Synopsis
Examines the biochemistry behind cooking and food preparation, rejecting such common notions as that searing meat seals in juices and that cutting lettuce causes it to brown faster
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About the Author
Harold McGee earned a B.S. from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in English from Yale. His first book, On Food and Cooking, won the 1986 Andr Simon Memorial Award. He lives in Palo Alto, California.
Reviews
Not a recipe collection but a series of investigations into culinary problems and dogma, this combines McGee's ( On Food and Cooking ) appreciation of the good life with his background in biochemistry and dedication to experimental procedure. In the first section the author reconsiders received truths, such as "sear the meat to seal in the juices," and proceeds to demonstrate, in this case, that it just isn't so. He evolves a means for the home cook to sterilize egg yolks without ruining them for hollandaise or mayonnaise, and discusses the function of sugar in sherbet texture. Explaining the relevant chemistry in accessible terms, McGee appeals to those who savor nuances of method in problem-solving, but in spite of some witty touches and a tone much lightened by etymological and historical asides, his very perseverance can become wearisome. The second section addresses health problems associated with eating habits, including a lengthy and informative, though scarcely comforting, treatment of cholesterol's impact on the circulatory system. In the final, highly readable section, McGee offers a more subjective view of gastronomy in essays paying tribute to Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and the continuing quest for a science of taste.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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The Curious Cook : More Kitchen Science and Lore
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Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1990
ISBN 10: 0865474524
ISBN 13: 9780865474529
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