Science and Cooking

Starred review from May 18, 2020
Three Harvard University professors bring their popular class to print in this astute exploration of how and why food recipes do what they do. While the authors note this is “ultimately not a cookbook,” they nonetheless serve up a variety of tasty dishes to exemplify their teachings in the basic principles of physics, chemistry, and engineering. Chocolate chip cookies are deconstructed on a molecular level, the viscosity of cheese sauce is measured, the sticky polymer chains of hydrocolloids prove to be the key to Chinese soup dumplings, and heat plus pressure plus natural sugars add up to a caramelized carrot soup. Along the way are handy tips on how to use the melting point of sugar as a way to calibrate an oven’s heat setting and how to keep pesto from turning brown using heat or lemon juice. Not all the jargon is scientific: in an extended metaphor of why emulsions separate, oil and water are compared to fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, providing a clue to the nature of coalescence and the advantages of constructing proper barriers. This is a no-brainer for science geeks who love to cook, and for cooks eager to learn the science behind their meals.

October 1, 2020

Since 2010, Harvard has offered a popular "Science and Cooking" course that explores scientific principles through the lens of food and recipes. In 2013, the class began reaching a worldwide online audience via HarvardX, and this book presents its content for an even broader audience. Drawing on the culinary expertise of molecular gastronomy chefs such as Ferran Adria and Jose Andres, Harvard professors Brenner, Pia S�rensen, and David Weitz use familiar cooking processes to help clarify introductory and even complex physics and chemistry concepts. For example, boiling an egg demonstrates phase transformation, making Molten chocolate cake portrays heat diffusion, and a simple salad vinaigrette shows how emulsification operates. While the technical language may recall a high school science textbook, the basic concepts are easy to grasp and the accompanying recipes demonstrate how science can help home cooks improve their technique and skills. Though not specifically a cookbook, there are occasionally recipes throughout to illustrate scientific concepts. VERDICT Recommended for home cooks interested in the scientific concepts that make recipes work, as well as molecular gastronomy fans and readers who enjoyed Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks and Simon Quellen Field's Culinary Reactions.--Kelsy Peterson, Forest Hill Coll., Melbourne, Australia

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2020
Cooking is an art, no question, but hard science underlies even the simplest of culinary techniques. Knowing the science of cooking is important for home cooks, especially to ensure food safety and hygiene. This scientifically informed, narrative guide and cookbook is based on the authors' course at Harvard University, which features plenty of lab sessions as well as guest lectures from noted chefs such as Jos� Andr�s and Lidia Bastianich. The teachers hope ultimately to encourage Harvard to establish a school of gastronomy. Recipes abound here, some as simple as macaroni and cheese made from Velveeta. Other ingredients include a range of biochemicals unfamiliar to those beyond the laboratory. Most recipes are forbiddingly complex, the professors gleefully making use of liquid nitrogen, sous-vide equipment, and more. Measurements generally appear in metric units, temperatures in centigrade. Yes, food geeks will love to pore over this text and the color photographs; yet, any cook's abilities may be improved from learning more about the physics and chemistry of their craft.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)