Joy of Cooking

by Irma S. Rombauer

While we strongly believe that cooking is based just as much on experience and intuition as it is scientific accuracy,

Here we introduce measuring and cross-reference instructions for doing so by volume, weight, and temperature. As this initial sentence suggests, we do not want to overemphasize measuring as some sort of miraculous guarantor of success. Measuring is one of many skills, and we want beginners (the intended audience for this chapter) to approach it as such. In recent years there has been a push towards treating cooking like a science. Whether it’s concocting experiments to find the “best” way to make something or referring to the kitchen as a “lab,” scientifically approaching the preparation of food is in vogue. We certainly appreciate this approach: the scientific method—broadly defined—is at the heart of recipe writing, not to mention any other knowledge gained through careful observation, experimentation, etc. We certainly relied upon the work of many food scientists while revising Joy. That said, we feel something is lost when you look at your kitchen as a researcher looks at a laboratory. Simply put, life intervenes. You become a good cook not by following exacting formulas but by embracing and learning to cope with the astonishing number of variables you are confronted with every time you step in the kitchen. It is hard to keep up the kitchen-as-lab pretense when the heat of every stove is a little different; ambient humidity, atmospheric pressure, and temperature affect results; and the ingredients used vary tremendously in flavor and size. Add to this the capriciousness of personal tastes and you can see how cooking might defy scientific rigor! The point here is that cooking is not just about following rules. It is about having the experience and confidence to make innumerable judgment calls.