Science and Cooking: Physics Meets Food, From Homemade to Haute Cuisine

by Michael P. Brenner, Pia Sörensen, David Weitz

Based on the popular Harvard University and edX course, Science and Cooking explores the scientific basis of why recipes work. The spectacular culinary creations of modern cuisine are the stuff of countless articles and social media feeds. But to a scientist they are also perfect pedagogical explorations into the basic scientific principles of cooking. In Science and Cooking , Harvard professors Michael Brenner, Pia Sörensen, and David Weitz bring the classroom to your kitchen to teach the physics and chemistry underlying every recipe. Why do we knead bread? What determines the temperature at which we cook a steak, or the amount of time our chocolate chip cookies spend in the oven? Science and Cooking answers these questions and more through hands-on experiments and recipes from renowned chefs such as Christina Tosi, Joanne Chang, and Wylie Dufresne, all beautifully illustrated in full color. With engaging introductions from revolutionary chefs and collaborators Ferran Adria and José Andrés, Science and Cooking will change the way you approach both subjects―in your kitchen and beyond. 85 color illustrations

Genres: Cooking, Science, Food, Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Audiobook, Food and Drink

299 pages, Hardcover

Published October 20, 2020

Reviews

[Cav · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Every day we eat; we buy ingredients and cook them through detailed protocols called recipes, and if we do everything correctly, we are rewarded with a delicious meal. Social media is full of picturesque dishes shared for others to admire. But how do these recipes really work?"

Science and Cooking was a somewhat interesting look into the topic. I enjoy learning about cooking, so I put this one on my shelf when I came across it.

Co Author Michael P. Brenner is a Professor of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics, and Professor of Physics at Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Michael P. Brenner:



The book has a decently lively style, and shouldn't struggle to hold the finicky reader's attention. The formatting consists of different scientific principles as they apply to cooking, interspliced with many sidebars; usually recipes related to what they are discussing. I felt that this mostly worked here, although it did make the audio a bit of a chore to go through...

One of the interesting aspects of cooking is that we have been employing scientific empirical methods to do it for thousands of years; even before the science we were exploiting was not understood. The authors expand:

"Think about it: Why do we cook chocolate chip cookies for 10 minutes and not 20 minutes? Why does steak taste differently cooked at different temperatures? Why do we knead bread? What determines the amount of egg required for making mayonnaise? Although these recipes might have been discovered empirically, the reasons for these rules are strongly rooted in science and the scientific method. We created the class together with our colleagues and friends Ferran Adrià and José Andrés, two of the most inventive chefs on the planet, both of whom dreamed that the discoveries and innovations they had used so successfully in their restaurants could inspire people to learn to think about science."

In this bit of writing, they exand on the cooking + science theme of the book:

"Combining science with cooking, and learning from their respective viewpoints, establishes a very fruitful dialogue. Although we have been cooking and searching for universal knowledge for millennia, these exercises have intersected only sporadically in human history. The turning point likely came in the last quarter of the twentieth century, when a group of scientists started experimenting with what they called molecular gastronomy: a scientific attempt to explain why different reactions take place to make a series of culinary preparations possible.
Importantly, understanding the composition of the products and the reactions produced by culinary techniques has been beneficial beyond improving haute cuisine and dining experiences. It has also made it possible to better determine why certain allergies and intolerances occur—this is a phenomenon of growing importance for society in general, and catering in particular, often to the extent that certain tables will require different menus.
Furthermore, advanced knowledge of products and preparations not only allows us greater innovative and creative ability, but being aware of everything that can happen on the microbiological scale also contributes to achieving increased food safety and hygiene."

Although the topic is interesting, I did find some of the writing a bit dry for my tastes. Among the notable recipes in the book was one that produces an "old books" essence. EEEWWWWW


********************

Science and Cooking was a somewhat middle-of-the-road book. While it wasn't terrible, I wasn't particularly captured by the writing here, either.
3 stars.

