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| On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen | 
 enlarge | Author: Harold Mcgee
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
Buy New: $24.30
You Save: $15.70 (39%)
New (49) Used (31) Collectible (6) from $20.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  174 reviews
Sales Rank: 344
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Rev Upd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 896
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.7 x 2
ISBN: 0684800012
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5
EAN: 9780684800011
ASIN: 0684800012
Publication Date: November 16, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Straight to my classics list May 23, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I love to cook and have done for many years. This book taught me so many things that I'd never thought to ask, but have found invaluable in my cooking.
You really don't know what you don't know until you start reading McGee.
I highly recommend this book as informative, interesting and very readable.
Both fascinating and useful May 7, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I will keep this short and sweet as others have written excellent reviews.
Cooking is a new obsession for me. My goal is to be an excellent improviser: I want to be able to go through my pantry and fridge and make something creative and delicious, without resorting to recipes. I also want to be able to read a recipe and understand WHY it specifies certain ingredients and certain treatments.
This book is the best foundation for achieving these goals that I've yet seen. If you don't understand the science behind the food and the heat you add to or take away from it, your ability to improvise is limited.
This book is on my nightstand as much as it is in my kitchen. It's not just a reference manual, it's an enjoyable, fascinating, and intelligent read. Well worth the price.
Not enough stars to rate this book's importance to the kitchen nerd April 23, 2007
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
The geekish approach to cooking was inspired by Julia Child and her colleagues at l'Ecole des Trois Gourmandes, and is carried proudly today by Alton Brown, Cooks Illustrated magazine, and any number of other people who prefer an analytical approach to their cooking than the doctrinaire methods of the days of teenage wage-slave commis and decades-long apprenticeships. While one cannot underestimate the importance of ramen noodles and Chinese take-out, the geek kitchen has come a long way since the 1980s, and this book is a big chunk of the reason why.
Harold McGee's original On Food and Cooking, published in 1984 and reprinted for years after, was required reading for anyone who wants to know what's going on in their food. In one massive volume, the reader followed many an ingredient from farm to supermarket, and then learned what happened when it came time to cook it. The second edition does not disappoint in that regard, updating much of the material to modern standards, adding things that were far less interesting than they were in 1984, and removing things that were obsolete. The book contains much historical material as well, including information on domestication of food plants, the history of such delicacies as chocolate and beer, and the world-changing effects of the development of things like sugar and coffee as commodities.
The heart of the book, though, is the extensive discussion on the properties and effects of different foods and substances -- the development of cooking to reduce toxicity of wild plants such as beans or manioc, for example, or the chemical intricacies of melting chocolate, kneading dough, or gelatinizing starch. Much attention is paid to doughs, sauces, and even whole chapters on milk and eggs, foundations of much of Western cookery. Many quick-and-dirty chemistry lessons give overviews of how cooks manage basic substances such as proteins, fats, starches, and pigments (such as the notoriously pH-sensitive anthocyanin family). At all times the physics of food preparation loom large in the book, culminating in an entire chapter on cooking methods.
I can't say one way or the other whether this book will appeal to you. There's a large contingent of people who prefer to get the benefits of geek cuisine without having to go in depth with the science behind it, and that's fine, though maybe a wasted opportunity (at least you know what you do will work, though). This book is for someone who wants to go a little more in depth and find out what's really going on when Shirley Corriher puts a vitamin C tablet in her sourdough or the ATK crew adds something odd like gelatin to a meatloaf. If you want to make your food's acquaintance on a deep level, you need this book. It was in 1984 and is now one of the most significant food books of its time.
Superb science and art April 10, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book provides an excellent explaination of the background workings of all the elements we depend upon to produce our culinary creations. Lovely, useful, memorable.
One of the Most Fascinating Books I Ever Read March 28, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
McGee is a genius. If you like science or food or just like solving life's little mysteries, you are going to love this book. McGee's research is incredibly in depth yet his writing is conversational and free of science jargon. It is an excellent reference and a must for any professional cook.
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