What is Reddit's opinion of
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
By popularity on Reddit, this product is:
84 reviews of this product found across Reddit:
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee is highly regarded as a comprehensive background for history, and science of food. It does not have any recipes though.
I didn't go there but most of my culinary instructors went to CIA and two of my friends are currently instructors there. I also worked in a culinary school so can confirm that students are all over the map when it comes to skill level when starting out. Some had a couple years in restaurants, some were newborns. It is a rigorous program but you will make contacts there that will serve you for life. Its a 'you get out of it what you put into it' kind of place.
A lot of chefs are pretty bad at the non-cooking elements of the business- food costing analysis, recipe conversions, purchasing, labour costs, etc. so its great that the program includes these types of lessons. The reason they want to drill you on moving from volumetric to cooking by weight is because thats the biggest difference in working from books meant for the home cook vs. how we operate in professional kitchens. Lean into the non-cooking bits and it will pay off in real life. The public facing restaurants will also give you a chance to experience restaurant cooking with the support of chef instructors- so baby steps before you leap into the real world of hot line cooking.
For summer school, I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking which will give you the science of how cooking works. As well as a decent amount of food history. Read that and work on your knife skills.
As for Hyde Park, its beautiful and has a ton of colleges in the area- Vassar, Marist, SUNY New Paltz, so lots of young people and social life for when you do get time off. But make friends with someone who has a car asap.
You might want to also ask this over in r/chefit [and read thru some of the posts on r/kitchenconfidential] where more pros hang out. Keep in mind, a lot of pros don't put a lot of value into going to culinary school so don't get offended if you get a little push back.
Buy the book ON FOOD AND COOKING the science and lore of the kitchen by Harold McGee. It is fascinating
I used to think not. I actually always used 15%, but after I bought and read this book my thought totally changed.
Now I only use heavy cream. Everything I cook is measurably better in taste and texture. I don't cook a lot with cream, but when I do, only heavy or crème fraiche when called for.
Sugar always wants to be in its crystalline form. Only when you break the molecular structure down by heating them to the point of breaking (caramelization), will it no longer be able to crystallize. Most people use the wet sand method, many cover the pan, others brush the sides, etc. By using any of these methods, the sugar has to slowly go through the stages from soft ball to hard crack, which is essential for candy making. After the water mostly cooks off through evaporation, you have the caramel stage, from which you cannot return!
While this is the typical method for making most caramel, you do not need to add water to make it. You simply add some sugar to a pan and apply a medium heat, stirring regularly, until the mixture has melted and become caramel. Since there is no water, it will not go through stages, so this will not work for candies. It is very easy to overcook using this method. Think of creme brûlée.
For more on the science, check out Harold McGee : On Food and Cooking It’s a total science/foodies geek dream.
If you're fermenting, you really just need is salt without iodine. If you're only pickling, adding alum will do and can probably be found at any grocery store and/or CVS-like store.
The recipie i got my first loaf out of, and the same recipie I use any time I make plain bread, was from On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. Basically, its cooking for science and history nerds. There was a chart in there that had ingredient ratios for various baked goods. Aside from not needing to use nearly as much yeast as it told me to, its worked out pretty good. Helped my gravy out nicely, too.
Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen? It was published in the 80s, but has since been revised and updated. It really goes into the science of cooking.
I don’t think there’s a single resource, like a book. There are a literal infinite amount of possible combinations for something as “simple” as ganache. It’s important to learn about the particular systems in ganache: emulsification, polymorphism of cocoa butter crystallization, ph levels, then finally aromas (flavor).
Once you understand the basic techniques and more importantly, their purpose, then it’s much easier to experiment and create unique pastry.
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee is a perfect resource to understand your ingredients and what they do under various temperature/agitation/time conditions.
I recommend On food and Cooking by Harold McGee to anyone interested in the science of cooking. I also enjoyed his "The Curious Cook" which tests outs a number of common kitchen ideas scientifically (like whether water heats quicker if the saucepan lid is on).
I found this book to be really helpful in moving from just following recipes to being able to really cook for myself.
The flavor bible has an extended version. I recommend this as it goes a little more in depth. Also, this book on food science will help out to make decisions where you do not have a recipe.
