Customer Reviews

Kitchen Science: A Guide to Knowing the Hows and Whys for Fun and Success in the Kitchen

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great book for the kitchen, and there are no recipes. This book explains why you get the results you get (and how to fix them), such as why my steaks toughen as they cool and why I lost color in my parboiled vegetables. I now know whether or not an egg is raw or hard boiled (without cracking it to find out), how to care for my knives, how to check for temp. accuracy in my oven, why the grocery store shouldn't sell green tinged potatoes, and whether or not the chicken I bought has ever been frozen. Simply a great book that'll have you saying "Aha! with every page.

This is a very good book, which takes a lot of the unnecesarry mystery out of cooking. Discussions of the science behind egg cooking, meat cooking, pot selection are excellent. I loved the section on how to clarify butter --- most cookbooks turn this into a masochistic ritual practice for no good reason. The first chapter, which discusses microwave cooking, is unfortunately very flawed, which places this book in the great tradition of mystical cookbooks. Among other errors, it states that microwaves cook food from the inside out (incorrect and ridiculous), that plates don't get hot except from food (ditto) and few other niggling errors. Of course, experimentation would demonstrate all of the above are wrong, which means that the preface (stating that all assertions in the book were established by experiment) is also inaccurate. Still, I recommend this book highly.

This interesting and fun-to-read book really helps the home cook understand the hows and whys behind cooking and food, which is essential if one is to get beyond the stage of simple preparation and slavish adherence to recipies. Even better, this book has inspired me to want to learn more.

I personally don't prefer the question and answer format, which is one reason it doesn't get five stars. Illustrations could help make difficult concepts more understandable, and it could stand to go through another revision and expansion. However, I found it a satisfying read, and well worth my money.

When I read that Hollandaise sauce shouldn't be made in lightening storms (page 151, 153), I couldn't help wondering how the experiment was run. Perhaps on a golf course. Really unenlightened. Suggest Harold McGee's books for a much more rewarding read.

Howard Hillman's "Kitchen Science" and Robert Wolke's "What Einstein Told His Cook" are two books of largely similar information. Their titles foreshadow their different writing styles.

Both are very informative and worthy of keeping as a reference. Hillman uses a question and answer format and is direct and succinct. Wolke also uses the question/answer format, but he has more lively style, and the lengthier answers are rendered with much wit and humor. For the efficiency-mined reader, Hillman's book gives more bang. Wolke's book gives more reading pleasure.

Interestingly, they sometimes disagree. Hillman says that most alcohol added to dishes while cooking is lost due to evaporation, while Wolke maintains, with a more nuanced explanation, that the anywhere from 4 to 49 % of the added alcohol might remain...

Take your pick. I enjoyed both.

Cooking is sometimes a mystery. This book removes some of it. Why do onions make your eyes tear? Why do some fruits and vegetables turn brown when cut? These and more are answered. The chemistry of cooking seemed accurate, although I can't say much for the physics. A great book for curious children or scientifically trained.