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book as part of a goodreads giveaway, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm a food scientist so this book really fell into the right hands. The authors do a really great job of explaining the basics of food science and how it relates to cooking. They have many famous chefs from around the world collaborating with them, including recipes for some of their more novel dishes. I think that this would be an informative and interesting read for anyone who is interested in the chemistry and physics of food. It may sound intimidating if you didn't love science in school, but even if you only take away a few points from each section, you will improve your cooking and understanding of food. The authors really help to break things down and will give examples to help you wrap your brain around what they are saying. This book will get you thinking and hopefully have you conducting some at home science experiments with yummy results.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Science and Cooking" explores the science behind the way we cook and bake. The authors did a good job of explaining the science by using analogies that made clear the principles being explained. There were some simple examples that you could reasonably try at home, like the different temperatures at which the different parts of the egg solidify. However, the main recipes used to demonstrate a way to chemically change food (heat, pH, diffusion, fermenting, etc.) tended to use unusual ingredients or equipment that a home cook would not have. These recipes were created by chefs known for using an understanding of the science behind cooking to create unusual food experiences. These recipes demonstrated the principles being taught, but they weren't necessarily foods that you would want to serve people on a regular basis. Basically, don't buy this book expecting a bunch of practical recipes. However, I'd recommend this interesting book to people curious about molecular cuisine or those who want to know things like why common recipes use certain temperatures for certain lengths of time to create the perfect crust or a tasty steak.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

[Renato · Rating 4 out of 5]

This title finds itself in the unfortunate middle place to satisfy both the scientists and the chefs.

Chefs may have a hard time warming up to it because many of the recipes are very hoite-toite: if you do not have a culinary vacuum chamber at home, do not bother to attempt.

Scientists may have a hard time warming up due to the fact that the science mentioned in the 1st half of the book is very rudmentary. My ears only pricked with interest when they dove into molecular gastonomy later on.

I will implore readers to push through the 1st chapter - there is plenty of smug navel-gazing as they introduce and detail Harvard Science and Cooking course. The recruitment pitch feel disappears after the 1st chapter.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it in a day, after hearing about it in Cara Santa Maria's "Talk Nerdy".

Good information here avoid how cooking actually works. The science is told at a very accessible level.

There are a lot of recipes here, ranging from a simple bread to a recipe for cigar ice cream that takes 4 pages. Some of these I could do, and some I'll never consider doing.

[Barbara Bowman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got to page 47 and quit in disgust, so perhaps there is a lot of value in the rest of the book. When I picked it up at the library, I saw some diagrams of how meat heats, for example, that may be very interesting.

My review would be one star but for that glimpse at the diagrams in the later part of the book.

My first horrified reaction was when I read pages 16 and 17: the authors seem not to understand that hydrogen ions are the same thing as protons. "Our taste buds sense acids by detecting the hydrogens: the hydrogen ions block the proton channels in the taste buds and send a “sour” signal to the brain." (p. 16) "H+ ions essentially clog up, or stop, proton channels in our taste buds, thereby sending the signal for “sour” to our brains." (p. 17) But maybe I'm misinterpreting the consistent use of the different terms as misunderstanding. But then...

More importantly, the information here is false, according to the 2010 publication in PNAS that described the mentioned proton channel. Proton channels are channels for protons - sheesh! Protons *travel through* the channels, thus increasing the + charge on the inside of the cell, which depolarizes the membrane. I don't expect most Goodreaders to know this, but I really expect textbook authors to get it right, and not state the opposite.

There are other things I have a problem with in those 47 pages... pretty sure that to "caramelize" duck feet and other parts you do not cook on high for more than 20 minutes. Perhaps adding in that "turn the heat to low" instruction would be helpful?

Salt is not a molecule. "Thousands" of students did the experiment whose results are shown in the figure, but the figure says N=765.

OK, you can see why I gave up. It's Harvard - you could afford to find, and you could easily find, cell biologists, chemists, and excellent editors to weed out the stupidos and make this into a stellar book. Why didn't you try?

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

The science is basically high school chemistry and physics, while the cooking tends towards high-end techniques that are hard to reproduce at home, for example, liquid nitrogen and rotary evaporators. If you have a sous vide cooker, you'll use that more than once. But it is interesting to see what innovative cooks can come up with.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when Harvard Physics and Chemistry professors decide to teach a course about cooking? Well, let’s just say this isn’t your grandmother’s cookbook.

While I have been the designated cook for our family for decades, I was mostly a trial and error type. I look at some ingredients, figure out some way they go together, and, voilà, dinner. This works particularly well when I can taste what I am cooking and “adjust” as I go along. The problem with this method is that I am a vegetarian and my wife is an omnivore. Not being able to taste what I was cooking for her was a problem so she finally convinced me to actually read recipes. Since then the range of what I cook, the spices I use, and the types of devices I employ - slow cooker, rice cooker, bread maker - have increased dramatically.