Finding new and interesting combinations of flavors can be difficult in today's world where exotic ingredients are common at the local grocery store, but cooking each segment properly can make even more of a difference. For example, a hamburger can be a soggy boiled patty with store bought pickles and frozen onion rings, or a crispy salty smash burger with homemade pickles and freshly fried onion strings. The flavor bible only gave you the guideline, now you need to fill that flavor meter up to 100. This is the reason I point in the direction of food science. Food science explains why boiled greens can go ugly olive green, why brining chicken makes it more tender and tastier, and how certain ingredients create lift in baked goods, just to name a few.
Also, I do not say any of this to shame people into only serving homemade pickles, etc. There are plenty of ready to eat ingredients that are the same or better than making it at home. Sometimes dinner is all made from scratch while other times it is straight from the freezer because it is cheaper, faster, and better than I can make it at home. Learning the basics allows you to make that call more confidently.
I don’t have many more tips to add but I love this book for scientific explanations! There’s 13 pages on egg and meringue alone.
One cake tip that hasn’t been mentioned is using a simple syrup to keep the cake moist and tools like a cake leveller to ensure the layers are consistent.
Since I read this post I have been trying to remember the name of this book I randomly saw on a YouTube channel.
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen is a super cool book with some interesting information!
Serious eats said it best. >"Steam serves three main functions during baking. First, steam is a much better conductor of heat than dough is. As Harold McGee notes in On Food and Cooking, introducing steam into our baking chamber during the initial phases of baking allows the dough's surface temperature to increase much more rapidly than it otherwise would. This in turn enables the conductivity of the gases and water present in our dough to heat up faster, all the way to the center of our loaves. Secondly, although the steam re-evaporates quickly, the added moisture in our baking environment keeps the dough surface pliable, ensuring that oven-spring can happen with as little resistance as possible. The result of both of these processes is more oven-spring."
The Food Lab and America's Test Kitchen are great if you want to learn a certain kind of cooking. I'd definitely recommend them. The kind of cooking they teach is a home chef-based, test-driven approach to great recipes...convention be damned. I find them both invaluable.
However - they don't really address classic techniques. They won't tell you when to julienne vs brunoise unless it's one of the testing points of the dish in question. If they tell you the way to 'fry the perfect egg', you can bet it will be some clever hack to get you a perfect egg without really having to know how to fry the perfect egg.
I bought a couple of "culinary school textbook" type books which are good for that purpose. One that I like is called "On Food and Cooking". https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
It's a great reference and starting point.
The short answer is that no book can show you how to fry the perfect egg. That just takes experience.
Im not an expert but I would say poor ventilation is your issue. The humidity in ovens seem to very greatly. From what I have experienced, electric ovens tend to be completely dry, whereas propane or natural gas ovens have that little bit of humidity present. Gas ovens usually have those ports on the bottom on each side right above the burners and the vent is usually located in the back above the racks.
Also, I've seen better results with these ovens when cooking on a much higher heat.
Humidity is vital in bread baking for browning and crisping as well as other aspects of baking. There is a good book you can get that would it explain it in a more scientific way.
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
I had actually read about this in the book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. It's a great book (and a nice gift idea!) and may answer your future food-related questions. :)
On Food and Cooking By Harold McGee is really awesome at explaining science and history. I honestly value that book more than any others I have read on the topic. The Chapters are:
Milk and Dairy
Eggs
Meat
Fish and Shellfish
Fruits and Vegetables
Seeds, Cereals, and Doughs
Sauces
Sugars and Chocolate
Alcohol (Wine, Beer, and Distilled Spirits)
Cooking Methods
Cooking Utensil Materials
`The Four Basic Food Molecules'
Basic Chemistry
If you or anyone else who sees this is interested in others lemme know.
Ah, I definitely get the most everyday value out of On Food and Cooking - it's dense, but it definitely teaches you about ingredients and the theory behind recipes so that you're better at improvising.
