understanding of where foods come from,
what they're made of, and how the process of cooking transforms them.
McGee prepared a new, fully revised and updated edition of On Food and Cooking for the books 20th anniversary. McGee has rewritten the text almost completely, expanded it by two-thirds, and added more than 100 new illustrations. The new edition of On Food and Cooking provides countless insights into food, preparation, and enjoyment.
From the publisher:
On Food and Cooking pioneered the translation of technical
food science into cook-friendly kitchen science and helped give birth to the
inventive culinary movement known as "molecular gastronomy." Though
other books have now been written about kitchen science, On Food and Cooking
remains unmatched in the accuracy, clarity, and thoroughness of its explanations,
and the intriguing way in which it blends science with the historical evolution
of foods and cooking techniques.
Among the major themes addressed throughout this new edition
are:
* Traditional and
modern methods of food production and their influences on food quality
* The great
diversity of methods by which people in different places and times have
prepared the same ingredients
* Tips for
selecting the best ingredients and preparing them successfully
* The particular
substances that give foods their flavors and that give us pleasure
* Our evolving
knowledge of the health benefits and risks of foods
On Food and Cooking is an invaluable and monumental compendium of basic information about ingredients, cooking methods, and the pleasures of eating. It will delight and fascinate anyone who has ever cooked, savored, or wondered about food.
Harold McGee writes a column on science and food for the New York Times called The Curious Cook and has a blog where he files
". . . brief reports from the intersection of food and science. It's a lively neighborhood these days. There's a constant influx of new information in food chemistry and microbiology, agriculture and manufacturing, and in human perception and health. I glean items from current technical publications and scientific meetings, from conversations with cooks and scientists, and from questions that come up in my own kitchen in the San Francisco Bay area." - Harold McGee
You can see the table of contents and read excerpts of the book on his website Curious Cook as well as see links to his New York Times article. The current Times article is titled; The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen but there are many more and hopefully Harold will continue to share is insightful and much needed knowledge for the rest of us just trying to catch up.
