In point of fact, if your going to get stranded on a desert island, take this along, IT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!

McGee on Food and Cookery is an expanded version of Harold McGee's classic exploration of science in the kitchen. On Food and Cooking is one of those few books that I can drop on a table, let it fall open to any page, and read for the next hour.This is an invaluable resource when your kids ask "does THIS cheese have mold in it" or "why does it all stick together if you cook it too long" or when you want to know what makes espresso different from coffee. Instead, there are entire pages of historical and scientific context, giving a complete picture of each topic being covered. If you've ever wondered why fish goes off quicker than meat; how to tell stale eggs from fresh ones; why you're supposed to leave pancake batter to rest; how it is that cheese can possibly have so many different permutations of flavour and texture; why chopping onions makes you cry; about the health benefits of chocolate and alcohol; why Jerusalem artichokes make you fart; or even how to avoid poisoning your guests - then this is the book for you. The main takeaway I got from this book is the sheer magnitude of how much we as a species shape our food for our diverse and often competing needs and desires, and have for thousands of years. How does the Maillard reaction work, and why is it the greatest thing to hit the culinary art since well before sliced bread?

This is a reference book to be consulted often -- but I read it cover to cover, and enjoyed it lots. Some of our fellow humans will be repulsed by cheese because of an instinctual reaction to fermented foods. This is NOT a cookbook -- it's a guide to food, a dynamic explanation about where your food comes from, the science behind how it cooks/blends/rises and how preparation techniques impact taste.

By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. I know of no chef worth his salt who doesn't keep a copy of Harold McGee's masterwork, On Food and Cooking. Throughout the book you will come across many descriptions of the evolution of techniques and equipment, the reasons for using certain techniques, the evolution of food technology etc. Interesting tidbits McGee's has taught me: raw pineapple will curdle milk, but cooked pineapple will not.

From Plato’s views on cooking to electron micrographs of cheese to a description of how eggs form in a chicken’s body to the history of beer and chocolate, this book offers an intoxicating wealth of food information, trivia, and science.This is the kind of book that will sit next to the stove, dog-eared and grease-spattered, eternally useful, until Personal Chef Robots become fixtures in all of our homes. By the time you have read all about dough, you will be able to make it and use it without need for reference to a step-by-step guide. But between breeding, cooking, and various other tricks, we have optimized or otherwise significantly altered almost everything we consume, with some trade-offs but largely for the better.

Organic vs processed is such a gross oversimplification, and means very different things from one type of food to the next. This is a can't-put-it-down explanation of how cooking, pickling,preserving, fluffing, rising, kneading and all manner of other cooking techniques work. I have been reading about cooking, and experimenting since I was a child, I own too many cookbooks to easily confess, and this is finally a book which puts things in context, which makes me understand the science of why this or that, put into cultural and historical context.

Nearly anything you might want to know about the history, etymology, and process of gastronomy is covered in this volume, but even that is too dry a description to really explain how fun it is. A must-have resource for any student of the stove, On Food and Cooking synthesizes details from a wide variety of scientific disciplines and gastronomic traditions, sparking the reader's culinary imagination with every turn of the page. For its twentieth anniversary, Harold McGee prepared a new, fully revised and updated edition of On Food and Cooking. This new edition is the most complete book on food that I have ever seen, and it is easy to read-an inconceivable amount of information made incredibly accessible.