Hard-cooked eggs
Not a joke, I promise. Not everybody knows how to do this right. I'll just quote from McGee:
> Though we commonly speak of hard-boiled eggs, boiling is not a good way to cook eggs. Turbulent water knocks the eggs around and cracks shells ... and a water temperature way above the protein coagulation temperature means that the outer layers of the white get rubbery while the yolk cooks trough ... A properly prepared hard-cooked egg is solid but tender, not rubbery; its shell is intact and easy to peel; its yolk well centered and not discolored; its flavour delicate, not sulfurous.
Here's my version of McGee's method for making eggs like that:
- Heat a pot of water to just above 85°C/185°F. Use a meat thermometer to monitor the temperature.
- Carefully lower the eggs into the pot with a spoon.
- Maintain the eggs at 80-85°C/175-185°F for about 13-14 minutes.
- Remove the eggs from the pot. You don't need to put them in cold water.
Serve with salt.
you're high. firstly his cookbooks are quite literally the printed version of "good eats" (which we all know what that show is like) as well as a series of books called "i'm just here for the food" with various titles like "kitchen users manual." lol sounds great.
> Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking should be required reading for those who truly want to learn how to become great bakers. In his own off-beat style Alton explains the science behind the process simply and in a manner you will not only remember, but subconsciously apply to all your baking endeavors. What is salt's role in the baking process? Why use eggs? Why is the way you mix important to overall success?
his appeal is his scientific and detail oriented approach... if you like that sort of thing. all he does is repackage what chefs learn in their culinary school textbook: http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
its fine but it is nerdy. it is hardly an everyman's cookbook like "italian easy" easy being the operative word.
Not indian but since you seem to actually care about food check out, On food and Cooking I have this book and it's amazing. I also have a friend going to the Portland culinary institute and he mentioned that ALL his professors recommend it.
If that's the type of thing you're looking for, I suggest On Food and Cooking. It explains everything cooking. I don't know if it's better or worse than anything Alton Brown, as I haven't read his stuff.
See also: Harold McGee, "On Food and Cooking". http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263312460&sr=8-1
You might think of this as the text book on a course called Food202: "Food: Properties of Materials"
Oh, I didn't know it was that low.
I just got this book, but I haven't read it yet.
> The dough will be fine to consume.
Nice try, Ergotamine!
Seriously, though, I read a cookbook once that had a "recipe" for creating a sourdough starter by letting organic rye flour fester for a while. (I think it was the Berkeley Cheese Board Cookbook) Obviously they wouldn't have published it if there were a danger, but that sort of stuff scares me.
On Food & Cooking it's an amazing book about how food cooks and why things are cooked the way they are, it's kitchen science.
guess you can order it online for cheaper too.
sho 'nuff. 25 bucks for the hardcover.
only place i've seen it is hardcover at the local bookmonger for $40 in my neck of the woods. :-(
worth it at any price tho, a priceless resource for cooks!
you can experiment with no salt, salt and baking soda. both salt and baking soda will add sodium and will affect the texture similarly, although the baking soda will make the beans feel soapy due to the alkalinity.
presoaking with salt or baking soda has an increased effect. baking soda decreases coking time significantly, but the beans are yucky.
the beans will stay firm longer if you add salt to the cooking fluid at the start, but they will still cook and the increased temperature slightly decreases cooking time.
the reason for this is that the pectin in the skin has a magnesium ion that gets replaced by a sodium ion.
failing to add salt before cooking makes the beans mealy. adding the salt makes the beans creamy.
If I were you, I'd buy On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. Its literally the only book my uncle uses for cooking. Its part cookbook, part laboratory manual, and part historical narrative for the how and why of cooking. It lets you create and build off your foundational knowledge.
Harold McGee's book "On Food and Cooking", has great explanations of the science behind foods and cooking techniques.
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_2
Not really a cookbook, But I learned more about food and cooking from this book than any other.
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
Overall, Harold McGee On Food & Cooking, the chapter on Cereal Doughs and Batters: Bread, Cakes, Pastry, Pasta will give you all of the underlying science.
Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast is the bread starter kit book.
Tartine Bread will then blow your mind.
Came here just to recommend the same book. Harold McGee is great at explaining the science behind all sorts of cooking techniques and food questions. Amazon has it here: https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
Ask Harold McGee
As a scientist who loves cooking, I loved this book: https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
Just FYI, you only need this much of any amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
Kind words mate, I thought I gave it a good crack! you're on point though 10 days before Christmas is a sloppy suggestion
Give em a book
On Food And Cooking by Harold McGee. https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012 is amazing, as is anything else by Harold McGhee.
