The Ultimate Cooking Book for Geeks

I picked this book up a short while ago: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, by Harold McGee. In one word? Awesome.

Did you know that melted cheese becomes stringy when mostly intact casein molecules are cross-linked together by calcium into long, rope-like fibers that can stretch but get stuck to each other? Neither did I. But that's just one sentence out of the 17 pages about cheese in this book, most of which are far more interesting, with facts about different kinds of cheese, the modern decline of cheesemaking, cheese mold, ingredients in cheese, making cheese, storing and serving cheese, cooking with cheese, sauces and soups, cheese and your health, food poisoning, how cheese slows tooth decay, and more.

The book covers everything. I mean everything. Allow me a moment to browse the index. Aroma of Pears. Lead in fish. Flatulence associated with legumes. High-fructose corn syrop. Salmonella on fruits and vegetables.Toxins in wood smoke. Water buffalo milk. Aeration of wine. I could go on for days. When I purchased my copy, I figured I'd keep it in the kitchen for reference. Instead, what I found was that it spends most of its time in the bedroom, with either myself or my wife frequently using it for bedtime reading. Not because it puts us to sleep, but because it's so interesting we can't put it down.

First published way back in 1984, "On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they're made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious." The current edition is completely updated and rewritten to reflect the latest research and food trends. It's not only interesting, but actually important to know much of the information, such as that on food-borne illnesses, how to prevent food-poisoning in many different foods, how to properly cook and store various foods, as well as things like the differences between various sweeteners (artificial and otherwise).

Can you get by in the kitchen without this book? Certainly. But it sure goes a long way to making you a more informed cook. And that can translate directly into being a better cook.

On Food and Cooking is available from Amazon.com.

6/6/2006 : permalink
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