book data
717 ratings,
4.64
average rating, 172 reviews
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published
November 16th 2004
by Scribner
binding
896 pages
isbn
0684800012
(isbn13: 9780684800011)
description
A classic tome of gastronomic science and lore, On Food and Cooking delivers an erudite discussion of table ingredients and their interactions with ou...more
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avg 4.64
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Cooks, Chefs, the scientifically minded, and programmers for Personal Chef Robots of the future.
This book is endlessly fascinating. Interesting tidbits McGee's has taught me: raw pineapple will curdle milk, but cooked pineapple will not. Some of our fellow humans will be repulsed by cheese because of an instinctual reaction to fermented foods. See? Fascinating!
McGee's contains necessary information that you can not get from a recipe on practically every dish and ingredient known to man. This is the kind of book that will sit next to the stove, dog-eared and grease-spattered, et...more
McGee's contains necessary information that you can not get from a recipe on practically every dish and ingredient known to man. This is the kind of book that will sit next to the stove, dog-eared and grease-spattered, et...more
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Read in May, 2008
Not a cookbook. Everything you ever might want to know about how food works. How ice cream is made, why bread rises, what kind of molds are in cheese, what are the parts of an egg. And yet, readable. Brill. May however, make you annoy your friends with "well you know, cheese on the Asian steppe in the late Iron Age..."
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recommends it for:
foodies, lovers of trivia, history buffs
Before there was Alton Brown, there was Harold McGee. This is a smart, dazzling, fabulously eclectic collection of information about what we eat. 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. Did you know that the cell walls of mushrooms aren’t made up of cellulose, like plants, but rather of chitin, ...more
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
mathematicians, scientists
Once upon a time, I was expressing my frustration with books on cooking to a chemist friend -- primarily that most books on cooking treat cooking as this magical art. They presume lots of knowledge on the part of the reader and they give directions that theoretically make the food what it's supposed to be, rarely explaining WHY you want to cook this meat at temperature x or mince this thing instead of slice, or whatever. I wanted something that answered a bit more of the Why?
This f...more
This f...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Anyone interested in how food works
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. 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. The style is accessible but unafraid of chemistry. A wo...more
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Read in February, 2001
recommended to Chrissie by:
University Lecturerrecommends it for: Anyone who cooks or with questions about food.
This book was at the top of my textbook list for Food Science subjects in first year University. Don´t let that put you off, as I do believe that this book should be on every cookbook shelf. Often when people ask me for advice on food and cooking (usually some ingredient not working as it should, or explanations of ´why is it so...?´); I use this book as one of my references to double check I am dispensing solid information.
Harold McGee is a world renowned fountain of knowledge whe...more
Harold McGee is a world renowned fountain of knowledge whe...more
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This is absolutely necessary in every kitchen in the country. Food nerds everywhere bask in its glory. This is an eight hundred-something page chemistry, biology, and history textbook on food as it relates to cooking. This can help give you the knowledge to take your cooking to the next level. Understanding why food does what it does, when it does, it at the heart of being able to throw an incredible dish together from the sometimes unfortunate scraps laying in the fridge.
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Read in December, 2007
I love food. I love science. The best of both worlds jammed into one seriously dense tome makes for either lovely reading (for the enthusiast) or a lovely paperweight.
If you want to get yourself immersed in page after page of more data tables about milk density than you thought could possibly exist, pick up McGee's book. He's truly a legend and you I promise you'll find this at least somewhat interesting regardless of your opinions on either topic.
If you want to get yourself immersed in page after page of more data tables about milk density than you thought could possibly exist, pick up McGee's book. He's truly a legend and you I promise you'll find this at least somewhat interesting regardless of your opinions on either topic.
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A brilliant dissertation on the science behind food. A must-read for geek foodies (or gourmet hackers or something). Well written and intriguing, on top of being exhaustively authoritative. And some very serious cooks also take this book as canon: I have seen this book cited in the references sections of at least half a dozen cook books, including ones by Rose Levy Beranbaum and Alton Brown.
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This is a great book to own if you are interested in food, more so than just eating. It covers all kinds of scientific topics, as well as the history of foods (for instance, margarine was invented by request of Napolean!). It is a large book and can be daunting to read, but the author lays the subjects out well. It would make a great gift for a foodie.
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Read in February, 2007
If you want to be a nerd about food, this is the best book for it. It contains electron micrographs of mayonnaise and molecular diagrams of chlorophyll. If you were ever curious about why red cabbage changes color in vinegar, or why turmeric spills turn red when you spray cleaner on them, this book will tell you why. It's How Stuff Works for food.
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This book gives the history and scientific background of about any food you can imagine. It is a fascinating read that can help you understand why food is prepared and cooked a certain way. It is not a recipe book, but has answered so many questions I had about cooking. I really recommend this book if you are an avid food preparer, or consumer.
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Read in December, 2008
Woah. This is a serious book. I got it for Christmas, and when I say I've read it, I mean that I've scanned through it and look forward to reading it in depth for years to come. Admittedly, at the moment it feels a little like I bit off more than I can chew with this thing - it has so much information in it that it's a little unfathomable. Quite the reference book for the kitchen. I think I was expecting it to be like The Joy of Cooking - which is recipes, but tells you a great deal about t...more
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Read in September, 2008
This isn't a book I read cover to cover, it's a reference manual for my kitchen.
I'm not yet in the habit of pulling it out before I cook, but I've begun pulling it out to understand what happened in what I just cooked. It's split into sections, each describing an aspect of cooking. Each section (like the one I read last night on starch-based sauces) describes the science (down to the electron-microscope images where appropriate), history and techniques involved.
While it ...more
I'm not yet in the habit of pulling it out before I cook, but I've begun pulling it out to understand what happened in what I just cooked. It's split into sections, each describing an aspect of cooking. Each section (like the one I read last night on starch-based sauces) describes the science (down to the electron-microscope images where appropriate), history and techniques involved.
While it ...more
Read in March, 2009
This book continues to amaze me. If I'm curious about the history of any food staple or how to cook it I'm positive I'll find something in this book. I'm almost positive this is a major resource for the writers of "Good Eats" as well.
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Read in January, 2007
I love understanding why things work the way they do, so this book of kitchen science is outstanding. Anything and everything you would like to know about food science is here in one hefty, but useful guide.
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Is reading this like reading the dictionary? What I'm truly asking here is "am I a dork for reading this?" Well, I loved this book, in part because it is well-written despite its somewhat technical subject matter. On Food and Cooking covers the history, chemistry, and nutrition content of the basic food groups (fruits and veggies, legumes, meats, alcohol, sugar, etc.), and also offers cooking tips. I'm always curious about why recipes require you to do certain things, and how ingredien...more
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Impressive volume on the science, history and cultures of cooking. Ever thought about what is happening at a cellular level while you prepare food? Fascinating read and helpful reference.
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Indispensable tool for anyone who wants to know about food. Written by a food scientist it has enough information to satisfy a chemistry geek while still remaining accessible to the layman foodie.
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The quintessential kitchen science book. Wanna know the global history of bread and why leavening works the way it does? How about alcohol fermentation, beer vs wine vs spirits? How come everyone you know likes brussels sprouts, but you think they taste like ass?
This book has it all, from the simple questions like the chemical compound in onions that make you cry and exactly what that scum on your simmering soup is to the tougher, more complex ones that I won't even start on.
...more
This book has it all, from the simple questions like the chemical compound in onions that make you cry and exactly what that scum on your simmering soup is to the tougher, more complex ones that I won't even start on.
...more
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