It sounds like they lack the confidence to adapt recipes. Have them check out Harold McGhee's On Food and Cooking.
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
Most recipes on the Internet are trash. It's a great resource, but to use it effectively you have to know how food actually works so you can sort the wheat from the chaff. The best way to do that I know is Harold McGhee's On Food and Cooking.
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
If you are an accomplished home cook in a rut I can think of nothing better than Harold McGhee's On Food and Cooking.
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
McGee's book On Food and Cooking taught me a ton of things behind the science of cooking and also corrected a number of mistaken beliefs I had.
My favorite book about food science, McGee's "On Food and Cooking" (Amazon link), has a section titled "Different Starches and Their Qualities" in the chapter on sauces, and a table comparing the effects of starches from different plants on sauces. (That section begins on page 614 of the edition I have, but there are multiple editions, so your page number might vary.)
He only discusses an unspecified type of wheat flour, but there are also writeups for cornstarch, rice starch, potato starch, tapioca, arrowroot and modified food starch. The accompanying table gives their gelation temperatures, and subjective judgemnts of their thickness, consistency, stability, color, and flavor.
The free PDF "Texture" (from https://khymos.org/recipe-collection/ ) focuses on hydrocolloid gels and gums, not starches, but it does have a brief entry for cornstarch, listing its chemical properties and giving a few basic recipes that call for cornstarch as a thickener.
McGee's "On Food and Cooking" is basically an encyclopedia of ingredients. Want to know what the deal is with some random herb or spice? It'll have a couple paragraphs describing what it is and sometimes also a little info about its traditional uses, its history, or its biochemistry. It's not the sort of book you'll ever read straight-though, but it's an indispensable reference book for whenever you ask yourself, "Just what is a shallot?"
It's had a few different editions; because some areas of culinary science have advanced since it was first published, try to get the current edition!
If you like shopping in Asian-themed grocery stores, I also recommend Bruce Cost's "Asian Ingredients" as a shopper's guide to the produce you can buy there.
My mum was a terrible cook. I was 20 before I discovered that broccoli and cauliflower wasn’t boiled for 15 minutes into a bland mush.
Everything I ate as a child was deep fried. We had a frying pan on the hob that had about an inch of lard at the bottom that was just reheated and reused any time she wanted to cook something. We had a chip pan that was the same.
She had zero culinary skills but I think she tried her best.
As a result I taught myself to cook in my 20s. I went through a phase of religiously following cook books until I understood the basics of textures and flavours.
I read Harold McGee’s On Food And Cooking and learned about the importance of time and temperature.
As a scientist I also liked Cooking For Geeks which is a nice distillation of Harold McGee’s (and others) writings.
I got to the point where I can cook pretty-much anything.
My one tip to anyone wanting to buy a single piece of kitchen equipment which will transform your life is to buy a proper chef’s knife. Not one of those rubbish things you get in a set - but a proper professional chef knife.
Second thing is learn how to use it. Start by learning how to hold it. This is a good book.
If you want more a reference book and less of a cookbook, I'd recommend On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. It's dry, but man if it isn't packed full of useful info.
Definitely need McGee in there.
| Item | Current | Lowest | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the… | - | - | 4.8/5.0 |
^Item Info | Bot Info | Trigger
| Item | Current | Lowest | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the… | - | - | 4.8/5.0 |
^Item Info | Bot Info | Trigger
| Item | Current | Lowest | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the… | - | - | 4.8/5.0 |
^Item Info | Bot Info | Trigger
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684800012/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apan_glt_fabc_QN0MER2RMX2TB927RRCJ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
My text book on hydrocolloids has this table and this chart which suggest
Cellulose Gum or locust bean gum with carrageenan to thicken a non-dairy non-acidic liquid like a soup broth. Sample formulations suggest 0.2% to 1% by weight (1% will be quite slimy). When using these gums which are supplied as powders, you may want to mix them with another ingredient like sugar or salt to aid dispersal, and/or use an immersion/stick blender.
