McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture

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I know of no chef worth his salt who doesn't keep a copy of Harold McGee's masterwork, On Food and Cooking.

Hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they're made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious.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. Instead, there are entire pages of historical and scientific context, giving a complete picture of each topic being covered.

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. All homes could use a small shelf of reference books: the dictionary, an encyclopedia, a basic cookbook.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.

Organic vs processed is such a gross oversimplification, and means very different things from one type of food to the next. If you cannot handle information purveyed to you in a dry, textbook-like manner this is not the book for you. Is is not about cooking, but about why and how cooking works, about where the flavor is in the spices and why the tomato ripens, what makes a sauce a sauce instead of gravy or soup, and what nougat really is. On Food and Cooking is unique, engrossing reading and a major contribution to great culinary literature. While discussing each subject, McGee does not limit himself to the physical properties of the food at hand, or even how to prepare it.A kitchen classic for over 35 years, and hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn to for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they're made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious. On Food and Cooking continues to be the most accurate source of information for generations of chefs. Despite the fact that it took me nearly three months to read, I found just about every single page deeply informative and interesting. However, I’ll keep my (much smaller) copy of the 1st edition, because I want to follow how McGee’s thinking has modified and changed over the twenty years between 1984 and 2004.