While I read a lot of science books, or at least books about science, I had no idea about the science of cooking. This book changed all of that. In Science and Cooking I have been introduced to how cooking works, different types of “cooking” food - many of which do not involve heat - and the incredible range of tastes and textures you can get from using different cooking methods on the same ingredients. While I do not think I’m going to be fermenting Kimchi in my basement or using liquid nitrogen while cooking steaks, I learned a tremendous amount about both the science and the history behind cooking.

So, if you are; a chemist who isn’t a stranger to the kitchen, a cook looking to "pull back the lids" to see what is actually happening in your pots and pans, or a chocoholic who wants to know where your taste treat comes from, this is a book for you. It is well written, presented with easy to understand science, and, despite being from Harvard, doesn’t take itself too seriously. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve always enjoyed shows like Alton Brown’s Good Eats, which use science to explain how certain processes and reactions affect cooking in different ways, so this book caught my eye. Maybe I should have read a print version rather than listening to it, or maybe because it’s based on a class taught at Harvard, but the book was disappointing.

The science here seemed to be aimed at the scientific community rather than the average reader. which made a lot of the content hard to understand. Recipes are included that are supposed to help illustrate the points made in each section, but the recipes all use ingredients that few home cooks would have on hand – how many of us have liquid nitrogen on hand? – and enough specialized equipment to open a restaurant – VitaMix *and blender *and food processor, chinois, salamander (!!) and more – and many of them required days, weeks or even months to prepare. Only the most dedicated “home cook/scientist” would attempt any of them, so they weren’t helpful or useful, and only serve to make the book longer than it would have been otherwise. There were also quite a few graphs, charts and tables that are lost on the audiobook listener; I looked for a PDF that usually accompanies an audio version of a book like this, but there was none.

A quick note on the audio itself : There are three author names on the book cover, two men and one woman. Since the first name on the book is a male name, it was disconcerting that the audio was narrated by a woman.

I haven’t bothered to see if any of these author have other books out, as I have no intention of reading more of their works – unless I enroll in a higher education class of some sort.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I can't say I understand haute cuisine after reading this book, this is still one of the most fun and creative intro to many of the basic concepts of chemistry that I've ever read. The recipes involved are a fair mixture of "omg REALLY" and "hey I can probably make that" -- and I appreciate the fact that the authors included recipes from Latin America and Asia as well so it's not all western / European avant-garde stuff all the way down. The writing is clear -- shockingly so considering it has to explain things like Brownian motion to a layperson audience -- with frequent attempts at brevity (though effectiveness depends on your sense of humor). Mostly am impressed by how well the recipes / experiments tie in with the concepts -- and this is no "microwave a cup of water for different amount of time in the microwave" level -- it features actual "experimental results" that you can actually eat.

I also really appreciate the concept of tempered chocolate now. (There are so many crystalline phases. So many. It's actually worse than some of the stuff I handle in lab.)

[Jen Lee-Olmstead · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally bought this as a gift to give and found it so fascinating, I had to keep the copy for myself. I wouldn't say I've "read" this book entirely, cover to cover; I've mostly been tasting it here and there. But I think that's the ideal way to enjoy this book. It's broken up into seven chapters: 1) What Makes a Recipe?, 2) Heat, 3) Charge, pH, and Enzymes, 4) Diffusion, 5) Texture, Viscosity, and Elasticity, 6) Emulsions and Foams, and 7) Microbes. It sounds more intimidating than it is (for those of us with weaker science confidence). The recipes really do serve as great examples in conveying the science, making this accessible for anyone interested in the how & why of what makes food tasty/tastier.

[Joe Reddington · Rating 5 out of 5]

So. It’s excellent. That’s the first thing. It’s absolutely great.

It’s written as a result of a popular course (that I’m taking) the authors teach online. That caused some disappointment: I’m used to the idea that the textbook is a much deeper dive into the topic than the course but in this case this feels like a cross between a light overview and a transcript of parts of the lectures with some interesting recipes added for bulk. The ‘course companion’ previously released on kindle is much more scientific.

I learned a lot and I also think this is a book that helps move the world of cookery books from ‘Christmas gifts that are glanced at and left on the shelf’ to ‘genuinely interesting books that you can read cover to covet and also make recipes from’.

