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Learn to COOK - On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
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List Price: $50.00
Our Price: $41.94
Your Save: $ 8.06 ( 16% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Scribner
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5
EAN: 9780684181325
ISBN: 0684181320
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 684
Publication Date: 1984-11-01
Publisher: Scribner
Studio: Scribner
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Editorial Reviews:
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On Food and Cooking is a unique blend of culinary lore and scientific explanation that examines food -- its history, its make-up, and its behavior when we cook it, cool it, dice it, age it, or otherwise prepare it for eating. Generously spiced with historical and literary anecdote, it covers all the major food categories, from meat and potatoes to sauce béarnaise and champagne. Easy-to-understand scientific explanations throw light on such mysteries as why you can whip cream but not milk; what makes white meat white; whether searing really seals in flavor; how to tell stale eggs from fresh; why "fruits" ripen and "vegetables" don't; how to save a sauce; what hops do; and what happens when you knead dough. A chapter on nutrition reveals that Americans have been obsessed with their diet since the 1800s and exposes the fallacies behind food fads past and present. There's a section on additives -- a not-so-new addition to food -- and taste and smell, our two pleasure-giving versions of the oldest sense on earth. With more than 200 illustrations, including extraordinary photographs of food taken through the electron microscope, this book will delight and fascinate anyone who has ever cooked, savored, or wondered about food.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Indispensable Harold McGee
Comment: This is the single most useful book in my kitchen - and probably in my house. If you want to understand why food acts the way it does, you need this book. As a reference, it nearly always has the answer I'm looking for - and usually some additional helpful information that I didn't know I was looking for until I read it! It's not dumbed down or overly wordy like the "What Einstein Told His Cook" books - the writing is concise and the scientific explanations are clear, even for those of us without a science background. This book taught me to cook without relying on recipes, and how to fix recipes that go wrong. It's a pleasure to read and the one book in my kitchen I can't do without.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply Amazing
Comment: While coverage in some areas is much deeper than in others, I am continually surprised by the number of topics it covers ranging from the biochemistry of olive brining to cooking of meats, the biological history of where oranges come from, and many, many more topics.
Just open the book to a random location, and you'll find yourself immersed in amazing insights about even ordinary foods.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Best Damn Food Book Period!
Comment: Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RWS9VA6YENDVJ The Best Damn Food Book Period!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but not a good kindle book (I can't hear this)
Comment: If you wish to help support visually impaired Kindle users in getting the "Disabled Text to Speech" setting removed from the Kindle, please make others aware of this review - thanks !
I was lent the hard copy version of this book by a friend, but I wanted to buy the Kindle version. I sometimes find I can read things on a Kindle more easily than on a printed page, and when things get really desperate, I can use the text-to-speech feature. Or can I?
Since others have done an excellent job of reviewing the contents of this book, I will address issues unique to the Kindle version.
While this is a very useful reference for serious cooks, the Kindle version is a bad deal. Although the publisher has incurred none of the costs of manufacturing, warehousing, and shipping a physical book, they charge nearly the same price for a virtual product (~$3 less - big whoop!). Clearly they are making a handsome profit on this version compared to the print version. Which makes my next, and more salient issue, all the more egregious.
To add insult to injury, they have disabled text to speech. Do they have something against those of us who have visual problems which make reading difficult? Or, do they plan to try and squeeze still more money out of us for an audio version?
Until Kindle users say no to paying physical book prices for ephemeral virtual books which we have learned can vanish with a keystroke from Amazon central control, the pricing structure is going to continue to get worse, not better.
But more importantly, that a publisher would block a feature which is primarily used by disabled people is offensive to say the least. (Who else would be willing to endure listening to the droning electronic voice?) Surely there is some bright lawyer out there who can find a way to challenge this despicable practice under the auspices of the ADA, perhaps in combination with the fact that it infringes our fair use rights? Amazon should stop offering this "option" to publishers. But until then, ALL Kindle owners should insist on change by avoiding books for which text-to-speech is disabled. It is silly to suggest that one should be able to read an electronic book through one interface (the screen), but not the other (the earphone jack). They are, in effect, prohibiting the use of assistive devices. In this case, a device we purchased from them! Personally, I am lucky in that my difficulties are limited and transient in nature. I do have the option to read things directly, most of the time. Others are not so lucky, and have no such choice. Why is Amazon closing the door on these folks? And what soulless lout at Scribner thought this was an appropriate thing to do? (Scribner - even their name is Dickensian ! )
If, like me, you are a serious cook, and a lover of books, and you feel you simply must own this book, please buy the hard copy in order to send a message to Amazon and the publisher. Also, let Amazon know why you didn't buy the Kindle version. Better yet, purchase a used copy, or look for it at your local library. The only voice some people hear is the one coming out of their pocketbook. Also, keep in mind that there is no end to the wonderful cook books we don't own (yet), so perhaps there is one from a less avaricious source that you would like to add to your collection before you get around to (someday) adding this one. One of the pleasures of cooking is that no matter how accomplished we become, there is always something new to learn.
Equally important, please contact the Author's Guild, the neo-Luddite organization responsible for pressuring Amazon into adding this "feature" and let them know how much harm they are doing to others, and ultimately, through their short-sightedness, to their own members. Urge them to withdraw their objection to text to speech. It does not provide a comparable alternative to recorded audio books, read by a professional voice talent, and anyone in their organization who bothered to listen to Kindle's text to speech would know that. After all, Amazon owns Audible, the audio book company. Why would they shoot themselves in the foot by competing against their own product?
Thanks for reading this, and please help persuade Amazon to do the right thing with regard to full accessibility for all Kindle owners.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Essential for the keen cook
Comment: Recommended by a friend and a great source of pleasure when browsing or looking up specific items. Not a recipe book but a wonderful discussion of the science, history and context of food. Also dispels some hard entrenched myths. See searing meat and fish!
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