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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: $23.24
You Save: $16.76 (42%)
New (56) Used (32) Collectible (5) from $17.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  173 reviews
Sales Rank: 379
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:
a cooks must have! June 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"On Cooking and Food" is the tool to obtain the base knowledge nesessary to do food right. This book is a culinary couse unto it's self, you will go to the next level in your cooking with this book.
Why Chemistry is vital for a cook June 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book is wonderful. If you love to cook and wonder why and how foods taste wonderful--or horrible--this the book for you. It explains which methods work and which don't and why they do. Worth every penny. Harold McGee is a good writer which makes the book a pleasant, worthwhile read.
Improved my cooking many times over June 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Don't buy this book expecting recipes. Instead, look forward to thousands of little hints on how to make your cooking better couched within the science of why it works. Advice on everything from how to best keep your hard boiled eggs from getting rubbery to how to make good creamy ice cream is in here. Whenever I start making a recipe with new techniques I come back to this book to get advice on how to do it best. Absolutely indispensable if you're teaching yourself how to cook and want to nail down your techniques.
A True Classic May 31, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Not available in bookshops here, it took me a while to track down this much praised book, now in a 2004 updated edition. It can be read at many levels: history, folk lore, chemistry and just marvellous explanations of the 'why' of cooking. It must hold great appeal for anyone with a curiosity about the food we eat and what we do to it, for better or worse.
I found it well written with an easy style, making it a genuine pleasure to read, to skim and to quote. And you will quote. It's that kind of book.
Despite its sober title and apparent depth of research, this is no dreary treatise. The explanations are generally easy to understand and often amusing. While some distant memory of high school chemistry may be useful, the author assumes no knowledge of food sciences on the part of the reader. The last section of the book further brushes up on all the chemistry you have chosen to forget.
Food industry professionals may find the book's format perhaps a bit wandering, making it somewhat clunky for rapid retrieval of specific technical information. As a lay person I can't vouch for its academic rigour, but it does include a long list of references and an extensive index.
A book with over 800 pages about food but with no real recipes does sound daunting, but not so. It's full of those "Wow. So that's why... listen to this!" moments that can get just a little trying for everyone else in the room. I realise how much food instruction I have taken at face value in the past. I will never view the humble egg quite the same way again.
And of course, as an added bonus, the book makes a perfect weight to put on top of the Summer Pudding as it sets. It doesn't even show the stains. McGee really has thought of everything.
Technical but fascinating May 27, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is probably more than the home cook ever wants to know but what a great reference book! It dispels lots of myths that bedevil the kitchen and are still spouted by too many TV chefs. For factual information it can't be beaten and I keep it to hand for a quick check whenever I am unsure of what to do with a recipe.
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