[Sheila Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this explanation of cooking is fascinating, some is boringly obvious and facile and some is simply off-putting! From the delicious ‘mouthfeel’ of melted chocolate to description of the preparation of 1000-year old quails eggs (jelly-like eggs) and lutefisk (jelly-like fish). How proteins are transformed during the cooking of eggs sounds quite distasteful. Many weird ingredients, used only by professional chefs, are discussed, such as alginates, gold powder, liquid nitrogen, etc. I listened to the audiobook and, while interesting, I found the endless repetition of both Fahrenheit and Centigrade temperatures pretty irritating and the innumerable lists of recipes is tricky to cope with only audibly.

[Cris Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

I delightful book with lots of information about what exactly happens, at the molecular level, when we cook. We probably think of "cooking" as heating up ingredients in various ways, and that is covered a lot here. But, cooking can be done chemically [as with ceviche] or even with the assistance of microbes [as is the case with cheese, wine, and chocolate]. There are also a lot of recipes, from the simple [sauerkraut or cookies] to the truly bizarre [fish skin gel and a fungus apple]. You might need to look for a supplier of liquid nitrogen near you.

While the book is packed with scientific information [there are a few equations, graphs, and a lot of talk about chemical reactions, etc.], it's written in a friendly and accessible tone which anyone can easily understand. Fascinating, entertaining, and enlightening. It makes even experienced cooks want to try new ideas and methods.

[Wing · Rating 4 out of 5]

To cook is to transform either the flavour or the texture of food. This mostly involves chemical reactions. The book covers major chemical reactions involved in cooking. The emphasis is on physical chemistry. It eschews mathematics on the whole but does cover two equations/entities: Young's Modulus and Fick's Law. Quite a number of recipes are included to illustrate the principles involved. These are usually impractical to do at home. Never mind. Illustrations are beautiful and informative. Fascinating and demystifying at the same time. Four stars.

[Carlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

The authors fulfill the promise made in the title, taking the reader through the principles of physics demonstrated in many cooking techniques. They aim to foment reader experimentation by sharing dozens of recipes and detailing which physical principles they showcase. While the writing is certainly interesting enough to keep reading, it is unlikely to keep the interest of the merely curious, not because it dwells into the science too deeply but rather because it doesn’t seem to hit a smooth flow between the different elements it wishes to discuss.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope. I read it quickly because of how boring it was. Whoever decided that the audiobook narrator should read all the recipes out loud should be suspended without pay for a month. Whatever value this book may have had, most of it bled away in the tedium. I finished the book feeling that I learned nothing. The concepts were elementary and it skimmed over the surface without going deep enough to matter.

[Mary Louise Sanchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great premise that explored heat, pH, diffusion, texture, viscosity, emulsions and microbes. I would have liked to know how to prevent a soggy bottom pie crust and other pertinent information for a home cook. There were recipes included to prove the author's points about some of the science cooking questions.

[Gabry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably would have failed this course, but I learned nonetheless. The recipes were interesting but I find the way to extract “old book essence” for the ice cream in the beginning cruel to read about as a bookworm.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fun book that uses recipes to illustrate cooking science. Some of the recipes are simple and others quite complex...as is some of the science. All the recipes look good and the experiments are simple and engaging. It will definitely give you cooking ideas.

[Holly Bennett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sorry, but a very boring, dull book. More appropriate for the 6th grade. Lots of verbiage about nothing for the prologue, forward and first chapters. The premise is the reader knows nothing and has no clue about cooking.

[Jessica Hembree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up from my local library as I was doing research for a project. Found it interesting and pretty informative. Best aspect of this book is the amount of cool recipes that are included. Good resource for those wanting to know more of the science behind cooking.

[Yinzadi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was too decadent for me to find much of anything useful in it. Things like cigar-flavored ice cream. If you would be happy in the Capitol of Panem or think that the menus in American Psycho sound delightful, this would be a good book.

[Tisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened as an audiobook and it was a bit more difficult than the average book to follow, primarily when going over recipes. it's much easier to read a recipe than try to picture it when read aloud with directions.

[D Lyons · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty good overview of food science. gave me a good sense of what this world is but ultimately feels a bit surface level - but good for a novice like me

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shallow, but it provides a good overview.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting. A lot of ridiculously complicated recipes!

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very surface level. Save your time and money if you've taken an undergrad general chemistry course and have read anything by Harold McGee or Hervé This.

[Pegi Ferrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just unbelievable. I could read this over and over.

[Jenicca Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense, but explained well. It had some great information but I wish it would have been applied more often to home cooking rather than haute cooking.