Wonderful book which explains the science of food and cooking in a very light-hearted way
Rated as /5 on Apr 21 2007 by Conor O’Neill
I’ve seen a few recommendations for this book on foodie sites over the past year or so. I finally got it on Amazon and it’s the best book I’ve read since “Salt”.
It is a collection of Robert Wolke’s Food 101 columns from the Washington Post and the basic idea it that he explains the science behind many aspects of cooking, food and the kitchen. He is particularly interested in Old Wives Tales and uses great humour in debunking many of them.
The range of topics is extensive and each item is only a page or two long. The cough perfect loo book.
Here are just a few of the topics he covers:
- Raw sugar isn’t raw?
- How do they get corn syrup from corn?
- Can a potato remove excess salt from soup (no!)
- Why are oils only partially hydrogenated?
- Are green potatoes dangerous?
- Is aluminium dangerous?
- What is MSG?
About the only time I thought he missed the mark was when he claimed that UHT milk would eventually take over from normally pasteurised milk. He’s obviously never tasted the horror that is UHT.
This is a fun informative book that will have you constantly saying “I never knew THAT”.
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