How easy it is to get these will depend where you are - I know in Australia there's some online sellers for this stuff, you wont need much so don't be put off by the price.
To dip your toe into the world of science behind cooking my favourite is Harold McGee's Food On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. This has been around for a little while so you might be able to pick it up secondhand at a good price.
If you're fortunate enough to be in a 'money isn't an object' situation, take a look at Modernist Cuisine. It's targeted at commercial chef's but the content is fascinating; hopefully you can find it at a library to have a look at.
On Food and Cooking is the good book on pretty much every cooking-related subject, including gelatin.
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684800012/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
You may find these of interest:
- The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg
- On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee is a great reference. It tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the science behind cooking as well as some history. Highly recommended.
- Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman
- Books by MFK Fisher
<em>On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen</em>.
Price: $27.19
Hi, I'm Amazon Info Bot. Every time you purchase an item through one of these links, 10% of the products price goes to the American Cancer Society.**
1st Month Donation Proof Please Upvote This Comment so that I may comment more, and raise more.
[My Motive](/s "My Aunt passed away this last year from Breast Cancer. I'm in my 1st semester of Computer Science and decided to take on a project that would make a drop of difference on this world and hopefully contribute to stopping others from losing an aunt they loved as much as I did.") | Why Not Use Amazon Smile | Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial | 6 Months Free w/ Prime Student
Depends on if you can afford it without going into debt and where you ultimately want to work. CIA is a great school in an amazing area with lots of colleges around it. It will give you a college social life. You get to work in a professional but controlled environment in their public facing campus restaurants. You will learn a ton of the theory behind the madness, get your hands on a plethora of ingredients and get to break down proteins that a chef in a restaurant wouldn't let you touch with a ten foot pole. You would make a ton of connections with fellow students and instructors who can recommend you to their friends out in the business. If you want to work in NYC, the name on the resume and the networking will definitely be a big advantage. A lot of my friends have gone on to teach there. I didn't go to CIA but 90% of the chef instructors I had were CIA grads who all had serious cooking chops in Michelin restaurants. All were balls to the wall talented. And every single head chef I worked for in fine dining in NYC were CIA or J&W.
Is it going to make you a chef the moment you graduate? Hell no and that's where culinary school graduates often go wrong with being cocky in a kitchen. Which is why a lot of culinary school grads deservedly get hated on.
You can learn a lot it on your own simply by reading Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking and nabbing a copy of CIA's The Professional Chef.
No worries, start with Serious Eats the site: https://www.seriouseats.com/
If you like science based cooking, akin to Harold McGee, Kenji has a great book as well:
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087
Here read this.
The short answer is yes. Bread is the realm of the scale, no doubt. The longer answer is learn the science as well- the variables that make scales and ratios and hydration %'s all a lie. Eggs come in different sizes and ages. Flour is impacted by humidity. Yeast gets old and decrepit just like my right hip. How long you work a dough, how to adjust to the ambient temp during proofing.
Grab yourself a copy of Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking and Tartine.
Not a cookbook but essential reading for anyone in the industry, Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking
Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking
Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking is the definitive food science reference book.
Harold McGhee has a great book that talks all about the science of cooking.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684800012/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_i_ghZfBb4E78K26
Se que pasaron 9 dias y seguro nadie lee esto a menos que lo googlee:
Estuve investigando desde que hiciste el post porque yo también andaba con ganas de aprender potente, hasta ahora las 2 mejores cosas que encontre fueron:
Un libro de Herald McGee, https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
Si buscas el on food and cooking pdf te salta primero
Y lo otro que encontre es esto:
https://www.edx.org/course/science-cooking-physics-food-harvardx-spu27-2x
Un curso by harvard que es gratis y es de la cienca detras de cocinar, que basicamente te hace poder pensar las recetas en base a como interactuan cosas por lo que voy viendo de lo que va el curso.
Casualmente en este curso aparece el que escribio ese libro. También estudian platos de Ferran Adria
Gl
If you really want to learn the details of what cooks do and why, I strongly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012, it is, IMHO, the cooking bible.
The Food Lab is also a good resource and there are lots of videos: http://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab
Other than what the others have suggested (Jacques Pepin, Alton Brown's "Good Eats"), I would also recommend to watch Julia Child's videos (mostly French fare) and Heston Blumenthal's "How to cook like Heston".
The Food Lab is a fantastic book!
Also love On Food & Cooking by Harold Mcgee
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
Get "On Food and Cooking" by Howard Mcgee.
I might also suggest On Food & Cooking as a more advanced book.
The two most oh-wow next-level books I have are On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen and Hering's dictionary of classical and modern cookery . Hering's is not quite "theory" but it is an exhaustive dictionary; I prefer it to Larousse. It is stuffed to the brim with things you will have never heard of before; it's very, very inspirational.
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen - Harold McGee
Alton Brown should bow down to his master.
http://www.amazon.ca/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012
Is the poor man's version. 'On food and Cooking' by Harold McGee... Explains the science behind cooking...
Harold McGee makes a couple of really awesome books...his primary book being On Food and Cooking. I would recommend, however, his most recent book instead if you are starting out: Keys to Good Cooking
One of the best things you can do is to train your palate. This way, when you taste something, you can figure out what's in it, and make it yourself if you want. It will also help you to learn what goes with what. For example, dill goes with salmon, lemon with raspberries, tomato with onion and cilantro or basil, etc. That kind of knowledge will help you to invent your own recipes which are catered directly to your tastes.
If you really want to know what makes food do what it does, I would recommend the following books:
- For general culinary science, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. It is one of the best books ever written which actually explains why things happen in the kitchen.
- I usually buy a copy of Shirley O. Corriher's CookWise for anyone who says they want to learn to cook. It is perfect for beginners and has lots of very useful recipes. If you watch Alton Brown's "Good Eats", you will see Ms. (or is is Dr.?) Corriher explaining some of the science.
- If you want to learn how to bake incredible cake, Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible is indispensable, same for her Bread Bible and Pie and Pastry Bible. I rarely fuck up a cake now, and if I do, I know why. And her cake recipes are brilliant. From learning to make her chocolate butter cake, I also discovered the secret to making the BEST cup of chocolate ever. The aforementioned Ms. Corriher's BakeWise is also excellent for beginners.
- The Larousse Gastronomique is probably the most famous book on cuisine. It's an encyclopedia which contains pretty much every cooking term. It's a pretty high-level book, but it is the authority.
Have fun with it! =)
Sounds nice, but Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a bit more practical.
A couple of book recommendations, if you're interested in principles behind diet and cooking:
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee.
The Perfect Health Diet by Paul and Shou-Ching Jaminet.
You can get pretty far with those two.
How has no one mentioned Harold McGee's On Food And Cooking yet? It's the industry standard. He's a CalTech graduate that worked at The French Laundry for a while, very informative and awesome. He's like a more technical and methodical Alton Brown.
And for what flavors match well, you really can't beat The Flavor Bible. These two books combined should more than satisfy you.
I understand both sides.
On the one hand, I like the reliability of recipes. It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake, if you do the cooking by the book. (Obligatory link)
But at the same time, I like trying different twists to the same recipe. And sometimes one or two items are simply not available in the kitchen. For that I use the Online Cook's Thesaurus all the time.
I recommend that you read up on the chemistry and science of cooking. The book On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee covers this. If you know the unchangeable laws of chemistry, you can change the recipes and adjust them with good prediction that things won't blow up or turn bitter.
tl;dr Read up on substituting tips and cooking chemistry, and then go creative with tweaking recipes.
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
Cookwise by Shirley O. Corriher
Both have a lot of theory and chemistry. Great reads.
While I don't have time to lay out the particulars of how baking and pastry are more of a science than normal cooking and things should be measured in weight instead of volume and certainly not just thrown in, nor do I have to time to talk about egg proteins and butter fats and how they react to heat or other processes and how they are different than other things, but you can start reading up on them here: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee which is not necessarily baking specific, but does have a rather nice section on eggs and egg proteins.
Other ingredients used as binding agents simply don't work as well, and nice, rich, buttery muffins are fucking awesome. Textural value is often as important as flavor, and products that vegans won't or don't eat are extremely important in obtaining optimal texture in many baked goods.
Popular alternatives to On Food and Cooking: The Sc...
